The Versatile Master Artist

The staff who’ve worked long at the bookstore.

Never underestimate the impact of a good promotional poster on book sales.

The proportion of readers who pick books based on cover alone is higher than most people imagine.

Even in the electronic-dominated era, people willing to buy books in physical stores and read paper books have a collection-like sentiment toward books.

They are not just buying words but also purchasing a beloved piece of a collection.

Especially when aimlessly wandering in the bookstore, drinking coffee, showcasing a bourgeois lifestyle on Instagram—having a beautifully cute book by one’s side is an essential decor.

Even Waterstones’ display cases love placing two books with beautiful covers in prominent positions.

The poor-quality text, a debut work by an unknown obscure author, or a purely stream-of-consciousness or spiritual cultivation book doesn’t matter.

As long as the cover painting has taste and artistic appeal.

A few copies sell each week.

Over a year, they manage to sell quite a lot.

In the book circle, these books belong to those that survive on their ”aesthetic appeal.”

”Perhaps the long-term sales of this ’Little Prince’ are higher than many people imagine!” The thought popped into the staff’s mind.

”But miss, if you’re willing to wait until the signing event ends in the afternoon, you can take this poster.” He turned his face to Kelly, casually shrugged: ”Anyway, Waterstones would need to deal with it otherwise.”

”Well, thank you then.”

Kelly nodded in satisfaction.

She turned her head and teased her best friend: ”Maca, prepare for a month of Platonic love with your boyfriend.”

”The painting may be alright, but saying it can touch my sister isn’t that good.”

Maca hummed stubbornly.

She had to admit, the effect of Detective Cat’s cover illustration was somewhat beyond her expectations.

But from the beginning of this agreement, Maca was in an unbeatable position.

The urge to buy a book was still up to herself—a fairy tale book, what’s the big deal!

If I say I won’t buy it, then I won’t.

Maca proudly turned her head, moving her gaze away from that bizarre promotional poster.

”Finding it pretty means your aesthetic appreciation ability isn’t good; the world’s truly competent art critics all think Detective Cat’s work is crude.”

She silently chanted this sentence in her heart.

To reinforce her inner belief, Maca even took out her phone and typed the website Artrecord.com.

This is a portal website recommended by a professor for collecting art information.

Artrecord.com itself doesn’t produce any art criticism but collects various mainstream newspaper news links and content summaries to facilitate audience reading of related information.

Maca entered the name ”Detective Cat.”

A large amount of related art reports immediately emerged on the screen.

[Why the new edition of ’The Little Prince’ is destined to fail: abandoning the original illustrations is Scholastic Group’s biggest mistake.] — Art Space

[A Non-mainstream ”Art Speculator”? The peculiar rise to fame of internet famous illustrator Detective Cat] — London Art Match

[”From internet hype to commercial antics, it’s time to put an end to the farce triggered by unprofessional art critics and third-rate painters.”] — Moonlight News’ latest interview with Derong Fan Doorn.

[What is painting knife painting, is it truly an art form…]

...

Among these newspapers, whenever Detective Cat’s name is mentioned, over 90% of the media have all uniformly negative opinions.

Very strange.

It seems like every art commentary media is eager to tear ’The Little Prince’ and its illustration author apart before its launch.

Some media that made comments can be understood.

In the past half-century, the annual shipment of ’The Little Prince’ has almost never been less than one million. Scholastic Group’s old rival Townesman-controlled newspaper mouthpiece, of course, wants to mock competitors trying to grab a share from this cash cow.

And Moonlight News and Van Doorn have always disdained Detective Cat; jumping out at this time point to smear is quite normal.

But Art Space, London Art Match, and Art Sunday newspapers.

They are all well-regarded long-standing art commentary media by readers.

Usually,

These newspaper writers, no matter how much they dislike a painter, are not generally willing to publish such strongly worded and pointedly opinionated articles before seeing the painting in person.

This would make them seem not quite professional and overly biased.

In case a rare face-slip event occurs, and the competitive media catches it for attack, it’s not fun at all.

The ability to form such a public opinion trend is more due to the influence of Oil Painting magazine’s shareholders.

The art circle is a large spider’s web woven by connections.

The shareholders of Oil Painting magazine are the big spiders at the center of the network.

Their disciples, gatekeepers, old acquaintances, spread throughout the entire art criticism system.

Shareholders can use strands of the web to convey their ideas from inside out and embed the negative expectations of Detective Cat in the hearts of every art field enthusiast and collector in advance.

That’s why Sir Brown also has the nickname ”Art Pope” among some artists’ casual talks.