"Then whether you will gain my respect or not depends on your answer."

Anna tilted her head slightly and stared at Cao Xuan.

She didn't smile back at Cao Xuan's compliment.

"Mr. Cao, this is a rather serious topic—"

"No, you still don't understand what I'm talking about, Miss Elena."

Cao Xuan waved his hand quickly, (at least for an old man who was about to turn 100 years old, he waved his hand extremely fast), and interrupted Anna with a very powerful posture.

"I am not here to argue with you about which method of creation is superior, more advanced, or more 'civilized and noble,' nor do I want to argue that oil painting is God's chosen form of art, as your great-grandfather did."

"No, no, no, it sounds pretty much the same, but we're not talking about the same thing from beginning to end."

"What I'm saying is that Chinese painting is the most important category of painting for me."

Anna listened intently.

In the light of the chandelier overhead, she played with the look on the old man's face, trying to see if the other person was playing some kind of word game with her.

If he tried to avoid the question, the master might have miscalculated.

She's not a perfunctory girl at all.

"What's the difference?"

"I studied in France when I was younger, and like my generation of students who were violently affected by the world's ideological trends, I was exposed to many, many new ideas of painting, drawing, watercolor, oil painting, focal perspective, optical principles, cubism...... All of them are very interesting, and some of them are creative philosophies that the Tangut painters have not been exposed to in the past few thousand years, or at least have never become the mainstream of painting. And some art trends such as cubism and abstraction were quite new and fresh avant-garde things for the whole world at that time. ”

"These things are beautiful, they are all big, and they are worth a lifetime of dedication."

"I've been walking through these vibrant colors for more than ten years, like a stranger observing a huge kaleidoscope. It's full of amazing charm and also amazing allure. ”

Cao Xuan's gaze looked directly into Anna's eyes without evasion.

His eyes did not carry the powerful, majestic queenly air of Miss Yelena, but with a kind smile and nostalgia.

I don't know many, many years ago.

Next to the statue of Henry IV of the Île de la Cité, did the old man ever see such a beautiful girl when he was young?

"You know what. It was a time of great change, both in the world and in the arts. ”

"At that time, Paris was a melting pot of world art, which devoured and squeezed elements of different schools of painting from all over the world, and meshed them into new aesthetic concepts."

"It fuses ukiyo-e with Dutch perspective, and brings the large-scale flat painting method of oriental art into the creation of Impressionism. Combining the artistic aesthetics of West Africa with the winds of the Apennine Peninsula, blowing across the golden banks of the Seine. ”

The old man's slight rustling sound collided on the wall of the living room, and his crutches stood on the ground, as if shaking off the smoke of the old continent.

"Of course I know what it was like back then, but I was a person who went to the post-war Salon d'Automne in Paris, when it was no less important than the three major art fairs of today. It was a short and long era for art. There was a hint of childish playfulness and ostentation in Cao Lao's tone, "Some of my companions, not satisfied with watching from afar, have personally stepped into it and become part of these colors that are constantly changing and composing. ”

"Many people have gone very deep, and they have done very well, and they have become famous."

"I didn't," he said, "and I turned around after a long spectator." I continued to pick up the brush in my hand and spent the rest of my life. It's not that those things are bad, it's not that those things aren't beautiful. It's all great, it's beautiful, but that's not the path I want to take. ”

"Because you think Chinese painting is better?" Anna asked.

"Yes, even in front of the world's interview cameras, on any occasion, I will answer this without thinking. I think Chinese painting is better, and I think Chinese painting is more important. ”

Cao Xuan's tone was loud: "It's not because it's superior, but because it's closely connected to my blood and body." The rest of the world's endlessly beautiful aesthetic patterns are kaleidoscopes that reflect the daylight...... For me, Chinese painting is the moss that grows at night, the yellowed leaves on the treetops, the tide by the moonlight, the air I breathe, and the sunlight itself. ”

"One can live without a kaleidoscope, but not from the sun and the air for a moment. I was less than ten years old when I held the brush, and I was full of curiosity like a child, tirelessly swimming in the long river of Tangxia art. Almost a full century has passed, and now I am less than 100 years old, still like a child, full of curiosity, tirelessly swimming in the long river of Tangut art. ”

"It's a sweet dream that can't wake up. Hung over my whole life. ”

The old man smiled happily.

"I just told you, didn't I? Chinese painting is my parents and my children. How can a man not have the deepest love for his parents and yet be full of affection for his children? Artists and critics are different, and scholars can read a wide range of schools of thought and carefully compare the advantages and disadvantages of each painting method. But the painter must be extremely passionate about what he is creating. ”

"That's your only one."

"I think Chinese painting is the most important art category in the world, Monet said that France is the hotbed of all art in the world, and Dalí said that for a painter, there is only one thing that is truly lucky, and that is that he was born a Spaniard. This does not mean that if we meet on a particular plane, we will fight. It's just a reflection of the warmest emotions in our hearts. We are all equally religious. ”

Cao Xuan spread out his palms.

"Wise Miss Anna. If an old man unabashedly expresses his affection and devotion to his paintbrush in front of you, you accuse him of colonialist tendencies, which is too unsympathetic, isn't it? ”

Miss Elena was silent this time.

"Let me proudly point out to you that Chinese painting is probably the most tenacious school of painting and creative style in the world, if you don't classify murals as a school of painting...... Then there is no one. ”

"You said that on a thousand-year-old scale, any form of painting will be broken and reassembled. From Jan van Eyck's invention of oil painting in 1435, which improved on the basis of tempera, to today, it is about 600 years old. But from Gu Kaizhi to today, it has a history of 1,600 years. Gu Kaizhi is not the inventor of Chinese painting, in the Warring States Period, there have been very mature art techniques and systematic figure silk painting, the history of Chinese painting can easily be pushed forward to more than 2,000 years. ”

"During this period, the technical form and color science of Chinese painting was, of course, a constantly improving and rich art system, and could not be immutable, the calligraphic structure of literati painting, the art of Gandhara, the art of Central Asia, and the aesthetics of Persia...... It absorbs cultures from all over the world like the sea. But its core, its philosophy, is in the same vein, endless. Its cultural connotation has never died. Even if the method is based on a long time scale of 1,000 years, such a conclusion can still be drawn. ”

Cao Xuan pointed his finger at the scroll in front of Miss Elena.

"Chinese people paint Chinese paintings, or in other words, all the people who are influenced by the essence of oriental art are painting Chinese paintings, standing in front of such calligraphy and painting scrolls. What they see is not just techniques and knowledge, or any kind of art theory in textbooks, but these are not the first things that appear in their minds. ”

"What is it supposed to be, please teach me."

Anna tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said calmly.

"Before that, on the question that Chinese painting has a more lasting vitality, I thought, I convinced you, right? Miss Anna. ”

Cao Xuan did not immediately answer the other party's question.

He raised an eyebrow and asked with interest.

"I still need to think about it, but for now, it sounds like an interesting theory." Elena thought seriously for a moment, "It's really an important question where the vitality of art comes from. ”

"If Mr. Cao can tell me the answer, I am very grateful. Do you think that because the so-called 'freehand' is the general trend of art? ”

It's hard to answer directly, it's not a good thing to recommend a textbook or two, or to look up one or two documents in the library. We can argue here how the painting style of three days and three pages, the sparse realism of ink and wash and the emphasis on the body is similar to the philosophy of modern art. Why is the entire philosophy of contemporary art developing on the road of condensing 'thought'...... These explanations may be Miss Anna, you are more professional than I do, and you don't need my guidance. ”

"So, I'm more here to give you a more emotional answer."

"It's the river."

Cao Xuan said.

"When we stand in front of the Chinese painting works, what we experience is not the technique, but a historical experience with pulse and temperature."

The old man smiled mysteriously, "Its divine will and spirit are also not the appreciation on the exhibition board below the art museum, but a kind of philosophical aesthetic flowing in the blood, a heartbeat with a sense of intimacy." Chinese painting is a flat boat, which can go down the river, leading to the future of children and grandchildren, and can also go upstream, allowing us to access the magnificent river of art, through thousands of years of spring and autumn wind and rain, to the source of history. ”

Therefore, today, we stand in front of the sculptures of the Qin and Han dynasties and the silk books of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and we will still be moved similar to the ancients. We inhale in amazement and exhale deeply, just as the ancients did thousands of years ago. Between this breath and breath, as long as the cultural philosophy of Dongxia does not die, Chinese painting will never die. ”

Miss Elena listened quietly.

She imagined how Cao Xuan thought of the painting in front of her.

It carries the temperature of history and the breath of the future.

Now, past, and future.

A sense of the vicissitudes of time is condensed into one in a painting and calligraphy, like a delicate ruler, measuring the changes of art history.

In the past.

In 1870, when the archaeologist Schliemann held the clay pot excavated from the Trojan site, knelt on the ground and cried bitterly in the Homeric epic, did he also feel something similar (note) and be struck by the echo of history?

Or is it different?

(Note, Schliemann in Turkey, whether the exhumed ruins of the ancient city of Troy is a well-known archaeological case, is doubtful.) ）

Cultural differences and environmental barriers exist objectively.

It's also a work of the [painstaking work] level.

Seriously.

Even though the painting is admired in person, "The Little Prince" is a scanned photo.

Miss Elena was moved by the cover of "The Little Prince".

But listen to Cao Xuan's words in his ears.

Anna's imaginary gaze with the beauty of history began to be deeply intoxicated.

"That's a good point. This is the temperature of art history, I think you convinced me. ”

She nodded.

"When, Anna, you can really appreciate what I'm talking about when you look at a Chinese painting, then you're really a very outstanding sinologist. However, this is a long road that requires a very long period of experience. ”

"Experience?"

"I prefer to call the brewing of art philosophy a kind of life experience, rather than simply reading knowledge, embracing it rather than learning it. Of course, in order to gain this kind of experience, long-term learning and a lot of appreciative contact must be essential. ”

Cao Xuan nodded and shook his head: "It takes more than ten years or more to learn a new philosophy of painting. Of course, oil painting itself also has its own heavy art philosophy. In addition to myself and Xiao Ning, several of my other disciples have oil paintings. The trend of intermingling the elements of painting that you mentioned earlier is also another general trend in understanding art. If you like that style, this Gu kid is really working on a similar work. ”

"Maybe you'll like it?"

Even if Cao Xuan said that Gu Weijing would break through on his own, he would not provide any help at the Singapore Biennale.

But in the face of a top rich collector like Anna.

The old man was still very disgusted with the upright pretty and pushed it, ready to pull out Gu Xiaozi's works and make a bright appearance.

If Miss Elena was willing to put a poke in his ass, it would be difficult not to win.

"I want it."

Anna said suddenly.

"That fusion style painting may be a little difficult, because he is going to vote for ......" Cao Xuan was surprised.

"No, that's what I mean. You said that the philosophical experience is a long experience of appreciation and contact, so let's start with this painting. ”

Miss Elena took a slight step forward, the tip of her nose close to the paper.

"I think it's going to be a good teacher."

Hey???

Lao Yang, who had just returned his heart to his stomach, suddenly widened his eyes again, and his eyes were about to erupt with indignant flames.

You little sister is so raw, it doesn't make sense!

It's okay to talk about art when you talk about art, how can you suddenly come and grab his old Yang's things!

That's too much!

(End of chapter)