Gu Weijing was not angry because of Mr. Sloth's questioning.

He has also heard a little about the current situation of the knife painting industry.

I heard that what I am good at is the so-called "knife painting", and Mr. Sloth did not directly let him get out, which is already very polite and cultivated.

"Are you sure you can actually paint with an oil knife? Don't believe in the saying that it can be done quickly, knife painting is a difficult skill, and there are only a handful of artists who can use a good oil painting knife in the world. ”

There was suspicion in the other party's tone.

"I think my mastery of the knife should be considered good."

Gu Weijing carefully considered his tone, making himself sound less like a boastful liar.

"Okay, I can try to find it for you, but this category is too niche, don't get your hopes up."

Anna sighed softly when she saw the detective cat so persistent.

It's really unpopular to simply draw with a knife.

Unless you are a particularly famous artist, it is difficult to get an invitation, and it is difficult to even participate in a serious art exhibition.

She sighed.

The shortcomings of online illustrators are obvious, they have not seen much of the world, not only lack of understanding of art trends, but also are easy to be fooled.

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

After thinking for a moment,

Anna typed again.

"Actually, your line skills are so good, painting a serious traditional oil painting is the right way. Take your time, I highly recommend you try to participate in art exhibitions, which is the first step for a professional painter to step into the mainstream painting world. This year's Singapore Art Biennale is a great opportunity. Our other guest, Mika Tonks, is the co-curator of the European section of the exhibition. ”

It's no coincidence that both Anna and Cao Lao are recommending the Singapore Art Biennale.

The Singapore Art Biennale is not a top international art fair, and the competition is not as fierce as those traditional art exhibitions with a long history, but it has received a lot of attention.

Especially affected by the pandemic.

In order to revitalize the tourism economy, the Lion City has approved a very high amount of funds for the exhibition.

The total amount of the exhibition for about a month is 1.5 billion Singapore dollars in terms of venues and exhibition installations, and more than 100 million dollars in US dollars according to the exchange rate.

The international art jury gathered, only in terms of investment scale, even more than many European long-established art exhibitions, and several times more than the famous Yokohama Art Triennial in Japan.

Secondly, this year, as Singapore's two heavy blows to revitalize the cultural tourism industry,

The Singapore Art Fair was rescheduled to coincide with the same week as the Singapore International F1 Grand Prix, the Lion City's most visited international sporting event each year.

According to the estimate of the Lion City Tourism Board.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary tourists from all over the world come from Dongxia, Dongying, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and other countries to watch sports competitions, and they will also visit the art exhibition.

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

There is a lot of traffic and popularity, and it is indeed a good opportunity for the painters to officially "debut".

As for Tonks, the co-director of Taylor's National Art Gallery, he is a professional curator by training.

If art is compared to a film, 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, almost every invited art critic in Anna's bi-monthly podcast special Art Salon has experience curating art exhibitions.

To be the independent director of the Taylor International Art Museum,

Tonks is already at the head of the industry.

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

When he moved from a private family-owned art gallery in Belgium to the Taylor National Art Gallery in England as co-director a few years ago, Tonks was largely unsightly of small art exhibitions.

If you want to help your career, let him touch the real world-class art galleries and museum directors of the Temple of Art, such as the Louvre, the British Museum, the Vatican Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on.

There are probably three ways.

The first is to be in politics,

Don't look at the posture of foreign artists who ignore the government all day long and bravely say no to the powerful, there are more PY transactions in secret.

Especially for such a large national art museum, if you want to wear small shoes, it will be too much to give you a subsidy of 10 million euros less than the annual government allocation.

Even if you want to cut back on food, the museum's board of directors or management will definitely get you out of the way right away.

This kind of large-scale art museum cares about having a good relationship with the government.

If you want to be a cultural minister in the cabinet or something, it's easy to become a curator at a large art museum after the end of your term, and it's basically a pension with a high salary.

History is full of examples of this, somewhat similar to the dozen former sports ministers or former prime ministers of EU member states in the top echelons of UEFA.

The second is to publish heavyweight academic papers.

The director of an art museum is similar to the president of a university, and the work of a scholar is always a weapon for promotion.

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

His subordinates are in charge of an entire art museum, and they can get water out of any way if they want it.

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

Ordinary hydrology actually didn't help him much.

Art essays are like this, ordinary essays 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, it is more difficult 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, which is also a more direct method, since it is a curator, is naturally to hold an art exhibition.

In particular, for large-scale international art exhibitions of the magnitude of "national business cards", basically the directors of these art museums have curatorial experience in 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 interesting to become an independent curator of the exhibition.

At most, he is probably the coordinator of the collections of a subordinate sub-gallery.

If he switched to a second-tier national art exhibition such as the Singapore International Art Exhibition, then he would immediately be able to become an independent curator.

"Curator Tonks is the curatorial director of the European section of the Lion City Art Show?"

When Gu Weijing saw the news, he was only slightly surprised.

The organizing committee of such a large-scale art exhibition has the names of dozens or hundreds of well-known art critics and curators, and the names can occupy an entire web page, but he did not look closely.

Even if you look closely, it is difficult for him to have a relationship with such a big name as a student in Yangon.

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

Out of politeness, as long as a celebrity of the magnitude of the director of the Taylor Art Museum has an intention, the organizer will basically send an invitation.

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

However, Cao Lao is already in a state of semi-seclusion,

Except for those who really can't shirk it, they will go to the organizing committee to hang a name, and they will generally decline politely.

But independent curators still have a different meaning.

He remembered that there was an independent curator for the Singapore Art Fair in Asia, Europe, the United States, Africa, and Oceania, but he didn't expect that the director of the Tonks curator who would be connected was the curator of the European section.

"If you could...... When the recording salon is over, can I ask Mr. Tonks some questions? ”

Gu Weijing hesitated.

As a painter who wants to exhibit, the opportunity to communicate with the curator of the art exhibition is hard to come by, but this is a podcast by Mr. Sloth.

It seems very rude not to communicate with the host beforehand.

"Are you interested in the Singapore Art Fair?"

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 "at her own suggestion".

"Of course I'm okay here, but I just want to see what Curator Tonks means."

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

It's easy to see why the detective cat wants to talk to Curator Tonks.

According to the theme, the style of the curators and the judges of the organizing committee, the International Biennale will have different tendencies for the selection and evaluation of the works to be exhibited.

The theme of this year's Lion City Art Exhibition, "The Hustle and Bustle of the World", is very inclusive.

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 plate is the red and glamorous Mao Xuewang, and the other plate is the light and delicious fried shrimp with parsley, and it is self-evident which plate he prefers.

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

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

If you ask the detective cat to contact the curator, will it be unfair to other painters who want to participate in the exhibition?

Come on

There is no such thing as absolute fairness in the world.

If you think of an art fair as an exam, knowing the examiner should be what the candidate needs to do.

Even with Anna's penchant for artistic cleanliness, she doesn't think there's anything wrong with it.

From ancient times to the present, since the birth of the profession of painter, network has been the most important link in various art circles.

It is too normal for a father to recommend a son, a teacher to recommend a disciple, a senior brother to recommend a younger brother, and an economist to make a name for himself as a painter.

It can be said that it is a common practice in the industry for participating artists and curators to communicate their paintings in advance.

Just as some actors who are loved by the director can talk to the director in the preparation stage of the script, it is easier to be selected when casting.

Even if you want to be awesome to a certain extent, such as Cao Lao, the entire International Biennale revolves around you as a painter as the theme, it's not impossible, it's like a custom script.

The only problem is,

Would the Tonks curator want to talk to the detective cat?

……

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

Fifteen minutes are still before the official start of the recording of the salon.

GU WEIJING SAT IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER, AND ON THE IPAD ON HIS RIGHT, THERE WAS AN OPEN DOCUMENT, WHICH WAS AN ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE FIVE PAINTINGS SUBMITTED BY FANS THIS TIME, AS WELL AS THE DENSE ANNOTATIONS HE MADE ON THE PAINTINGS.

With the assistance of calligraphy and painting appraisal,

The five works are dismantled again and again into fragments of color, structure and line.

The painter's brushwork, composition, and emotion are vividly expressed in the light curtain in Gu Weijing's heart.

The appraisal of calligraphy and painting deals with these works of art that are roughly equivalent to or high at Gu Weijing's current level, showing a crushing analytical ability.

It's like he's seen firsthand how these fans paint.

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

After Gu Weijing checked that there was nothing wrong with his sound card for the last time, he entered the room agreed with the Zoom conference room.

“Hello？ Mr. Sloth? Are you there? ”

He cleared his voice.

"Hello, Detective Cat Lady, nice to meet you."

In the Zoom network video conference room, the familiar voice of a middle-aged man with a hint of hoarseness came from it.

"Me too."

Gu Weijing said.

Austria, Anna sits behind her desk, looking at the head of the detective cat.

This was the first time she had a face-to-face conversation with the "Van Gogh" she had discovered.

The fly in the ointment is that the detective cat in the camera uses a virtual background and an anthropomorphic custom cartoon avatar just like himself.

She can only judge by her voice,

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

"Two, please confirm. Our recording time is forty-five minutes, from 5:30 to 6:15 London time, please be careful not to run out of time, Mr. Tonks has other schedules in the evening. ”

A blonde girl in a black suit appeared on the wired screen of the other camera.

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

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

The Goldilocks who appear on the screen now are Curator Tonks' personal assistants, with a position similar to that of Lao Yang hired by Cao Lao.

In the past few days, the podcast recording arrangement with Mr. Sloth is also this assistant girl.

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

The reason for her unhappiness was 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 show is because the standard of this podcast is really good.

Not only was the Apple Art Podcast Rising Star list voted last year's best blog, but the conversation was attended by heavyweights such as Sir Clark, director of the British Academy of Art.

Curator Tonks' involvement does not seem to be a loss of identity, and it is a good opportunity to show himself.

outcome

Suddenly, there was a detective cat...... An influencer illustrator?

It's like an American cowboy running into the afternoon tea party of the European aristocracy.

What level of education? I want to participate in this kind of art salon dialogue.

If the donkey's lips were not the right one when the salon was recorded, and the conversation was the same as Grandma Liu's entry into the Grand View Garden, Curator Tonks would also drop the price.

The assistant girl really couldn't understand why Mr. Sloth had managed to improve the quality of the podcast and why he would risk smashing his own sign to invite such a guest.

She had advised Mr. Tonks not to participate in the podcast.

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

"Mr. Sloth, I've finished the audition here, and when the time comes, Mr. Tonks will come to the study. Again, please note that the recording time is limited, as the museum has a limited time. ”

After the assistant girl finished debugging the computer and audio in the study, she was ready to leave.

"Miss, could you please wait a minute?"

Anna called out to the curator's assistant.

"What's wrong?"

"This is the detective cat, and another guest we recorded at this salon."

Anna explained.

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

Anna understands the working patterns of art bigwigs.

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

It can even directly let the detective cat skip the audition of the art exhibition as a guest painter and participate in the art exhibition.

The new chapter is under review, please wait.

(End of chapter)