"Miss Anna, is this an inference you made during the interview, or is it a private inquiry?"

Cao Xuan still didn't answer Anna's question immediately, but raised his eyebrows again and asked rhetorically.

"You should know that I could have added this to the interview without asking for any of your consent, as many media people do. I have the ability to decide everything about my interviews. ”

Miss Elena said calmly.

"It's my right."

She was silent for a moment, very majestic, and then suddenly, she smiled like a glacial river again.

"But well, Mr. Cao Xuan, it's time for private conversation, I assure you."

The old lady seemed to like this answer very much.

He grinned.

"His name is Gu Weijing, and he is a very interesting child, and yes, he is the same child I mentioned at the annual meeting. If you've seen him in the future, you'll probably like him. ”

"Gu Weijing?"

Anna repeated it several times.

She stared at the paper for a moment.

In fact, before Cao Xuan said this name, Miss Elena did not know who the owner of the painting was.

Anna speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Russian and Latin.

Hungarian will also listen to some.

Hundreds of years ago, when political ambitions were still preserved, her ancestors were known for their ability to give birth to beautiful daughters and for their multicultural promiscuity, as well as their long-sleeved means of dancing in the complex palace struggles under the curtains of Europe.

All right.

In a sense, the two are one thing.

Give birth to a bunch of beautiful daughters who are known for their brilliance and beauty, and then choose the best part of the suitors of the wild bee and butterfly, and marry them.

Marry the cousin of the Bourbon monarch, marry the Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, or marry a colonel, the Count, who has just made his mark in the Musket Infantry Regiment during the Thirty Years' War...... Rely on all kinds of private secrets, and the pillow wind blowing wildly in the circle of noble ladies, puncture your opponent's cunning conspiracy, and then use the cunning conspiracy you weave to bury the other party.

Very common means too.

Everybody likes to do it.

When Miss Elena was born, her father had high hopes that his daughter would one day become Austria's ambassador to the European powers and a senior diplomat in the cabinet.

On the basis of him, a European parliamentarian.

Embark on the second spring of the family's full return to the center of the political stage.

If the Cessna 172 hadn't turned into dust in the snow of the Alps, the aunt and guardian would have preferred to respect the little girl's personal interests.

Miss Elena's life should open up in a very different way.

That's not good, she's not chatting with Cao Xuan with a wine glass now.

Instead, as a third secretary or second secretary, at a banquet hosted by the Austrian Consulate General in St. Petersburg, he was holding a glass and talking to a member of the Women's International Club.

Even if he embarked on a different life path from his father's.

Growing up, Anna was exposed to a lot of different cultures.

Austria is a very ethnically diverse country, with statistics stating that there are 3.4 languages per capita in some regions.

As for the Russian language, as well as Latin, this is for the sake of reading the original texts.

The Russian aesthetic literature headed by the Repin Academy of Fine Arts, which competed with the European aesthetic competition, was naturally dominated by Russian, and a small part was French.

In Western Europe, the professional books of the Renaissance and before were mostly in Latin, and less in Greek and French.

Being a person who can grasp first-hand information is the basic requirement to become a top professional scholar.

Unfortunately, Chinese is a completely separate language system.

It's hard to learn.

It's not something that can be learned by touching it casually, changing the accent, or making a variation of the etymology.

Miss Elena knew that the creator of a Chinese painting would leave a seal and a signature at the end of the volume.

But honestly.

No one is omniscient.

Anna's knowledge of Chinese characters was not strong enough to support her ability to recognize calligraphy and seal scripts on seals.

That's why Anna mentions that she is not an expert in the field of Oriental art.

"How?"

Cao Xuan looked at Miss Yelena.

He noticed something unusual in the tone in which the other party had pronounced the sentence.

"It's fine, it's just ...... It's nothing. He's not very old, has he won any important painting awards? Or have you ever mentioned his name in an interview and recommended him? ”

Anna spoke softly.

She vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar.

It's like I've seen it somewhere.

Miss Yelena, however, was completely unable to compare the name with the famous artist in her mind.

Odd?

Before she came, she deliberately read so many recommended materials related to Cao Xuan's life, if "Gu Weijing" was mentioned in it, she shouldn't be unable to think of it.

"No, of course not, it's completely pure art." Cao Xuan shook his head, "When he's ready to step into the spotlight, he'll step onto the stage by himself." ”

"Well, that's right."

Anna decided to put this question on the back burner for now.

"Is he your chosen successor?"

Anna asked inquiringly.

"If so, please let me know quietly, and I might start thinking about buying some of his paintings. There is not much to do in the world to have such a good deal, maybe you won't be able to afford it in the future? ”

Miss Elena made a joke.

"As a generous collector who just donated 137 Picasso works and a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript this month, your words sound too unconvincing."

Cao Xuan also joked.

The actions of Anna Versailles were noted.

"Isn't it just for you to pay for the beauty of art?"

"You've imagined me too noble, Mr. Cao." Anna replied calmly, "Who can refuse to pick up money for nothing?" Besides, the petals are blooming beautifully. ”

Cao Xuan smiled dumbly.

The old man stared at the painting on the wall for a moment, then shook his head slowly.

"Nope."

"He's not?"

"It's just that I don't know, the inheritance of oriental art is a very heavy responsibility."

"Great fame, great wealth, great honor. Thinking about it always means a lot of pressure. Anna nodded.

"I can entrust my property to Xiao Ning without blinking a brow, entrust it to Lin Tao, or entrust it to Gu Weijing in the future."

"A man dies like a lamp goes out. I don't have children, oriental art is blood and bones. Chinese painting is not only my child, but also my parents. It is always prudent to entrust your parents and children to others. Do you think he will be my successor, the next leader of Chinese painting? Sorry, I don't really know how to answer. ”

"Maybe, maybe not, maybe Tang Ning, maybe Zhou Ming, maybe Liu Ziming, maybe someone else. Because the decision is not in my hands, but in themselves. ”

Cao Xuan gently clubbed the head of the cane on the ground.

"All I can tell you is that at least he's at the moment, he's fantastic, even better than I expected."

"When I received this work, I wrote him a word-" Cao Xuan hoarsely translated the words in "The World Speaks New Language" into English and spoke it to Miss Yelena, "The pearl of luminous light does not have to come from the river of Mengjin. It does not have to be mined in the Kunlun Mountain. ”

"Do you compare it to a pearl that shines brightly, and a beautiful jade pendant? It's very poetic. ”

Anna nodded.

"Only the truly brilliant pearls and the world's jade walls can make the beauty of oriental art shine the whole world, which is my affirmation and expectation." Cao Xuan said seriously.

Miss Elena hesitated.

ultimately

She still spoke her mind.

"I'm sorry if you feel offended."

"I want to say, are you too stubborn about the so-called 'inheritance of the painting school'? We live in a very diverse era of art. It's no longer the years you were born, and the art world is no longer accustomed to using obvious schools and genres to distinguish and frame a specific painter, isn't it? Even the aesthetic fashion has slowly changed from the creative content to the creative style. ”

Anna is not a sycophant like Lao Yang who can only show to Cao Lao, and whatever the other party says, is what she is.

She is very assertive.

Even if you feel that this topic may offend the other party.

But Anna made it clear that she had been disagreeing with her mind all along.

"I don't judge whether this shift is progress or regression for the industry. But that's the industry phenomenon of the art world as a whole. A descendant, a school of painting, will this form seem too old-fashioned? Even if you don't have an heir in mind, what then? There are more than 200 countries in the world, and there are hundreds of art styles, the vast majority of which do not have the concept of real 'heirs' or 'leaders'. Like Pop Art, from a macro point of view, it is only a minority. This is what art is really like in the whole world. ”

"Of course, I respect your achievements, and I respect your persistence even more, not intentionally-"

"It's okay, don't worry about my self-esteem being so fragile. Please continue, what you said is good, I'm listening. Cao Xuan waved her hand, signaling that she could continue boldly.

"Then, if you don't mind, please let me take Nigerian art as an example, Nigeria is an ancient civilization in Africa, at least 12 centuries old, but I can't imagine a very famous Nigerian art heir, or a master of Nigerian art."

"But that doesn't mean West African art has disappeared without a trace."

Miss Elena stretched out her arms gracefully.

"For example, critics can see a lot of West African elements in Picasso's painting style, although many people very sharply think that this is plagiarism and theft, but there is no doubt that Nigeria's traditional graffiti has been reborn in a completely different form, and it has a new vitality."

"If you look at it in terms of millennium. It is very likely that all the current art styles will die out in a long timeline, they will be broken, they will die, and they will be reorganized in AI, digital painting, three-dimensional themes, and cosmic space, and finally become unrecognizable, maybe this is where the whole art world belongs. Isn't it? In this case, is there a suitable heir, is it really that important? ”

Anna said in a leisurely voice.

"It's very important, because Chinese painting is Chinese painting, and it will never die out, and it will never be broken." Cao Lao's categorical assertion.

"Why?"

Anna asks rhetorically, "How can you be sure that traditional Nigerian painting, in the strict sense of the word, has disappeared?" How the fates of the two are different. Is it because this form of painting is heavier than Nigerian painting? ”

"Yes, more so."

"Oh. Mr. Cao, I regret to point out to you that there is a striking resemblance between your statement and my grandfather's thinking. He considered himself a chosen people, and treated African painters like rough monkeys. Later, people called this idea 'Eurocentrism', and it was proven wrong by history. Usually in the evaluation, my grandfather is a respected person. But everyone has shortcomings. ”

The woman spread her hands.

"I don't shy away from him, but the tendency of European superiority in his thinking is one of them. The African continent is ancient, and the blood of many of its people is as solemn and pure as the truth. Tens of thousands of years ago, the ancestors of the Maasai people may have lived near the Garden of Eden, and those races that have only developed in the last century, who only know how to arm themselves with weapons and conceit, how can they compare with the pure blood and arrogance of the Maasai people'—Mr. Cao, these are the words I excerpted from high school and wrote in my diary to evaluate my grandfather. ”

"Later, I wrote it again in the special commemorative issue of Oil Painting, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of his death."

Anna turned her head sideways and stared into Cao Xuan's eyes, not allowing him to dodge it in the slightest.

The question is too acute.

Miss Elena said that it would be humiliating for her to change her inclination in art criticism and speak for a person because of a change in her personal relationship.

That's what Anna said, and that's what Anna did.

My grandfather, Miss Yelena, writes articles sharply, and what about other people and can be an exception?

Lao Yang was stupid.

He is really going to touch the quick-acting heart pill now.

Not for Cao Lao to eat, but for himself to eat.

Cao Lao still looks calm, but his old Yang's little heart is really unbearable.

Sister.

No

You're my aunt.

Are you an ancestor?

This beautiful little girl, don't we want to be so ruthless! Just after spraying Sir Brown as "NAZI" at the annual meeting, in turn, he accused Cao Xuan of having a central idea.

It's big bombs one after the other.

Poor him Lao Yang still naively thought that the biggest bomb tonight was at Tang Ning's place, but this TMD went to Cao Xuan.

The atmosphere in the room was solemn, almost suffocating.

Suddenly.

Boss Cao laughed.

"You're completely wrong about what I meant, Miss Elena, but I have to say that you are such a very personal person, so cute. I like you, really, and you've gained my respect just by saying that. You are a good reviewer. ”

(End of chapter)