The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 679: Chapter 310: Interview with the World’s Second Best (Part 2)

One is Professor Lin Tao, who gives me weekly lessons.

The other one is Elder Cao’s personal assistant, Old Yang.

Gu Weijing is not yet qualified to add Mr. Cao Xuan’s personal WeChat.

This new message was sent by Professor Lin Tao.

The professor first sent a popular emoji among the elderly, depicting Fei Yuqing spreading his hands with a mysterious smile.

After spending a lot of time with Professor Lin Tao, Gu Weijing understood.

Even someone as reputed internationally as Professor Lin Tao, the star professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a great artist worth tens of millions, still has the taste of an ordinary old man when it comes to emojis.

“Is it about the class?”

Gu Weijing recalled discussing with Professor Lin in advance, because he planned to go out with Miss Sakai over the weekend, today’s class was postponed to tomorrow.

In fact, Professor Lin Tao frankly said that there was nothing more he could teach Gu Weijing until he broke through this bottleneck.

A mentor can guide you to the door.

After entering the door, if you want to truly master the art, that final threshold must be crossed by oneself, and no one else can do it for you.

Gu Weijing’s current Chinese Painting Techniques is at [Lv.4: Tier One Professional (4898/5000)].

He is always just a breath away from the threshold of Tier Two Professional.

The breath reaches the throat, but stubbornly refuses to come out.

“How is your Wisteria in ‘Hundred Flowers Painting’ coming along?” Professor Lin Tao sent a voice message.

“Still the same, it lacks that essential touch, I reckon it’ll take a few more days.”

“Heh, a few days… A moment of clarity can pass in a flash, but being stuck can last weeks, months, even years.”

“A miss is as good as a mile.” Professor Lin Tao did not sound disappointed, “Young people need honing, wanting to be my junior brother is not so easy.”

“Oh, Xiaoning, search online for the interview of Junior Sister Tang Ning.”

“Hmm… You can see it for yourself, she probably mentioned you during this year’s spring auction.” Professor Lin Tao’s tone was as mysterious as Fei Yuqing’s smile in the emoji.

Lady Tang Ning?

Gu Weijing actually has little interaction with this well-known Asian female painter.

That ‘Hundred Flowers Painting’ was sent to him through Professor Lin, yet she mentioned him in an interview!

Strictly speaking, they are even rivals, though Gu Weijing is not qualified to be considered an enemy by such a high-caliber painter.

But if Elder Cao really takes on one more disciple, the biggest loser in terms of interest would probably be Tang Ning.

Gu Weijing was curious.

While the train remained within the city’s signal coverage, intermittently connected to the network, he promptly entered “Artist Tang Ning” and “Spring Auction” as keywords in the browser.

————

[The Language of Time’s Flowers·Sotheby’s International Joint Artist Tang Ning Xiangjiang Spring Auction Special, Total Transactions Exceed 260 Million!]

[Suspected of spending tens of millions of Hong Kong Dollars on jewelry, Master Cao Xuan’s last disciple appears late at night at Central Tai Koo Shopping Plaza in a luxury car, accompanied by bodyguards, looking tense!]

[HK$263,700,000! The youngest gold medal winner in Shanghai Biennale history, her miracles continue.]

[New transaction record for Dongxia female painter, why Superman Li’s eldest son favors the plum blossoms in her paintings?]

[Caught on camera! Female artist and the celestial king superstar appear together at Victoria Harbor for a candlelit dinner, seemingly longtime friends. Explore Tang Ning’s connections within the Xiangjiang entertainment circle.]

[…]

No need for a special search effort.

As long as Gu Weijing entered the name Tang Ning, a waterfall of news completely filled the phone screen.

In a year where the international art market situation is quite uncertain,

Tang Ning.

This youngest disciple of Elder Cao just concluded a 52-piece solo auction, organized by Sotheby’s International in Xiangjiang, with a stunning 2.6 billion Hong Kong Dollar sales, drawing global attention.

A still-living female painter, selling 40 million US Dollars worth of paintings at one solo auction was enough to cause a worldwide sensation.

‘Little Prince’ and such pale in comparison to the scale of Lady Tang Ning’s Xiangjiang spring auction.

Tang Ning’s Sotheby’s spring auction was one of the most discussed news in the Asian art world in March.

If we do not consider the upcoming oil painting fund formation, nor the undercurrents looming from the ‘Oil Painting’ magazine and the Ilyena family’s various storms,

Then within the global art arena over the past few months, it was the most explosive news with the highest level of interest.

With a total transaction price of 263,700,000 Hong Kong Dollars.

Among them, the ‘Star Work’ of the spring auction ‘Cloud·Flower’ alone sold for a sky-high price of 54 million Hong Kong Dollars, significantly refreshing Tang Ning’s personal artwork transaction record.

After this auction concluded, in terms of both price records and total transaction volume,

Lady Tang Ning effortlessly entered the top 100 highest worth artist auction rankings worldwide.

Within the female artist’s subfield, she ranked just below Edgar Degas’ paramour, female Impressionist master Miss Mary Stevenson Cassatt, at the historical seventh position.

If we only count the living “alive” artists,

Even within Asia, Tang Ning can already proclaim herself as the second best in the world.

No matter how one compares average price, fame, status, in the realm of art history Empress Yayoi Kusama still possesses a significant rank advantage over Elder Cao.

But looking on the positive side,

Compared to others like Liang Huigui, Pasta (Pacita Abad), these Tier One Asian female painters from South Korea and the Philippines,

Tang Ning already shows a clear leading advantage, completely standing in a higher tier.

Yayoi Kusama is 93 this year, while Tang Ning is only 43, not even half the age of Old Lady Kusama, a slightly youthful age among mid-generation painters.

There was once a Japanese native art media calling Tang Ning today’s Yakai Shengzi, exaggerating Yayoi Kusama as Yakai Shengzi 70 years later.

Miss Shengzi secretly told Gu Weijing that it was actually a promotional article paid for by Tokyo Gallery for her.

Laugh it off.

She is not quite there.

Every year the art circle births countless “young Picassos”, “next Da Vinci”, “third revolution leader after Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama”.

These promotional words are meant to deceive art novices.

Similar to basketball’s “America’s strongest high school student”, “California 5-star high schooler”, “era-defining all-around bounce beast”.

Countless beasts and strongest high school students emerge every year, Jordan and Kobe emerge once every 20 years in NBA.

Whether you like such methods of ranking artists from one through four filled with commercial stench,

The most valuable in the art circle is the auction market where collectors use real money to buy the sales volume.

In basketball, scoring happens when the ball enters the hoop.

A great player with the basketball can dictate their destiny.

An artist’s net worth, however, involves many uncertain factors.

Katsuko Sakai says she is unworthy.

Gu Weijing knows the girl refers not to lacking pioneering spirit in her artistic journey.

She believes that by forty, she will be no lesser than her predecessors, possessing outstanding painting technique and expression.

She even has enough confidence in using the Sakai family’s network resources.

Her paintings won’t be cheap.

But no one dares to promise she will become a painter like her father, Yakai Ichiro, let alone become Yayoi Kusama.

Painting well and selling expensively have a certain relation but… not that significant.

Works below one million dollars depend on effort, awards, and gallery operations, following mature commercial routines.

As Uncle Sakai jokingly mentioned over a meal with rice ball in mouth,

His own works cumulatively selling for one billion dollars mainly due to good fortune, secondly marrying a good wife, painting skill at most ranks third.

The root of it all,

Is still luck.