Almighty painter

Chapter 750 What is art related to?

Tonks witnessed the quarrel that broke out in the Esplanade in the afternoon, and a few hours later, he witnessed how the distinguished Lady Anna Elena walked through the noisy crowd in the banquet hall like Moses parting the sea and reached out to the young man in the corner.

Needless to say, during this period, he also sneaked into the exhibition hall and noticed the scene of Miss Elena standing alone in front of Gu Weijing's work.

The three consecutive events were like three weights pressing on the scale in the curator’s heart.

The former shows that the relationship between Gu Weijing and Sakai Kazunari's family may not be as bad as he imagined. It seems that they are still connected, with twists and turns and lingering affection.

The latter is more important.

The latter shows that Miss Elena's attitude towards Gu Weijing may not be what he thinks.

He didn't know what they had talked about before, but since Miss Elena was willing to be pushed away by Gu Weijing instead of holding a champagne glass on the balcony next to the banquet hall with the elegant and mature famous curator, listening to his 153-page selected PPT, it meant that at this moment, he was more important to her than herself.

Is it simply the effect of that work?
The oil painting that Gu Weijing exhibited was indeed quite good, he just didn't expect it to have such a great effect.

Tonks didn't know how all this happened, so he chose to trust the judgment of professionals. If Gu Weijing had performed some magical spell to change the mind of the manager of the Oil Painting column, then it would not be difficult to get a well-known and elegant and mature curator to change his mind as well.

Tonks is ready to dance along!
Hedge your bets and attack from all sides.

This is his specialty.

Although the British achievements in the history of Western classical art are far inferior to those of France or Italy, and even their status as the center of modern art today has been taken away by the art district in Manhattan on the east coast of the United States, the French and Italians are too romantic and easily dominated by emotions. Conservative Americans are too stubborn and straightforward, and only know the art of typing on a Chicago typewriter, but not the elegant art of brewing black tea.

Tonks felt that he was a dancer, able to spin, jump and change partners to the tune of different music.

therefore.

After he found that Gu Weijing returned to the banquet hall alone.

He immediately started to spin!
"I just noticed you. Are you feeling uncomfortable staying here? The donation tickets sold for this banquet can be as high as 5000 Singapore dollars. Why don't you stay a little longer?"

Tonks seemed to have noticed something and asked as the host of the banquet. His voice was quite calm, and there was neither an eight-tooth smile nor a four-tooth smile on his face. It was even difficult to tell whether this question was an apology for the poor hospitality or a vague expression of dissatisfaction with Gu Weijing's leaving midway.

of course.

His tone was definitely not abrupt.

The young man in front of her looked like a loner, out of place, as if he didn't belong here at all. But so far, Tonks hadn't really seen through him.

He has an ambiguous relationship with Cao Xuan.

He has an ambiguous relationship with Kazunari Sakai.

He has an ambiguous relationship with Anna Elena.

Good connection, bad connection, sometimes the good connection turns into a bad connection, and sometimes the bad connection suddenly turns into a good connection.

All the things and rumors, good or bad, were shrouded in layers of fog, so complicated that the curator couldn't understand what was going on.

He opened with this question, intending to seize the initiative in the "dance" with the mature and steady British gentleman style.

It's like at a dance party, someone reaches out and hooks the chin of the country girl in the corner, and starts with "Woman, I noticed you, don't you want to dance?" Using an inquiring tone and speaking in a commanding manner, the other person involuntarily obeys him or her.

What you are chasing is not business.

It was Gu Weijing who came to participate in her own art exhibition. Even if Tonks wanted to show some care to him through her fingers, he had to beg her and let her take charge of it, instead of the other way around.

In this way, human feelings can be put into practice.

but.

Before she could figure out where this guy came from, Tonks didn't dare to come too aggressively.

He came to look around and see if the situation could be hedged.

What if this guy really licked Miss Elena to his heart's content? He didn't want to be pierced through the instep by a pair of high heels before he even started dancing.

"Well, hello, Mr. Tonks, I'm a little uncomfortable with the way this kind of situation works."

Gu Weijing nodded.

His voice sounded very polite and quiet, but not weak. In response to Tonks's question, he directly said what he was thinking: "I am not suitable for it, or it is not suitable for me. Either way, it is the same."

The curator raised an eyebrow and looked at the guy in front of him.

Tonks felt a little amused.

How old did he look? He should be no more than 20 years old. Oh, yes, Tonks remembered that she had checked his artist profile, and he should have just reached adulthood. He was one month younger than Kazunari Sakai's daughter, and was the youngest contestant in the Masters Group of this Biennale. Considering the amateur and student groups related to the outside, even if there were students from art academies, most of them were sophomores or juniors or above.

The person in front of you may very well be the youngest painter at this Biennale.

An eighteen-year-old young man wearing a dirty shirt actually dared to declare in front of a senior curator like him that he had fully understood the truth about the operation of power.

Is there anything more hilarious than this?
After thinking about it, the curator decided to continue playing this childish game of house with him.

good thing.

Young people who think they understand everything even though they haven't even grown all their hair on their lips are the easiest to deal with. They are much easier to fool than those old-timers who have been beaten up by society. He pointed to the secluded balcony that jutted out from the hotel's outer wall on the inner floor of the banquet hall.

"Well, since you don't feel comfortable staying here, let's go over there and enjoy the sea breeze in private."

"If you have anything to say, you can tell me."

Micah Tonks raised the watch on her wrist. "I'll give you fifteen... uh, ten minutes."

"You have ten minutes to impress me."

"Mr. Gu, this is what you asked Bonnie for, right?" The British uncle raised his eyebrows.
-
"Gu, do you know how many steps a complete exhibition, such as the current Singapore Art Biennale, has to go through from the conception to the current presentation in front of you?"

Outside the banquet hall of the Raffles Hotel is a row of opera house-style balconies, with dark blue draperies and curtains separating the balconies from the banquet hall.

When the curtains are drawn, the balcony and the hall form a coherent and complete space.

When the curtains are lowered, they are isolated from the hustle and bustle behind them, suspended between the night and the distant sea.

In the mid-24th century, when the hotel was at its most star-studded, with superstars frequently visiting and staying here, reporters from various tabloids would squat on the lawn and under the palm trees opposite the balcony hours a day.

They locked onto the balcony with their telephoto lenses, hoping to capture some precious photographs.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

According to the older generation of Singaporean locals.

When Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor or Michael Jackson walked out of the banquet hall and stood on the balcony waving at the night sky, the flash lights from the camera lenses outside the wall could turn the entire exterior of the hotel into a snow-white color.

We all work in the art circle, and we can even see each other at some European art festivals.

It may be hard to say who has higher income and social status between the top artists and the top male and female movie stars, but when it comes to the ability to murder film, the former are indeed much worse than the latter.

Curators are also less attractive to paparazzi than artists, just like gossip reporters are more interested in Leonardo DiCaprio's love life than James Cameron's.

At today's artist dinner, there were indeed one or two literary journalists outside the hotel.

Among the distinguished guests in the banquet hall, there were also several people from the media, strictly speaking, including Anna, who also received the invitation to the banquet as a media reporter.

but.

There are fewer paparazzi taking secret photos.

Tonks stood on the balcony of the hotel, holding a champagne glass, posing in a cool James Bond style. Then, she found that there were no flash lights in the woods as expected, and curled her lips again.

Before the situation became clear, Tonks did not really want her private conversation with Gu Weijing to appear in the media's cameras.

But he found that there was indeed no paparazzi hiding in the shadows to secretly take pictures of his heroic appearance, which made him feel a little unhappy.

I am the curator, okay? I am the "master" of the art exhibition! This was not the attitude you paparazzi had when you were waiting for Miss Elena outside the hotel.

It's really unprofessional.

Perhaps it was because of this complex psychology that was difficult to explain to outsiders that he gave Gu Weijing ten minutes to impress him, but after arriving at the balcony, he was the first to speak.

Gu Weijing stood on the balcony, leaning over to look at the night scene of Singapore, maintaining a mysterious silence.

"There are twelve major items." Tonks waved her empty left hand to indicate the vastness of the process.

“Determine a starting point for the exhibition, including finding investors, sponsors, initial funding sources and exhibition topics. Then enter the initial preparation stage of the exhibition, prepare the exhibition outline document, contact artists or exhibit holders, refine the exhibition theme, and then use these documents to continue to convince investors. Next, take your perfect exhibition plan and continue to bid to attract more investors... do budget control, do fundraising... make peripheral product distribution and marketing plans... discuss the premium of the work with the insurance company... do media previews...”

Tonks was already familiar with all of this to the core, and she told Gu Weijing the entire planning process of the exhibition.

"——Item 12: After the exhibition is closed, the artworks will be returned and another financial audit will be conducted."

“If you carefully calculate the income from many exhibitions, they are all losing money. The art industry is a very poor industry, and the prices of everything are rising.”

"The average profit of the Venice Biennale is about 3000 million euros per session. But firstly, this is the world's top exhibition, and there is no shortage of sponsors and investors. Secondly, the bulk of this is actually government subsidies. Thirdly, this also includes the income of the film festival. The official curatorial cost of the last Venice Biennale was announced to be about 2 million euros. Many people can probably imagine that 2 million euros is almost impossible to cover such a huge exhibition expenditure. The exhibition is also supported by official subsidies from various countries, sky-high sponsorship from luxury brands, and sponsorship checks from various foundations..."

“It is not only for curators that the cost of putting on exhibitions is becoming increasingly difficult to control, but also for exhibitors. Sixty years ago, it might cost around $60 to put on an exhibition for an artist that could win a Golden Lion. Today, renting a booth at a top biennial or art fair may not cost $5. Insurance costs for a special exhibition by a famous artist can easily burn millions of dollars.”

"Sounds difficult, doesn't it?" Tonks asked.

Gu Weijing still didn't speak.

He knew that organizing an exhibition was a very expensive process. At this moment, listening to a senior curator breaking down the detailed costs of the entire exhibition for him one by one was still a novel experience for the young man.

"I have curated many large art exhibitions, millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, or even larger... There are of course various difficulties in the process of curating these exhibitions, but these are not the most difficult. For me, the most difficult one was when I was 26 years old, I curated a small and unpopular exhibition about dairy products in Dundee, Scotland, a city you may not have heard of. That was the first time in my life that I was an independent curator and curated a public exhibition. The exhibition cost 1.5 pounds."

“It’s not much bigger than an unknown solo exhibition in a small gallery.”

"But even so, I only raised less than half of the sponsorship. To make the exhibition a reality, I had to get a subsidy of 8000 pounds from Creative Scotland, a cultural project under the local government. I sent countless emails to its office. I made countless versions of PPT. In order to get 8000 pounds, I wrote six versions of the plan alone. But all I got was a formulaic answer from the office assistant."

Tonks took a deep breath.

"The email said, we are glad to hear from you. Creative Scotland is run by... We will have dedicated staff to consider and assess your grant application in detail. Please wait patiently for further response. If you do not receive a response within twelve working days, your application will be deemed to have failed to meet the subsidy requirements."

"That email has a total of 506 words. I know it so clearly because I have read it countless times from beginning to end, and I can recite every word by heart."

(End of this chapter)