Chapter 215: Grinding

Hanks paused for a moment under the plaque of Gu’s calligraphy and painting shop.

The yard wall has begun to be mottled and weathered. Looking into the interior through the glass door and windows, at first glance, it seems that the decoration is normal.

But after looking at it for a moment, in fact, it is just at the level of an ordinary street cafe.

A small door, a small house, a small gallery, nothing more than that.

"Well, that should be it."

The translation meant that he pushed open the store door, and Hanks pouted.

He wanted to see the depth of this family that could raise Gu Weijing, so he walked into the calligraphy and painting shop. He did not rush to the shop owner to explain his purpose, but acted like a normal buyer. Just like home, I wandered around the store for a while.

The calligraphy and painting shop is not very big.

The two-hundred-square-meter space is divided into exhibition areas of different styles by two or three white exhibition walls.

Hanks walked and walked, most of the works passing by like fleeting glimpses, and occasionally he only looked at a certain painting for a moment.

It took about a quarter of an hour,

He looked through most of the collection in the store.

"Gu Tongxiang should be Gu Weijing's grandfather and guardian."

Hanks compared the information in his mind, stopped at a meticulous painting of flowers and birds, and He took away the price tag and number plate next to the picture frame, and walked to the counter at the door together with the two number plates he randomly picked just now, and handed it over.

It’s neither a surprise nor a disappointment.

Hanks doesn’t quite believe that such a painting level can train a young talent like Gu Weijing.

The ingredients for becoming an art master are often equal parts talent and environment.

He did not see the environment that matched his imagination.

Then it shows that,

Gu Weijing himself can draw to the current level, nine times out of ten, it is simply because of this little brother's painting talent that is surprising.

"Actually, this old gentleman is not bad at all."

In Hanks' eyes, Gu Tongxiang's painting skills are far from that of a reclusive master who lives in the countryside and has no talent. , but the painting quality of some of the works here is quite good, and the one that Professor Sakai showed to him, the fusion brush and ink of his grandson Gu Weijing, is definitely on par with the one shown to him.

Taking it out alone,

It is about the average level of a professional painter, better than the low-level agent painters in some small community galleries in Europe. He probably also worked hard when he was young.

Considering that I came from a war-torn place like Myanmar, it was especially difficult.

If I had had the opportunity to go to France, Germany or Eastern Xia to work hard in my early years, I might have been able to write my own story.

Unfortunately,

The turbulent art environment ended this possibility.

When a family is poor, everything is sad, and so is the country.

Geniuses are lost in smoke, this isThe tragedy of poor places. If not for the appreciation of Professor Kazunari Sakai, that guy Gu Weijing might have repeated this cycle.

Thinking about it this way,

Hanks felt that he was really a kind person who helped people in need.

"The total is 2.56 million kyats. Can I pay with cash? If I pay in US dollars or euros, I can get a 20% discount. We also accept RMB and Japanese yen."

Behind the cashier The middle-aged woman had not seen such a generous customer for a long time, and she happily entered the number plate into the computer.

"A visa credit card will do. By the way, I would like to ask if there is Gu Weijing here. Are Mr. Gu's works for sale?"

Hanks asked pretending to be casual.

"Whose?"

The middle-aged cabinet girl raised her head, thinking she heard wrongly.

"Gu Weijing."

Hanks repeated word for word, "I saw an empty display frame over there with a colorful name tag. The pencil drawing is 11x15 inches, was it bought by someone?"

It is said that the children of poor people become rich early.

This Gu Weijing showed such an outstanding style of pen and ink at a young age, and his family opened a small gallery of their own.

Hanks didn’t want to know that the donkey he cherished had been grinding away at a young age and had sold hundreds of cheap paintings.

In that case,

he may have to consider whether he can buy it back and destroy it, otherwise it will be a big trouble in the future when he becomes famous.

He also hopes to turn the rough jade with such a good foundation into a fine painter who can take the classic high-end route in the future

A fine painter is like a cold beauty, and the output does not have to be high, but Be precise.

Some winners of the Turner Prize and the International Watercolor Award, such as Deborahaker, paint three or four paintings a year. Each painting can be sold for a high price, and collectors are chasing after them. It's too cold.

In the industry, selling cheap paintings when you are a minor will not be frowned upon.

But if collectors knew that the cold beauty they were after was like a printing press, they sold a lot of works.

There will also be some disillusionment of a beautiful woman who is living in the world.

However

"$500 for a colored pencil drawing, including the drawing paper of more than ten inches, is not low. It can be sold."

He doubted.

"Pfft."

The middle-aged woman behind the checkout counter laughed out loud, her tone quite disdainful.

"The old man is biased, so he will find a way to give his precious grandson pocket money. Five hundred dollars, huh, five hundred dollars, he deserves it, give it to him, he might as well give it to this whole family This boy is fine, his grandson is a great artist, and his granddaughter is just mud on the roadside."

When the aunt who was sitting in the calligraphy and painting shop looking after the shop thought of the five hundred dollars that the old man remitted to her grandson during the accounting, she suddenly My teeth were itching with displeasure.

ThisIn the past few days, I have often whispered in my husband's ears that those in his family named Gu are sorry for the mother and daughter.

My aunt rattled off a lot of dissatisfaction with her grandfather and grandson like a machine gun. Even the business translator on the side couldn't keep up with the full-throated menopausal woman.

Auntie was satisfied with her nagging, and then she remembered that there was a customer next to her who had just spent a thousand or several hundred dollars to buy a painting.

"That Gu Weijing is my nephew. He is still a high school student and can't draw anything good. If you want to make an appointment, you can ask our old man, he is a calligrapher and painter in Yangon "Members of the association""

"Well, this family atmosphere is not very good. ”

Hanks nodded in his mind and judged.

Having a family environment full of rifts, this background condition is quite characteristic of an artist.

It is common among great painters. One of the openings.

Hanks felt that his expected annual creative allowance of US$40,000 was a bit too high.

He is almost eighteen years old and has almost complete civil capacity according to the law. /p>

You must get your opinion when signing a contract at this age.

Otherwise, Hanks is sure to buy the contract from the other party for a few thousand dollars in benefits. . Then as a savior, I can take Gu Weijing away from his native family and go to a broader sky.

It’s so exciting.

"Madam, I hope to meet Mr. Gu Tongxiang. This is my business card. I have very important matters to discuss with him. It's about Gu Weijing. ”

Hanks handed over a business card.

Auntie frowned and took the card. Her English was average, but she still recognized the characters on the card. Words

"anac039hgaery"

In the study room on the second floor,

Mr. Gu Tongxiang, who was bored and reading an old Hong Kong martial arts book with yellowing corners, turned around. Turning his head, his eyes fell on the business card in his hand through his reading glasses.

He had never seen such a well-designed business card. The two sides in the lower left corner of the business card were straight lines, and the two sides in the upper right corner were straight lines. It is a curve with different curvatures.

The four sides form an asymmetrical figure that looks like a rectangle, an arc, or a fan.

There is no rustic look like gold and silver. It can be remembered at a glance, and the design is very clever.

“anac039hgaery, anac039hgaery, anac039h Gallery’s name is printed in a flashy way, and there is no address on it. "

Beside the desk,

Aunt glanced at the business card that seemed to her to be flashy in the hand of Mr. Gu Tongxiang, and said in a wary tone, "Dad, this isThis guy couldn’t be here to check out the new gallery that opened in Yangon. No wonder he bought so many of our paintings today. It turned out to be a weasel paying New Year’s greetings to a chicken, so he had no good intentions."

" anac039hgaery, this name sounds a little familiar to me. ”

Gu Tongxiang touched his beard.

He vaguely felt that he had heard this name somewhere before.

But for a while, he thought I can't remember.

"Did the other party tell me why he came?"

"It's for me. "The aunt raised her eyebrows, "This child is really restless. He just offended Brother Hao some time ago, and this kind of person comes to him again during this time. Just get used to him."

Gu Tongxiang waved He waved his hand, interrupting his daughter-in-law's ramblings.

The old man's hand suddenly shook.

"You said you came to see Gu Weijing, anac039hgaery, this seems to be Ma Shi Gallery. "Ah" Gu Tongxiang finally remembered the name.

The old man's Adam's apple squirmed and he swallowed hard.

The reason why Gu Tongxiang, who has been running a calligraphy and painting shop for half his life, did not immediately mention anac039hgaery Contacted with Ma Shi Gallery

Mainly because the name is too far away from their small business

The small traders who open grain stores at the port will not even care. No one has ever heard of Glencore, a super commodity foreign trade empire ranked second only to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Shell Oil among the world's top 500 companies.

Each industry is a towering tree

Gu's Book Gallery is a small business rooted in the mud. The Komatsu Gallery of the Komatsu family is like the solid trunk of a big tree, while the giant gallery floats in the clouds, calling for wind and rain in the entire field and nourishing the earth.

Although Ma Shi Gallery has experienced an obvious decline in recent years, and has the potential to fall from the clouds to the treetops again, it is not something that Gu’s Book Gallery can look up to.

This kind of arrogance from top galleries.

People even look down upon the entire Myanmar painting and calligraphy industry. If they really wanted to set up an art and creative park in Yangon, they would not acquire a gallery like theirs.

So

“The business card says agent Hank Smash. "Look for my grandson Gu Weijing." The old man had already thought of a possibility. His heart was beating fast, but he didn't dare to have high hopes and then be disappointed later.

"Go call me right away, no." , you go and invite people to come up. I'm going to change clothes now. "

Old man Gu glanced at the baggy cultural shirt he was wearing, gave instructions to his daughter-in-law, and rushed to the bedroom.

"Mr. Gu Tongxiang , long respected name, hello. ”

Hanks held Mr. Gu’s hand. This sentence was neither English nor Burmese. It was completely said in Chinese, and the accent was really quite correct, not common among foreigners.

He comes from Sakai.The professor learned that this family is of Chinese descent.

If you are rich these days, you are a master.

The most enthusiastic art market is Asia, and the transaction volume of Dongxia is one of the best every year. Don't look at any Middle Eastern prince, the oil tycoon will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the trading market to buy paintings.

Many of these are due to the Gulf countries implementing high-profile foreign policies to show off their wealth and displaying their image as a foreign country. It is really better than the hot money flowing in the entire market, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. All the countries combined could not compare to one Dongxia market.

Hanks had someone teach him a few words of Chinese.

Not only can he speak Mandarin, but he can also say auspicious words such as "Gong Xi Fa Cai" and "Guang Yu Guang Jin" in Cantonese.

Agents are also in the service industry. They make the bosses happy so that they can pay for the artists they represent.

“I don’t know what you are doing.”

Gu Tongxiang felt flattered.

He hesitated for a moment, but still asked his inner guess. "Does Ma Shi Gallery want to buy the works of my grandson? It's such an honor."

"That's not bad, but we don't buy works."

Hanks Shaking his head, he looked directly into Gu Tongxiang's eyes, "I flew to Yangon this time, hoping to sign Mr. Gu Weijing specifically."

咔唁

The words fell into my ears.

Mr. Gu’s chair made a squeaking sound.

The old man could still maintain his composure on the surface thanks to his many years of hard work on the streets, but suddenly, an unconcealable wetness welled up in the corner of his eyes.

Gu Tongxiang still doesn’t understand how Tangtang Mashi Gallery found a small family like theirs.

He no longer cares about it.

The old man's mood and thoughts were ups and downs at this time, and a warm warmth surged from his heart to his eyes, and then from every pore. Scattered out.

Probably only those parents in Eastern Xia who hope that their children and grandchildren will become dragons and phoenixes can experience a bit of Gu Tongxiang's ecstatic and overwhelmed feeling at this moment when they received a call from the Qingbei Admissions Office.

Mashi Gallery

The name kept echoing in Gu Tongxiang’s heart.

It’s the fucking M&A Gallery

The M&A Gallery that was once as famous as Gagosian

Everyone who has ever held a paintbrush has never had a painting. The dream of reaching the peak of art, signing a contract with a top gallery, and having his own solo exhibition in art galleries around the world

Gu Tongxiang once imagined such a scene in his dream when he was young.

A dream is just a dream after all. When he was a teenager, Gu Tongxiang knew that such a dream did not belong to him, nor did it belong to this environment.

My talent is not bad, but no matter how good my paintings are, those superior art critics will not regard me asHis eyes fell on the previous moment.

The upper limit has almost been sealed.

Moving a small bench to paint on the overpass is his professional future and his destiny.

After he got married and started a business, and had some money on his hands, Mr. Gu Tongxiang no longer even dreamed of such a dream.

In fact, when he was working on oil painting, he had the opportunity to go to developed cities in Asia with foreign investors.

Mr. Gu Tongxiang himself still refused.

He is the backbone of the family. He has gone to pursue his dream. What should he do with the orphans and widowers in his family?

The older he gets, the less he cares about himself and the less he cares about himself. Children and grandchildren are more and more important.

Gu Tongxiang looks forward to the day and night that his grandson will join those large intercontinental galleries and become a true master.

In the past few months,

Although his grandson's performance has become more and more outstanding, he gradually feels that he may really be able to see such a scene in his lifetime.

But when the agent of Ma Shi Gallery was sitting in front of Mr. Gu, he still couldn't help but have the urge to cry.

The old man lowered his head, pretending to drink tea from a teacup, and casually wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingertips.

"Hmph, hum, that's right. I just like the old man's expression of gratitude and tears in his eyes." Hanks was very satisfied with Gu Tongxiang's reaction.

It is easier to talk to insiders who know the status of Mashi Gallery. This signing should be easy.

"Gu Weijing is not at home now. I'll call him and ask him to come back."

"It's okay, we can talk first." Hanks was not particularly anxious.

Gu Weijing is not yet an adult. He has arranged for his guardian, and it is just a matter of signing the child's name when he comes back.

"Uh, just to ask, considering my grandson's age, are you officially acting as his agent, or are you?" Gu Tongxiang's mood had calmed down and he asked a little uncertainly.

“We at Ma Shi Gallery come here with full sincerity, unlike some of our colleagues who engage in tricks. Naturally, it is a formal contract.”

Some large galleries will Establish some of its own creative parks for young artists, and also organize its own art competitions.

Through these methods, we can contact, train, and observe many talented candidates by casting a wide net.

Only a few very outstanding people can get formal contracts.

Many candidates can be observed for three, four or even five years from the initial contact to the gallery deciding whether to officially represent them.

Prior to this,

their names will not be listed in the list of represented artists on the official website or Wikipedia homepage to prevent damage to the gallery's sign.

Strictly speaking,

Katsuko Sakai is not currently an official agent of the Tokyo Gallery.

Regarding this question, Hanks did not hesitate too much and simply said, "If everything goes well with the signing, Gu Weijing will be the 302nd official artist represented by Ma Shi Gallery since its establishment, and will work with Art Gallery Like countless bright names in history, he has become a glorious Ma Shiren."

The gallery has represented a total of 300 painters since World War II.

Nearly 200 of them have been signed in the past decade or so. Hanks doesn’t care about signing one more person to the gallery, as it can also show his importance.

"Well, if my nephew is signed away, how much money can we get in a month?" The aunt couldn't hold back at this time, and asked while stretching her neck.

My aunt is an accountant and doesn’t know much about Mashi Gallery. From listening to it, she roughly knows that this gallery seems to be quite powerful.

"Mashi will give its artists a certain allowance. The custom is to give a check for the next year's allowance every Christmas, but if you want, you can also make monthly payments."

Hanks thought for a moment and held out a finger.

"When I came on this trip, I specially applied for a creative allowance, which can give me ten thousand US dollars a year."

Auntie was stunned.

"He is still a student painting for you, so why don't you give him ten thousand dollars a year? Aren't you liars?"

The middle-aged woman grinned, totally afraid Look of confidence.

The U.S. dollar has a very strong purchasing power in Yangon. Two dollars a day for ordinary people can cover the living expenses of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

The consumption level in Myanmar is equivalent to that of the country in the late 1980s, and there are many working-class people who cannot earn more than five dollars a day.

An annual income of US$10,000, or pure foreign exchange, is already at the level of a middle-level manager of a local multinational foreign company.

Exceeding the per capita GDP by seven to ten times.

During the epidemic, when business was hard, their family might not be able to save US$10,000 a year.

Now someone rushed up and took money equivalent to the annual profit of the entire calligraphy and painting shop to sign her nephew who was still in school.

Auntie thinks the world is crazy.

Hanks smiled.

He liked this middle-aged aunt's petty look very much.

The landlord’s family doesn’t have any food left.

Ma Shi Gallery can generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue every year, but that does not mean that tens of thousands of dollars are not important.

The flowers should be spent, the province should be saved.

Not only is it a matter of money, gallery owners actually don’t like their artists to be too wealthy. Otherwise they will become lazy.

In the eyes of Hanks,

the ideal creative environment for an artist is that the artist’s parents live in the ICU, their children attend private public schools, and there are three divorced ex-wives outside, and every month it’s like They ask you for living expenses like a ghost.

So they onlySo I can lock myself in a small dark room, drink cold water, eat dry food, and draw furiously with a paintbrush in my mouth.

If you want money,

trade your talent in exchange for it

People in the literary and art circles who are not short of money do not have financial pressure lashing behind them like a whip. There is no motivation to grind.

When people like Balzac, Flaubert, and Picasso got rich, they went out to whore and gamble, and leisurely hooked up with young rich women. Only when they were in debt did they work hard to write books and paintings. .

The reason why Balzac was so prolific is that the stories behind the large number of works he created in his life were all written in an apartment because he owed money and was blocked by publishers and even the underworld who were lending money.

In the art industry, galleries pay salaries and subsidies to painters to prevent them from starving to death on the streets. This is a fashionable concept that only emerged in the last century or so.

Paul Durandrue, a rich French young man, is known as the founder of modern galleries because he felt that the lives of the suppressed Impressionist painters were so miserable that he wished he could go hungry for nine meals in three days. , so he became kind and gave regular money to painters to maintain their creative status.

Before that,

If you don’t work hard at painting and can’t sell your works, you deserve to starve to death.

So many painters during the Renaissance spent several months without sleep, spending dozens or hundreds of square meters on church dome paintings. The reason behind this was not because they were pious, but because of one word, poverty. . Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft