The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 138 - 99: Art Curator

Gu Weijing didn’t feel angry because of Mr. Tree Sloth’s doubts.

He had also heard a little about the current state of the Painting Knife Painting Method industry.

Hearing that what he excelled at was the so-called "Painting Knife Painting," it was already very kind and cultured of Mr. Tree Sloth not to directly tell him to get lost.

"Are you sure you can really paint with an oil painting knife? Don’t believe in any quick-fix theories; painting knife painting is a very difficult technique. There are only a very few artists who can use the oil painting knife well internationally who come to my mind."

The other party’s tone carried skepticism.

"I think my grasp of the painting knife could be considered pretty good."

Gu Weijing weighed his words, trying not to sound like a boastful fraud.

"Alright, I can try to find you an opportunity, but this category is too niche, so don’t hold too much hope."

Anna saw how insistently Detective Cat pursued this, and sighed softly.

Painting purely with a painting knife is indeed niche.

Unless one is a particularly renowned painter, it’s hard to get commissions, and even participating in serious art exhibitions is somewhat difficult.

She sighed.

Internet illustrators have obvious disadvantages: they haven’t seen much of the world, lack awareness of art trends, and are easily fooled.

She felt the need to work hard to reform this "misguided" African female painter.

After pondering for a while,

Anna typed persuasively again.

"Actually, with your strong line work, creating traditional oil paintings is the right path. You can take it slowly, and I highly recommend you try participating in art exhibitions; it’s the first step for a professional painter to enter the mainstream painting world. This year’s Singapore Biennale is a good opportunity. Later, our other guest, Mr. Mika Danks, will join; he is the co-curator for the European Region in this art exhibition."

Both Anna and Elder Cao recommending the Singapore Biennale was not a coincidence.

The Singapore Biennale isn’t a top-tier international art exhibition, and the competition is not as fierce as those traditional ones with long histories, but it doesn’t lack attention.

Especially under the economic incentive influence.

To revitalize the tourism economy, Lion City allocated a very high budget for the exhibition.

The month-long exhibition’s total cost for venue and setup alone amounted to 1.5 billion Singapore Dollars, which, converted to US Dollars at the exchange rate, exceeded a billion.

Gathering international art judges, purely in terms of investment scale, it even surpasses many long-established European art exhibitions, being several times larger than the famed Yokohama Art Triennial in Japan.

Furthermore, as part of Singapore’s twin efforts to rejuvenate its cultural tourism sector,

the timing of the Singapore Biennale has been adjusted to coincide with Singapore’s largest annual international sports event — the Singapore International F1 Grand Prix during the same week.

According to estimates from Lion City’s tourism board,

hundreds of thousands of ordinary visitors from countries like Dongxia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Holland will come to watch the sports event and might also visit the art exhibition in passing.

It might even surpass the daily visitor density of The British Museum during the same period.

Both in terms of visitor traffic and reputation, for participating painters, it’s indeed a good opportunity for a formal debut.

As for Mr. Tonks, the co-director of Taylor National Art Gallery—he was originally a professional curator.

If art pieces are likened to movies, then curators are the screenwriters and directors.

An accomplished curator’s basic tasks revolve between holding a position in a museum and planning various international art exhibitions.

Mutually serving as promotion steps.

Apart from the internet illustrator Detective Cat, almost every guest on the artistic salon special of Anna’s bi-monthly recorded podcast has experience in organizing art exhibitions.

To achieve the role of independent director at the Taylor International Art Gallery,

Tangkis is already a leading figure in this industry.

He has worked in eight various-sized museums and held numerous solo and group exhibitions of various artists.

When a few years ago, he transitioned from a private family-styled museum in Belgium to become a co-director at the British Taylor National Art Gallery, Tangkis basically no longer cared for ordinary small-scale art exhibitions.

If he wants to further his career, he needs to aim for positions like director at world-class art galleries and museums, such as the Louvre, The British Museum, Vatican Museums, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on.

There are probably three methods.

Firstly, entering politics,

Don’t be fooled by how foreign artists seem to disdain the government and bravely say no to authority in public; there are plenty of under-the-table dealings.

Especially with such large national-level museums, if the intention is to make life difficult for you, just reducing the annual government grant by a few dozen million Euros would be deadly.

Even if you intend to get by with thrift, the museum board of directors or management committee would immediately ask you to leave.

These major museums highly value maintaining good relations with the government.

If you can serve as a cultural minister in the cabinet, landing a director role at a large museum post-term is easy, almost akin to retiring with a high salary.

There have been numerous such examples in history, somewhat similar to how a significant portion of UEFA’s senior positions is held by former sports ministers or prime ministers from EU member states.

Secondly, publishing heavyweight academic papers.

Museum directors, similar to university presidents, in these academic-like jobs, publishing papers is always a powerful tool for career advancement.