The Versatile Master Artist

Only he, the owner, could manage to keep the opponent in check.

Old Wu declared that their family’s cat ”had a lot of character.” Even when Gu Tongxiang got scratched by Ah Wang unwillingly, he teased his old friend for quite a while.

”Wouldn’t you say so, Ah Wang?”

Old Wu finished punching a sequence of numbers on the calculator and arrogantly lifted his head, just in time to see Ah Wang obediently being held in Gu Weijing’s arms, casting flirtatious glances at the boy.

That manner was as ingratiating as it could be, with its amber eyes almost weaving.

Ah Wang ignored Old Wu’s call completely and simply stuck out its tongue, eager to lick Gu Weijing’s chin in a flattering manner.

”Ah Wang, be good.”

Gu Weijing patted the tabby cat’s head, took a fishy sausage from his backpack, peeled off the plastic cover, and stuffed it into its mouth.

The sausage is high in salt and considered junk food for pets, delicious but shouldn’t be consumed too much.

Gu Weijing saw this as a reward for being his model for so long.

”Hmph, ungrateful brat.”

Old Wu’s face darkened, and he grumbled softly, ”Gu’s kid, don’t feed Ah Wang this stuff too often. If it gets a picky mouth, what if it stops catching mice!”

”Goodbye, Grandpa Wu. Come find my grandpa for a game of chess when you have time.”

Gu Weijing smiled at Old Wu and then walked out of the old man’s antique shop, holding the tabby cat.

He knew Old Wu wasn’t in a good mood today.

Every month... well, no... Old Wu had such gloomy days a few every year.

It wasn’t aimed at him or really mad at their family’s cat.

It was Old Wu’s dreams for official positions acting up again.

Lately, it’s getting close to the leadership change of the Yangon Calligraphy and Painting Association and the opportunity to recommend new members to Myanmar National Painting Association, as he had mentioned to Mr. Gu.

Being a formal member of the National Painting Association is a qualitative leap from the local Painting Association in terms of administrative treatment and social status.

You can even reimburse business class when flying for work.

Perhaps the Yangon Painting Association is still a bit of a makeshift organization, in Europe it’s just child’s play, quite insignificant. It’s barely useful even when applying for university.

Gu Tongxiang’s identity as a member of Yangon Painting Association wasn’t even mentioned by Ma Shi Gallery, nor was there any need to.

In the eyes of intercontinental Grand Galleries, having or not having it is entirely the same.

However, if replaced by National Painting Association... it might not be of much use either.

After all, it’s not like Dongxia’s Art Association or the Royal Art Association. With the scale of Gagosian or Ma Shi, they can afford to not care.

Just that its recognition level might increase a bit.

After all, even among short people, selecting a general is from fifty to sixty million people, there’s always something of value. Sometimes it might even directly attract the attention of second, third-tier Asian mid-sized galleries.

The quota of National Painting Association is jokingly referred to as ”half increase” among the public. It means for ordinary Myanmar artists, regardless of who becomes a member, their market price might increase by at least 50%.

Especially for artists, the most attractive point is not money, but the biennale quota.

National Painting Association holds recommendation quotas for certain international biennales.

Singapore Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, and even the world’s most important, prestigious cultural exhibition... that legendary supreme Venice Biennale.

That’s right.

National Painting Association can directly send a local artist to participate in the Venice Biennale.

This involves a little BUG in the art world.

Venice Biennale consists of two parts: national exhibitions representing national teams and theme exhibitions representing grand galleries.

Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst, Dali, Yayoi Kusama... all these artists with combined worth of over ten billion dollars were once turned away by Venice Biennale.

Yet in troubled countries like Myanmar, Afghanistan, Syria, with artists whose names and value, combined might not even reach the tip of a little finger.

Because they are sovereign nations, their cultural departments can directly recommend artists from their highest level art associations to use a special channel to participate in the biennale.

Venice Biennale’s organizing committee allocates certain quotas to different countries.

The number of quotas allocated to each country varies, and the difficulty of competition also varies.

It’s akin to the difference between European Region and Asian Region in World Cup qualifiers.

Art-developed countries like Dongxia, Japan and South Korea, France, and Italy might have larger national pavilion scales, but they gather bigshots.

Artists without sales worth a million dollars dreaming of a ticket is simply wishful thinking.

Every year this is an arts Olympic event between countries, to showcase national artistic heritage, Venice Biennale’s hosting cost is astronomical.

Not only the main exhibition area, even for parallel exhibitions, Hirst invested almost a billion dollars and perhaps didn’t yet reach the splash he wanted, to push his value to new heights.

While places like Myanmar are mutual pecking of rookies.

It might not be an issue of the artists’ level, it might be the inherent low level of attention received.

African artists also have racial political correctness factors, which can lead to certain level of award inclination. Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, these small Southeast Asian countries are almost purely doing it for show.

No one really cares,

even for show it’s doing it at Venice Biennale.

Who’s to say that running alongside the Nobel Prize doesn’t count as an honor?

There are even rumors of some small national pavilions being outsourced due to lack of funds, ”selling” their exhibition spots, or like Middle Eastern tycoons, outsourcing them to top luxury companies.