"This is a contract. If you have any confusion about legal terms, I have also hired a professional business translator for you."
Hanks started from the outside of the briefcase. , get a printed contract. I asked for a black pen. I added a few numbers at key points and handed it to Mr. Gu Tongxiang.
"Please take a look at it, you can read it slowly."
"With the 75% commission on the sales of the work and the annual creative allowance of 10,000 US dollars, I think it is not a big problem. "
Gu Tongxiang glanced twice.
There is no big objection to the content of these two benefits. It is natural for the store owner to bully customers. To be honest, this commission ratio is not excessive.
The only thing that makes the old man slightly worried is "Is the twenty-year contract period too long?"
The career of an artist is much longer than that of an athlete. , twenty years basically covers Gu Weijing’s entire youthful age.
For most of the golden period of his career, he was bound to the Ma Shi Gallery.
Gu Tongxiang doesn’t think there is anything wrong with being able to cooperate with Ma Shi Gallery for twenty years.
But based on the old man’s experience, he knows that everything has a flip side.
If the cooperation is not pleasant.
With such a long contract, if you want to jump ship midway, you will have to pay liquidated damages that cannot be collected even if Gu's calligraphy and painting shop is sold.
That’s a bad thing to say.
As soon as this contract was signed, his grandson Gu Weijing became the daughter of a working tenant in the family of landlord Huang Shiren.
Whether or not you will live like a white-haired girl depends entirely on the mood of the gallery.
The interpersonal relationships in large galleries are intricate and complicated. If you offend someone you shouldn’t offend and keep it hidden for more than ten years, you really don’t think other galleries can succeed.
“You don’t have to worry. The group of painters is the most important asset of our Mashi Gallery, and our interests are highly aligned. Twenty years seems like a long time, because at your grandson’s age, we We won’t be too eager to push him to the market. During his college years, we may arrange for him to intern in the studios of great painters such as Dyke Alen, so that he can gradually enter the attention of collectors. ”
Dike Alen, a watercolorist and oil painter, is the double winner of the 2017 International Watercolor Award and the Barcelona Watercolor Award selected by the AS Association, and the gold medal winner of the 2019 Antwerp Art Biennale.
The total sales of works last year exceeded US$5 million, accounting for more than one-tenth of the annual revenue of Ma Shi Gallery.
Although his status is still a little behind Professor Kazunari Sakai, he is still an international first-line painter and one of the most important high-quality assets of the gallery today.
Hanks didn’t lie.
The exposure resources that large galleries have at their disposal outperform smaller galleries in all aspects.
From entering the studio of a great painter to holding a personal exhibition, Mashi GalleryIt can be done, the only prerequisite is that he performs well enough to be worthy of the gallery.
And if the new signing does not perform well enough or below expectations, there is no need to consider their feelings.
"You can think about it, the current time is 6:53 pm"
Hanks raised his sleeves and looked at his watch, "I will fly to Abu Dhabi soon. The National Gallery of Art will hold a solo exhibition for Dike Anlen next month. I don’t want to spend too much time in Myanmar, so if I can save time, I can sign the contract before midnight tonight.”
He lifted the briefcase forcefully and placed it on the table.
"I am willing to pay you a signing fee."
This is half true and half false.
Blackmailing people with countdowns and temptations is not just for fat people. Professor Kazunari Sakai can do it, and so can Hanks.
After the agent returned to the hotel that night, he gradually calmed down.
The talent of this kid Gu Weijing is indeed gratifying, but there are too many variables in talent in the art market, and he often only cares about things that can be seen and touched.
In fact, the biggest highlight of Gu Weijing’s current works is his age.
People from the small area of Yangon, unlike Miss Sakai Katsuko, have no connections and no resources.
His pen and ink accuracy is nothing more than that of ordinary professional painters. Although the fusion painting is novel, it is too similar to Castiglione. If it is too similar, it will lack its own novelty.
Hanks is not sure whether Gu Weijing can maintain the current rapid growth rate of skill improvement in the future.
This matter can only be based on probability. The saying that painters under thirty are the golden age for rapid maturity is just a big data statistic.
When it comes to individuals, it is by no means a golden rule.
Some painters were more talented when they were young.
It’s time to get older, and Zhongyong has suffered a lot of injuries.
As for the innovation of painting methods, I want to draw new ideas based on the previous works. To put it simply, it might just be a pat on the head, but sometimes it is normal to say that it is really stuck for ten or twenty years.
Desaro, Monet, and Picasso all explored for more than three to five years before they began to try to find their own way.
Gu Weijing is a wild young genius discovered accidentally by Uncle Sakai.
Medium-sized galleries do not have the training resources of Mashi. Even if Uncle Sakai recommends him to a gallery larger than Mashi Gallery, he may not be very interested in it.
So he, the buyer, is qualified to raise conditions.
Hanks unzipped his briefcase, and bundles of green and blue banknotes were nakedly exposed in front of everyone in the study, with a seductive charm.
"We can sign it now"
Auntie finally couldn't bear it anymore.
She slapped her palm on the table with a clang, and put theThe lid of the teacup on which it was placed vibrated.
With such good conditions, my aunt has no idea what the old man is still doing there.
When she first listened to it, she whispered in her heart, suspecting that it was a new trick of a scammer in northern Myanmar hiring actors to carry out kidnappings.
Now that she saw a whole briefcase full of banknotes in front of her eyes, her aunt finally had no doubts anymore.
The pie falling from the sky will hit you on the head,
If you don’t sign, you are not a human being.
"How about a lottery every ten years?" Gu Tongxiang was still hesitant and hesitant.
"Twenty years."
Hanks' face was very firm, and there was no room for maneuver in his tone. "There is nothing to talk about. You can Think about it first."
"And even if you agree to this condition, I have an additional requirement before signing the contract. Your family runs a gallery. There is a studio here where Mr. Gu Weijing usually paints. ”
He wanted to examine a few more works by Gu Weijing.
Those recommended by Professor Kazunari Sakai have little risk of fraud.
Hanks still wanted to confirm in advance that the work that impressed him particularly deeply was indeed painted by Gu Weijing.
Gu Weijing’s works display a similar technical level to the paintings of his grandfather Gu Tongxiang.
It would be a lot of fun if we encountered something weird like a grandpa giving his grandson a brush to draw.
Gu Tongxiang had no objection.
"Wait a moment, I will take you to our studio. There should be several paintings of my grandson there." Gu Tongxiang nodded.
As soon as he walked out of the study room,
Auntie couldn’t help but nagged anxiously in the old man’s ear, “Dad, what are you thinking about? There will be no such thing after this village.” This store. Listen, for ten thousand dollars a year, you don’t have to do anything. They are paying for you to support your grandson for nothing.”
“And there is still so much signing fee. Take it. Gu Lin and Gu Weijing are both graduating this year. There are plenty of places to spend money to study abroad. Dad, let me tell you, my daughter cannot be poor. If a girl doesn’t have enough living expenses, she will be cheated by a foreign man. What should I do?"
The middle-aged woman continued to chatter.
“It’s not like you get money for nothing without doing anything, you don’t understand. This money is just a drop in the bucket for Mashi Gallery. They just want to use this money to buy the options for the next twenty years. " Gu Tongxiang glanced at his daughter-in-law, who was almost distracted by the large amount of money in the briefcase, and said helplessly.
"The right to choose, if someone is willing to sign me, I would love to sign for a hundred and eighty years. Really, Xiao Lin should have been allowed to learn painting in the first place. This industry is so popular now."
My aunt was dissatisfied with her father-in-law's indecisiveness.
"Okay, let's wait until Wei Jing comes back. You go downstairs and call Wei Jing to remind her." Gu Tongxiang sent his daughter-in-law away..
The small studio attached to Gu's Book Gallery is a small hall of about 40 square meters behind the gallery store on the first floor, with thick polyester curtains.
Long-term exposure to strong ultraviolet rays will cause the pigments on the surface of the oil painting to denature or crack. Therefore, oil paintings cannot be exposed to the sun and can only be stored indoors in a backlit area.
Except for a few of Gu Weijing’s completed paintings, which are submitted to the Schostic Group, once they are completed, they are all placed at the base of the wall of the small studio at home and dried in the shade.
If you want to preserve it for a long time.
After it is completely dry, apply a layer of varnish to protect the painting, then put it into a frame or roll it into a storage tube. If you feel it is not necessary, shovel it out and use it again.
"This is it."
Hanks turned over a small easel against the wall of the studio, and the first picture he saw was the one he taught in Sakai a few days ago Works viewed on mobile phone.
At that time, the photo was just a base map, but now the drawing has been completely completed.
Looking at the real original painting directly at the scene,
Hanks immediately had a completely different feeling in his heart.
"The lines are elegant and the pen and ink are refreshing. It's really good." He nodded secretly in his heart, but put on a normal expression on his face.
He looked at it for a while and then took out a small black square box like a card camera lens from his pocket.
The 3rsa600s portable microscope for calligraphy and painting art appraisal produced by Edittech.
This gadget is as light as a hawthorn cookie and sells for $2,000 on Amazon.
This thing is usually signed by the same artist in other works, and is used to compare and observe each other to determine the authenticity of the painting.
Supports 5x, 30x, and 200x zoom.
Hanks clipped the microscope to the mobile phone case, and connected the small tail underneath it to the charging port of the mobile phone through the TYEC interface.
He called up the image of the camera, stood in front of the canvas, and looked at it bit by bit.
Then in front of Gu Tongxiang, he asked the translator to put the three paintings of the old man that he had picked out in the gallery downstairs next to them, and also looked at them.
"It's probably not a ghostwriter."
Hanks nodded secretly.
Normal appreciation of paintings does not require a microscope.
He was just determining the writing habits of Gu Weijing and Gu Tongxiang.
Writing requires handwriting appraisal, and a painter’s brushwork also has brushwork appraisal.
The lines in the eyes of the characters, the color blocks in the corners, and the way the brush is used counterclockwise. Some academic opinions now believe that these small details can better determine the author of a painting than a signature. identity.
When determining whether Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi was auctioned for 500 million US dollars, experts from the British Museum used a similar method to compare it with Benoit’s painting. ofTwo authentic Leonardo da Vinci paintings that have been handed down in an orderly manner throughout history, including the Madonna and the Lady with an Ermine, have been authenticated in their handwriting.
Of course,
Whether this microscopic identification method is convincing enough is still a matter of great debate.
Hanks discovered that this painting and Gu Tongxiang's works have strong similarities in the large-scale brushwork. The two are originally grandfather and grandson, which is normal.
Fortunately, there are quite a lot of differences in my brushing habits, so it should not be the work of one person.
"Ask Gu Weijing to draw two strokes in front of your eyes after he gets home. Make a shape or something. Look at his line, shape, and color skills, and you'll be fine."
Gu Tongxiang watched Hanks busy at the side and couldn't help but say.
"No delay, it's just idle time anyway." Hanks said without raising his head.
After appraising his brush-using habits, he continued to appreciate the detailed brushwork of the painting.
When Hanks works, he is like a miller who uses a critical eye to judge whether the teeth, mouth and hooves of the young donkey are healthy and strong at the livestock market. He is meticulous.
In the future, his sailing boat, pension, and money to go skiing and become a model in Switzerland will all depend on the hard work of this young man.
Hanks checked very professionally.
The flexibility of European knee joints makes it difficult for many people to squat for a long time. Hanks didn’t mind being dirty, so he knelt on one knee on the cement floor in front of the easel and carefully Rate Gu Weijing.
"The shape and structure of the picture, on the premise of keeping the visual perception stable, is full of new ideas. The grand atmosphere has the style of a general, which is good. The direction of the sunlight is quite interesting, um, the statue of the Virgin in the shadow , It’s quite bold on purpose.”
“The oriental temperament contained in the line shape is different from traditional sketches, but it can also be seen that he has good control over the outline, which can be a big plus. Like”
“The color processing is average, not bad but not good. The visual focus changes flexibly, and there are some flaws in the excessive color mixing of high and low light, but overall it is still solid”
“No matter what Whether it's sketching, oil painting or oriental art techniques, they are all very good, and there are no obvious shortcomings."
As I glanced over.
All kinds of information in Hanks' mind naturally came to mind, and he scored each item in the table in his mind.
"Uh, between three thousand and four thousand dollars."
Hanks said quietly to himself.
Relying on his professional experience, he judged that if this painting erased all other information and relied solely on its own beauty, with a price tag of about US$3,500, and placed it in an ordinary community gallery in Europe, it would be worth it. Without any additional exposure channels, there should always be enthusiasts buying it at this price.
Three thousand to four thousand dollars is the price in a small gallery.
If he could easily operate it through the channels of Ma Shi Gallery, Hanks would be incapable of selling it for less than five figures.
"My grandson's painting is not bad." Gu Tongxiang said proudly.
"Of course it's not bad here, otherwise I wouldn't have made a special trip here. But it's nothing in Ma Shi Gallery, the writing is still green, too green."
Hanks has his own little plan, so he won't follow Mr. Gu's words.
"He is still a child."
"The value of art has nothing to do with age. With his current level, he cannot be sold at a high price. Ma Shi Gallery really wants to treat Gu Wei There is still a long way to go before being introduced to the market. Besides, his painting method completely imitates the palace paintings of the Qing Dynasty, which itself determines that the audience will not aithat039sthat"
Hanks said. Halfway through, he suddenly let out a low exclamation and opened his eyes suddenly.
His original intention was that he did not want to be too optimistic about Gu Weijing in front of Gu Tongxiang.
But midway through his words, Hanks suddenly screamed out unconsciously.
In order to prevent dust from falling and being rubbed by the corners of people's clothes, all the works that are drying in the studio are placed with their backs to the painting facing the wall, as is good practice.
As the agent spoke, he casually opened an easel next to him and saw a work that completely exceeded his expectations.
That was
a dark-toned Impressionist painting
It treats the history of art since the 19th century as a movie, in which there are stories about the Impressionist painters. This is the main plot of this movie.
It is known as the beginning and origin of modern art.
Since the Industrial Revolution, various art schools have emerged one after another. Impressionism is not the earliest among them in absolute terms. There are two predecessors before it: Romanticism and Pre-Raphaelite.
After it, realism, secession, aestheticism, and symbolism trends emerged one after another.
But compared with Impressionism, these trends are ultimately just gurgling streams in empty mountains and valleys. Impressionism was the real stormy wave sweeping the history of art.
Throughout the entire history of Western art, in terms of influence, only Picasso’s Cubism can surpass him. The pop art of Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama may make more money, but their historical status is still far behind.
Many academic opinions believe that without the ideological trend born by Impressionism that integrates objective reality and color perception, through the brushstroke style that depicts strong and subtle changes in light and shadow, perhaps the art of painting would have been completely reborn during that period. defeated or even completely replaced by the art of photography.
Hanks has seen countless impressive Impressionist paintings, but he still can't remember any painting that is as special as the one in front of him.
Black rain, flowing thunder, rolling colored candlelight.
Van Gogh also painted night-themed works. Whether it is a cafe or a starry sky, they all look very "bright", but there are no works with such a dark base color in front of me.
The strange thing is that, using such cold paint, the painting does not look melancholy at all.
The entire painting is completed with short impressionistic brushstrokes, with the exception of the bright candlelight, which condenses the entire painting like an anchor.
Hanks almost fell to his knees. Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft