Almighty painter

Chapter 99 Art Curators

Gu Weijing didn't feel angry because of Mr. Sloth's questioning.

He has also heard a little about the industry status of the painting knife painting method.

I heard that what I am good at is the so-called "knife painting". Mr. Sloth didn't just tell him to leave, he was already very polite and cultivated.

"Are you sure you really know how to draw with an oil painting knife? Don't believe in the saying that it can be done quickly. Painting with a knife is a difficult skill. I can think of an artist who can use a good oil painting knife internationally. Just a handful of people."

There was suspicion in the other party's tone.

"I think my mastery of painting knives should be considered pretty good."

Gu Weijing considered his tone so that he would not sound like a self-proclaimed liar.

"Okay, I can try to find it for you, but this category is too niche, so don't have too much hope."

Seeing Detective Cat being so persistent, Anna sighed softly.

Simple painting with knives is really unpopular.

Unless it is a particularly famous painter, it is difficult to receive an invitation, and it is even difficult to participate in a serious art exhibition.

She sighed.

The shortcomings of online illustrators are obvious. They have never seen the world, not only lack of understanding of art trends, but also easy to be fooled.

She felt that she had to work hard to reform this "misguided" African female painter.

After thinking for a while,

Anna typed again to persuade.

"Actually, your line skills are so good, painting serious traditional oil paintings is the right way. You can take your time. I highly recommend that you try to participate in art exhibitions. This is the first step for a professional painter to enter the mainstream painting world. This year's Singapore Art Biennale is a good opportunity. Wait for our other guest, Mr. Mika Tonks, who is the co-curator of the European region of this art exhibition."

It is no coincidence that both Anna and Cao are recommending the Singapore Art Biennale.

The Singapore Art Biennale is not a top art exhibition in the world, and the competition is not as fierce as those traditional art exhibitions with a long history, but the degree of attention it receives is not low.

Especially affected by the epidemic.

In order to revitalize the tourism economy in Lion City, the funds for holding exhibitions are very high.

The total cost of the month-long exhibition, including venues and exhibition arrangements, totaled [-] million Singapore dollars, or more than [-] million U.S. dollars according to the exchange rate.

The gathering of international art judges, in terms of investment scale, even surpasses many European art exhibitions with a long history, and is several times that of the Yokohama Art Triennial, which is as famous as it in Japan.

Secondly, this year, as Singapore's two major efforts to revitalize the cultural tourism industry,
The time of the Singapore Art Exhibition was adjusted to the same week as the Singapore International F1 Grand Prix, the most visited international sports event in Lion City every year.

According to the estimate of the Lion City Tourism Bureau.

There will be hundreds of thousands of ordinary tourists from all over the world who come from Dongxia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and other countries to watch sports games, and also visit the art exhibition by the way.

It will even exceed the daily visitor density of the British Museum during the same period.

Both the flow of people and the popularity are there. For the participating painters, it is indeed a good opportunity to officially "debut".

As for Tonks, co-director of the Taylor National Gallery of Art, he was originally a professional curator.

If a work of art is compared to a movie, then the curator is the screenwriter and director.

A curator with an excellent resume basically jumps between the two tasks of working in an art museum and curating various international art exhibitions.

Street ladders for mutual promotion.

In addition to the online illustrator Detective Cat, in Anna’s previous podcast special program Art Salon recorded every two months, almost every invited art critic guest has experience in curating art exhibitions.

To be the independent curator of Taylor International Art Museum,
Tonks was already a leading figure in the industry.

He has held positions in eight large and small art museums, and he has held countless solo and group exhibitions of various artists.

A few years ago, when he moved from a private, family-owned art museum in Belgium to serve as co-director of the Taylor National Gallery in the UK, Tonks basically looked down on ordinary small art exhibitions.

If he wants to help his career, let him touch the real world-class art galleries and museum director positions in the Palace of Art, such as the Louvre, the British Museum, the Vatican Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and more.

There are probably three ways.

The first is politics,
Don't look at the attitude of foreign art workers who ignore the government all day long and bravely say no to the power, there are too many PY transactions secretly.

Especially for this kind of large national art museum, if you want to wear small shoes for you, it will kill you if the annual government appropriation is less than 1000 million euros in subsidies.

Even if you try to save money, the board or management of the museum will definitely tell you to leave immediately.

This kind of large-scale art museum is very concerned about building a good relationship with the government.

If you can be a minister of culture in the cabinet, it is easy to become the director of a large art museum after your term is over, which is basically a pension with a high salary.

There are many such examples in history, which are a bit similar to the former sports ministers or former prime ministers of a dozen EU member states in the top management of UEFA.

The second is to publish heavyweight academic papers.

The director of an art museum is similar to the president of a university. Publishing papers in this kind of scholarly work is always a weapon for promotion.

With Tonks' current status, it is actually not difficult to publish a paper.

His subordinates are in charge of an entire art gallery, and if he wants to water papers, he can get water out.

But in the same way, if you can water, so can your competitors.

Ordinary hydrology is actually of little help to him.

Art papers are like this. Ordinary papers are easy to write, but if you want to write original discoveries, three points depend on hard work, and seven points depend on luck. In a sense, this is harder than politics.If you want to make a big discovery all day long, it is more practical to talk about how to be the Minister of Culture.

The third method, that is, the more direct method, since you are a curator, naturally hold art exhibitions.

Especially for large-scale international art exhibitions of the "national business card" level, basically the directors of the above-mentioned art museums have experience in curating large-scale art exhibitions.

With Director Tonks' current resume, it is not difficult to participate in the Venice Biennale, the jewel in the crown of the queen of art, but it is almost meaningless to become an independent curator who undertakes the exhibition.

Probably at most a role as a collection coordinator for a certain sub-venue.

If he were to switch to a second-tier national art exhibition like the Singapore International Art Exhibition, he would immediately be able to become an independent curator.

"Curator Tonks is the curator of the Lion City Art Exhibition in Europe?"

Gu Weijing was only slightly surprised when he saw the news.

The organizing committee of this large-scale art exhibition has dozens or hundreds of names of well-known art critics and curators. The names are so long that they can occupy an entire web page, so he didn't look carefully.

Even if you look carefully, he is a Yangon student, and it is difficult to get in touch with such a big name.

If Director Tonks was only a member of the organizing committee, Gu Weijing would not even be surprised.

Out of politeness, as long as a big name like the director of the Taylor Art Museum is interested, the organizer will basically send an invitation.

Just like Mr. Cao’s assistant Lao Yang, he receives countless invitations from the organizing committee of art exhibitions of various sizes every year.

However, Mr. Cao is already in a semi-reclusive state,
Except for those who really can't avoid it, they will go to the organizing committee to put their name on it, and they will generally decline politely.

But being an independent curator still has a different meaning.

He remembered that the Singapore Art Exhibition—Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania each had an independent curator. He did not expect that the curator Tonks who was about to connect was the curator of the European region.

"If it's okay...after the recording salon is over, can I ask Mr. Tonks some questions?"

Gu Weijing hesitated for a moment.

As a painter who wants to participate in the exhibition, the opportunity to communicate with the curator of the art exhibition alone is rare, but this is Mr. Sloth’s podcast.

It would be impolite not to communicate with the host first.

"Are you interested in the Singapore Art Exhibition?"

Anna had hoped that the detective cat would embark on the path of a serious painter, and she was very happy to see that the other party finally became interested in the art exhibition "under her own suggestion".

"Of course I have no problem here, I just want to see what Curator Tonks means."

She agreed to the other party's request without any hesitation.

It's easy to understand why Detective Cat wants to chat with Director Tonks.

Depending on the theme, curator and organizing committee judges' favorite styles, the International Biennale will have different tendencies in the selection and awarding of exhibited works.

The theme of this year's Lion City Art Exhibition, "Human Hustle", is very inclusive.

This means that while the submitted works are blooming, it also means that the subjective aesthetic tendency of the organizing committee is more important.

It's like a cooking competition. A Jiangnan judge who doesn't eat spicy food is faced with two dishes of the same level. One is the bright red Maoxuewang, and the other is the light fried shrimp with parsley. Which one do you like more? It goes without saying.

Although international organizing committees from all over the world can neutralize the prejudice brought about by this personal aesthetic perspective to a certain extent.

But the opinion of the curator is always the soul of an art exhibition.

If Detective Cat contacts the curator, will it be unfair to other painters who want to participate in the exhibition?

please,

There has never been an absolutely fair thing in the world.

If you regard the art exhibition as an exam, getting to know the examiner should be something that candidates need to do.

Even with Anna's obsession with art, she wouldn't think it was a problem.

From ancient times to the present, since the birth of the profession of painters, connections have been the most important link in various art circles.

It is quite normal for a father to recommend a son, a teacher to recommend a student, a senior to recommend a junior, and a businessman to recognize his painter.

It can be said that it is the practice of the industry for the participating painters and curators to communicate about the paintings in advance.

Just like some actors who are loved by the director can chat with the director during the preparation stage of the script, it is easier to be selected when casting roles.

Even if you have to be awesome to a certain extent, such as Mr. Cao, it is not impossible for the entire International Biennale to be held around the theme of you as a painter, just like a customized script.

The only problem is,

Is curator Tonks willing to chat with Detective Cat?
……

It is one o'clock in the morning in the middle of the night Myanmar time,

There are still 15 minutes until the official start of the recording of the salon.

Gu Weijing sat in front of the computer, and there was an open document on the IPAD on his right, which contained the electronic version of the five paintings submitted by fans this time, as well as the dense annotations he made on the paintings.

With the help of calligraphy and painting identification technology,

These five works have been disassembled again and again into finely divided colors, structures and lines.

The artist's brushwork, composition and emotion in these works are clearly expressed in the light curtain in Gu Weijing's mind.

Calligraphy and painting identification techniques deal with these not too many works of art that are roughly equivalent to or higher than Gu Weijing's current level, showing a crushing analytical ability.

It's as if he has seen how these fans paint with his own eyes.

It is estimated that even the artist who submitted the manuscript will be surprised when he sees the annotations on the document.

After Gu Weijing checked for the last time that there was no problem with his sound card, he entered the reserved room in the Zoom meeting room.

"Hello? Mr. Sloth? Are you there?"

He cleared his voice.

"Hi, Ms. Detective Cat, nice to meet you."

In the Zoom network video conference room, there was a hoarse middle-aged man's familiar voice.

"Me too."

Gu Weijing said.

Austria, Anna sits behind a desk, looking at the head of Detective Cat.

This is the first time she has a direct voice conversation with the "Van Gogh" she discovered face to face.

The fly in the ointment is that the detective cat in the camera uses the same virtual background and anthropomorphic custom cartoon avatar as himself.

She can only judge by the sound,

Like the self-introduction on the Internet, Detective Cat should be a woman in her thirties.

"Both, please confirm. Our recording time is 45 minutes, and the specific time is from [-]:[-]pm to [-]:[-]pm London time. Please be careful not to overtime. Mr. Tonks has other schedules tonight."

The figure of a blonde girl in a black suit appeared on the connection screen of the other camera.

Unlike Anna and Gu Weijing who both chose the combination of voice change + virtual animation avatar for their own reasons, Director Tonks is a well-known public figure.

Although it was a podcast recording, he turned on the camera generously.

The blonde girl now appearing on the screen is the personal assistant of Director Tonks, and her position is similar to that of Lao Yang employed by Cao Lao.

In the past few days, the assistant girl was also arranged for the podcast recording of the communication with Mr. Sloth.

In fact, when Anna proposed to add guests to this podcast recording, the assistant was a little unhappy.

The reason for her unhappiness is exactly the same as the reason why Lao Yang was unhappy when he heard Cao Lao praise Gu Weijing.

Those of them who are assistants to art bosses hate such emergencies the most.

The reason why Director Tonks is willing to participate in the recording of Mr. Sloth's program is because the standard of this podcast is really good.

It is not only the best blog selected by the Apple Art Podcast Rising Star List last year, but also the guests who participated in the conversation include such important guests as Sir Clark, the dean of the British Academy of Fine Arts.

The participation of curator Tonks does not appear to be disrespectful, and it is a good opportunity to show himself.

result,

Suddenly there is a detective cat... an internet celebrity illustrator?

It's like an American cowboy running into a European aristocracy's tea party.

What cultural level?I just want to participate in this kind of art salon talk.

If the donkey's lips were wrong when the salon was recording, and the conversation behaved the same as Grandma Liu's entry into the Grand View Garden, the curator Tonks would also drop the price accordingly.

The assistant girl really couldn't figure out why Mr. Sloth would take the risk of ruining his own brand by inviting such a guest after he managed to improve the quality of the podcast.

She had originally advised Mr. Tonks not to participate in the recording of this podcast.

On the contrary, the curator was silent for a moment after seeing Detective Cat's portrait of Mr. Hyperion on YouTube, and agreed to continue recording.

"Mr. Sloth, I have completed the sound test and adjustment here. When the time comes, Mr. Tonks will come to the study. Once again, please pay attention to the recording time, the library time is limited."

The assistant girl was ready to leave after adjusting the computer and audio in the study room.

"Miss, would you please wait a moment?"

Anna called to the curator's assistant.

"what happened?"

"This is Detective Cat, and another guest we recorded in this salon."

Anna introduced.

She didn't take Goldilocks lightly just because she was an assistant.

Ana understands how art moguls work.

These curator assistants are responsible for the communication of various art exhibitions on a daily basis, and the benefits of a good relationship with them are unimaginable.

It is even possible for Detective Cat to skip the audition for the art exhibition and participate in the art exhibition as a special artist.

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(End of this chapter)