Slowly understand art and money

Recently read Fu Lei family book, see Fu Lei wrote to his son Fu Cong a paragraph: "Being abroad to make a living by art, and can not run in the door of the rich and powerful, of course, so that we comfort, I believe that you will stick to it, and this bit of arrogance, but also one of the most beautiful traditions of the Chinese artists, but don't forget an old saying, 'years of cold, and then know the pine and cypress after withering also', you have not yet passed the test of years of cold, but also have to be vigilant about themselves. But don't forget the old saying, 'when the year is cold, then you know that the pine and cypress will wither afterward', you haven't passed the test of the year yet, so you still have to be vigilant about yourself. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that, but I'm sure you're going to be able to do it."

See like Fu Lei such a harsh art critic also knows that rely on art to make a living is also a natural thing!

This reminds me of a movie.

In the movie "Modigliani", there is such a plot: a rich man from the United States came to the gallery to buy paintings, looked at Modigliani's paintings, and then made an appointment to meet with Modigliani, as soon as he met with Mo, said that his paintings are very interesting, and then Modigliani, with contempt and ridicule, walked up to him, and directly threw a drink all over the buyer of the painting who said that his paintings were interesting, and then left angrily, ignoring the gallery owner's obstruction, even if it means being fired by the gallery owner!

This passage depicts Modigliani's cynicism about collectors who have no taste, and his contempt for those who have money but no taste! But this cynicism of not compromising with money largely contributed to his premature fall from grace!

Talking about this reminds me of the way Luo Fat has talked about the survival of many great painters.

Luoban once told the story of the director Francis Coppola, said he had a very famous film "The Godfather", that is, to shoot the mafia one, Francis Coppola is the director, he felt that made "The Godfather" is his life in the midst of, at least not what is not glorious, anyway, with the stain is similar, why, earn money chant!

Even after "The Godfather" movie got a box office hit, his friend called him and he answered with one word, oh, I see, and then hung up the phone.

The second half of Coppola's life was spent making a lot of art films, but there were only two results of all these art films, the first was not making money, and the second was even less money, so in turn he had to go and make The Godfather 2 and The Godfather 3 to make a little bit of money and then feed his art film creations.

However, after all this time, his Godfather is getting to feel more and more like a classic, while the art films are still little to go on.

Lo also told a story about Leonardo da Vinci.

Said Leonardo da Vinci once he was in the home of a duchess to do decoration, because for the artist, of course, painting murals is decoration, decoration of the duchess's room.

But one day made a particularly unruly scene, threw his brush away and ran away. The Duke's secretary then noted in her diary that the artist in our house was particularly unruly today, and actually slacked off and ran away.

Then Leonardo da Vinci later wrote a letter to the Duke, said I originally thought that you are a smart person, you should be able to see that I lack of money ah, how can you not see it, so I am now poor, I have no money, no money how to do it, you are so important I had to leave, I have to go to do a particularly unimportant, but that side of the money to me, you'd better hurry to give me the money.

What Da Vinci said about this particularly unimportant thing is that he went to paint that famous painting called The Last Supper. You see, it was all business in his eyes, including that masterpiece of ours, the Mona Lisa, which was the product of an order.

Then again, Michelangelo, art historians gave him a calculation, said Michelangelo, the man saved a lifetime of money, if converted into today's currency, it is called 3.5 billion pounds.

You think about that is how big a sum of money, this is a lifetime of his one stroke and one knife to draw and carve out, not to do financial products out of it, then you say how this guy can make so much money, there are a few reasons.

First of all, it is really skillful, for example, the Florence municipal government commissioned him to carve the statue of David, after carving out all the people are silly, carving is too good, so the Florentine hand and wide, at that time is really rich, a reward for his nine hundred gold coins, what concept, at that time, Leonardo da Vinci 58 years old, and Michelangelo is only 29 years old, and Leonardo da Vinci life did not earn so much money. I'm not sure how much money he's going to be able to make, but I think he's going to be able to make it.

There is another reason, is that Michelangelo is simply with the Chinese words called rat to the cat as a third party, really want money do not life. Of course, Michelangelo is really alive and well in Luo's program.

An artist, a craftsman, while working as a craftsman, while engaged in the work, while earning money, while chasing debts, while being a miser, his reputation and his own wealth accumulation is not conflicting at all, it is strange, so a natural thing, why evolved later, in the art world actually appeared to be a concept, said that earning money can be shameful, why is it, you see in this aspect.

Chinese artist Mr. Chen Danqing has an article that I think says it very well.

He said that the financial resources of artists are actually divided into four generations in history, that is, the art of the grave, the art of the emperor, the art of religion and the art of capital, the first two kinds of art we can understand.

The third generation is the art of religion, the Western church paintings, sculpture, we do not say, China's art treasures Dunhuang murals and Dunhuang's cave art, it is also so out of the Silk Road, because the Silk Road so many merchants to go around, always need to Buddha to give to keep a safe, so donate a little money in the hole inside a small statue of Buddha, to protect themselves, and these arts are now the world of art. art are now the jewels of the art world.

But after the modernization of society appeared a new form of art patronage, which is the gallery, the art gallery represents the model called the capitalist, that is, the artist now, in the modern social structure to produce art products.

You can no longer expect to sell to a single big money master, that is, the original state, the emperor, the aristocracy, temples, churches, you should now in turn face the whole market, face strangers, face those scattered one by one consumers to produce their own art products, only your artwork sells you will be able to get financial support.

A huge change in the business model, translated into words we all understand now, was called B2B, selling to a big money maker, and now it's B2C. Are we able to make the shift to win this shift in the face of the new paradigm?

Luo fat also said, said he saw a painter in Beijing Songzhuang, very young, not much fame, painting there, I asked him how much this painting, he said 200,000, I said very expensive ah, sell it, he said not to hide it from you, indeed, a year may not be able to open up a Zhang.

I said that you do not understand our business, he said you do not understand our business, our business is to rely on time to boil out, you do not look at me when I was young 200,000 a piece of the sale can not be sold, in the future I became famous, into the auction house, a piece of at least 10 million.

So I can't sell my paintings cheaply now, I suffer a bit when I'm young, and I'll have money when I'm old, I said you're right in this account, but have you ever thought of another way out, just don't do it.

You can take your artistic talents and design some daily necessities and sell them, and if you can sell them well, you can get rich now, he said.

So you see, this is called path dependence, so many people say I can't afford to look at the money, what is essentially, essentially after his path dependence, with their tactical diligence, to cover up their strategic laziness.

Speaking of painters have to mention Rembrandt.

Rembrandt's life is like a play, and even more turbulent than the play, learning to paint for five years to run back to his hometown to open a studio independently, the ancient general is to open a studio while painting sales, businessmen customize a painting to the home, on the one hand, reflecting my taste, on the one hand, reflects that I have money.

Wealthy people will deliberately ask a master to paint their own image, such as for their own future I will take the initiative to ask the painter to paint a piece of work, such as the Virgin Mary and so on. The rich would also ask the artist to add his own image to the painting.

By Rembrandt's time, customized pieces weren't the only way to sell anything, they could paint whatever they wanted. It was also usual to buy landscapes and the like to hang on the walls of the rich for purely aesthetic reasons.

But to separate the trash from the masters, a buyer of paintings who comes to Rembrandt's studio in Amsterdam will first be struck by the fact that Rembrandt's home has a collection of works that even the dealers themselves can't afford, and when they see this, they must be just too embarrassed to haggle with the masters.

See the studio wall hanging are Rembrandt's self-portrait, if you want Rembrandt to paint you a self-portrait, Rembrandt a person will certainly meet all your wishes. Even if you beg for it, you may not be able to buy it in stock.

Rembrandt's a relatively early painting, Nicolas Ruiz, which this main character, catching up with this wonderful era, at the time of the Netherlands appeared a large number of white-handed rely on their own hands rich a large number of rich generation.

Because most of them were born from suffering, so they longed for painters to paint them like intellectuals and aristocrats, Rembrandt was not an ordinary painter, this is a piece of cake for him.

From Ruiz's wear, he is now a life has been living a very good one, he wears a fur coat and wear a leather hat, and is the most expensive Russian sable, his neck with a collar is the aristocrats at the time of the popular kind of clothing, Ruff collar, but also different from the general aristocrats, it looks like there is a slightly to be understated some of these are all the design of Rembrandt's elaborate.

He wanted to reflect the luxury of successful people on the one hand, but at the same time to be very low-key performance. Especially when we look at the painting, for the drawing of the fur, the expression of leather texture is very simple, as long as the mention of a few highlights will be very similar.

But to really express the fur, is another difficulty. The reason why Rembrandt went to such lengths to depict that fur, even to the point of bringing to life the feeling of blowing up hair caused by static electricity.

He wanted to make it clear that he wanted to show off his unrivaled skill, and when the old Lutz's outfit, painted by the artist, was even more spirited than when he wore it himself, that kind of enjoyment wasn't something that an ordinary painter could bring to him, but that's not all.

Rembrandt used this face to bring out the shrewdness and strictness of a merchant very fully, and old Ruiz sat there being painted, with impatience in his eyes, and for him a minute, the loss of how many silver coins, could be counted, and this is the look that belongs to a merchant, or to Ruiz a very exclusive one, and he belongs to no one.

Rembrandt simply painted this man to life, we can think of ah, when Ruiz hangs himself this painting to the home, invited those friends to his home, see him this painting, who do not want to let Rembrandt give them another one. It was probably seeing his accurate depiction of the merchant that the American tycoon Morgan bought him out.

The early part of Rembrandt's life can be characterized as a time when he saw the world and traded his artistic creativity for great monetary wealth.

Of course, speaking of painters who sell paintings well, Picasso also has to be mentioned.

There was a young painter, before he became famous, he lived in a small narrow house and made a living by painting portraits. One day, a rich man passed by, saw his meticulous painting work, liked it very much, so he asked him to help paint a portrait. The two sides agreed that the reward would be ten thousand dollars.

A week later, the portrait was finished, and the rich man came to pick up the painting as promised. The rich man had a bad feeling about him, and he refused to pay him the money as he had originally agreed.

The rich man thought to himself, "The man in the painting is me, and if I don't buy the painting, then no one else will. Why should I spend so much money on it?" So the rich man reneged on his debt and said he would only pay three thousand dollars for the painting.

The young painter was dumbfounded, he had never come across this kind of thing, he was a bit panicked, and took a lot of words to argue to the rich man, hoping that the rich man would keep his promise and be a man of honor.

"I can only pay three thousand dollars for this painting, you do not abet." The rich man thought he had the upper hand. "Finally, I ask you, three thousand dollars, sell or not?"

The young painter knew that the rich man was deliberately reneging on his debt, and with indignation in his heart, he said in a firm tone, "No. I would rather not sell this painting. I would rather not sell this painting than suffer your humiliation. Today you broke your promise by breaking your word, and in the future you must pay twenty times the price."

"Joke, twenty times, is two hundred thousand yeah! I won't be stupid enough to spend two hundred thousand dollars on this painting." "Well then, we'll see." The young painter said to the rich man who left unhappily. After the excitement of this one incident, the painter moved away from this sad place and learned his art again, practicing hard day and night.

After more than a decade of hard work, he finally broke through and became a well-known figure in the art world.

What about the rich man? Since leaving the studio, the next day the painter's paintings and words faded into oblivion. Until one day, several of the rich man's friends came to tell him in unison: "My good friend! There is something so strange! These days we

go to visit a famous artist's exhibition of paintings, one of the paintings is not two prices, the characters in the painting look exactly like you, the price tag of two hundred thousand. What's funny is that the title of the painting is - Thief."

The rich man seemed to be hit on the head as he remembered what happened to the painter more than ten years ago. This incident hurt him so much that he immediately rushed to the young painter overnight, apologized to him, and spent two hundred thousand dollars to buy back the portrait painting.

The youth made the rich man bow his head with an unconquerable ambition.

The young man's name was Picasso.

Picasso is a very good storyteller, he will make up his own works into a story, thus impressing a lot of people, come to buy his paintings. Now often on the screen a few big bosses, not all of them are telling stories, listening to everyone is not happy! This is also an effective means of advertising!

Talking about the West, had to talk about the East everyone.

In 1861, the Taiping army attacked Zhejiang, at the same time, Zuo Zongtang rate Xiang army counterattack, but indiscriminate killing of innocent people, Ren Bonian's father was killed at this time, angry Ren Bonian resolutely defected to the Taiping army, but also want to do personality, a pair of painting hand, but also raised the Taiping army's flag, become a "flag bearer of the army flag! "

Results

The result was predictable, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement failed, he had to move to Ningbo, hidden down, began to sell paintings for a living, and then went to Shanghai, in order to develop the calligraphy and painting market, he began to learn to paint double hooks, figure painting on the study of Chen Laolian, quick thinking, composition clever.

Ren Bonian has a good friend Liu Dezhai, good at sunset sketching, Bonian also often ask him to teach, and therefore learn Western sketching and sketching, he also carried a folding book, sketching characters of all classes, birds and animals, once in the countryside to see the two bulls fighting horns, there is no paper around, it was painted on the long shirt, and after the title of the best, "painting from all things, the fingernails can be used as a pen, if you ask how this painting becomes, see how this painting becomes, see how this painting becomes, see the fast, compositional cleverness. If you ask how this painting became, look at the remaining robes on the finger carving marks."

So willing to try, but also smart and sensitive, and soon became omnipotent, all-around painters, all subtle, less than ten years on the fame, under his leadership, led by a number of painters, the creation of the Shanghai region has the characteristics of the "school of painting at sea".

After Ren Bonian became famous, the orders became extremely numerous, plus there was a shrewd and strict wife, sometimes he stopped writing, one side of the shaving, one side of the meal, his wife complained, suspected that he wasted the painting industry, the loss of the pen, during this period, Wu Changshuo acquaintance of Ren Bonian, saw Ren's painting skills, admired to the ground, and wanted to learn from the master.

One day, Wu Changshuo painted a lotus door to ask for advice, Ren Bonian brush, rendering for him, is the big pen dripping occasion, Mrs. Ren suddenly a broom sweep threw out, rushed Wu Changshuo called: "go, go, go. Our painting time, was delayed by you."

Ren Bernini hand every day, even eating, shaving, sleeping time is not, also have no time to haircut, so each haircut are grand, preparation work on the fanfare, cooking a pot of boiling water, sharpening the knife, haircutting process is very long, "Gu each shaving must be a long time," haircutting is also very difficult.

Because of the long period of time without a haircut, the hair gnarled and tangled, in view of this, Ren Bonian to the barber's pay is not low, a perennial employed barber said that each time the haircut, "there are green, yellow, red and white pigment, from his hair inside a cluster of falling down."

People guessed that Mr. Ren was used to grasping his hair while thinking hard, so the pigments on his fingers stayed in his hair, and some people joked with the barber: "You've been cutting Mr. Ren's hair for several years, and you've made quite a profit, and the pigments you've collected are enough for you to open a pigment store."

Heard people are laughing, but also because of Ren Bonian high frequency of painting, his painting skills more and more skillful, practicing his brush very quickly, dozens of fans, a moment of power. If Ren Bonian is a civilian painter, it is really appropriate, in order to make a living and painting, and go to constantly try all kinds of painting, and even in order to earn more, non-stop brush painting.

But he didn't seem to resist, but was full of enthusiasm, and his achievements were accumulated without his realizing it. He was good at figures, birds and flowers, landscapes, as well as poetry, calligraphy, painting, and sealing, and he inherited the traditions from the upper part of the world, and picked up the new knowledge from the side, and innovated with a unique character, and transformed the traditional literati paintings to the modern form.

Toward the end of the 19th century, Chinese painting underwent several changes and evolved in the direction of secularism and popularity. At this time, the emergence of Ren Bonian can be said to be a miracle in the Chinese painting world, and Xu Beihong called him "the first Chinese painter after Qiu Shijiu".

This reminds me of the words of Serota.

The director of the Tate, Serota said: Britain's top ten tourist attractions, public art museums **** accounted for seven, the overall economic impact of museums and libraries amounted to 2 trillion pounds a year.

More pertinently: after 1996, the arts council's fundraising grew by 70%, and in 2002, the UK exported cultural products worth $8.5 billion, more than China or the US. The arts are clearly a high-paying investment, and Serota is clearly a good businessman, which is why he is a giant in the industry.

And of course there is Marshall McLuhan's famous quote, "There is no right or wrong in art." And there is no right or wrong in art prices today. In the words of Ella Fontantels-Cisneros, founder of Miami Art Central, "It used to be that new artists started at $2,000 a piece; now new artists are priced at $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 varying." It also echoes the scenario that there is no right or wrong price for art.

After all that, I think that art has nothing to do with money, and you can measure art in terms of money or not. It does not have much to do with the art is good or bad, the key to look at the artist this person can really create fine art!