The Versatile Master Artist-Chapter 64 - 56: So-Called Artists

The black and messy scribbles by the homeless man—predictably and reasonably—were selected by Anna as the worst among the remaining six illustrations.

Unlike the huge controversy triggered when the first illustration was eliminated, the discussions in the comment section were relatively calm at this time.

Except for a few spectators who enjoy the spectacle, expressing disappointment.

"Emmmm...what was I expecting?"

"Of course, it’s still the illustration by the homeless painter... I thought there might be a twist or something."

"It’s more realistic, isn’t it? You get what you pay for. If there were always unexpected storylines, I’d suspect it’s all orchestrated for effect."

"What a pity, I’ve heard that at some so-called concept auctions, even a bottle of air can fetch a high price. Art, isn’t it just whatever those critics say it is."

The number of people watching the live video had risen to tens of thousands.

There’s always someone with a different perspective: "Why is the homeless man’s drawing not considered art? If a famous artist painted like that, that pretty chick would probably be praising it; it’s just snobbery."

"Idiot, didn’t you see Mr. Hibernian’s introduction? The young lady doesn’t even know who the authors of the seven paintings are."

In the video,

Thomas took the illustration from the homeless man and placed it in front of the lens.

"Well, no surprise here. You really don’t like this painting; in fact, I had a small hope that you might favor it somehow."

"You know..."

Thomas shrugged: "It’s not targeting you, but in the public eye, art is always full of oddballs."

"Sorry, you invited me to appreciate art today, not to see those performance art apes."

Anna unhesitatingly rolled her eyes.

Even if they are called art critics, the public doesn’t necessarily see the difference.

However, she, an art enthusiast and collector who grew up appreciating traditional oil paintings, is fundamentally of a different species compared to those artists selling air, or canned dog poop seen in street newspaper articles.

The distinction between art critics is like calling both whales and crocodiles fish, but in biological classification, they are even more different than humans and monkeys.

She was very young, yet her aesthetic education and growth trajectory were all very traditional,

belonging to the old-school critics.

Old-school critics believe that only works that shock ordinary people can be considered good works.

Her favorite is the Impressionists’ capture of instantaneous impressions of light and shadow, an accurate exploration of color and brightness, but compared to the famous Monet, Anna’s favorite work is the relatively lesser-known Ray Noa’s "The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette".

This work is almost the pinnacle of the combination of art and skill, very powerful in its emotional impact.

The brushwork is loose but not chaotic, the colors are bright without being flirtatious, full of life, and everyone can immediately feel its beauty.

Compared to more than a hundred years ago when artists were willing to step out continuously, leaving the academy, leaving the studio, walking into nature, into the wilderness, into vast and unknown life to paint with their souls.

Some modern artists who spend all four seasons in their temperature-controlled studios, coming up with ideas for selling dog poop in the end, can they truly be called artists?

Anna even regards the pop art filled with printing traces as opportunistic, losing the original value of painting, and more disdainful of the minimalist art that just dots a point on the canvas and sells it.

As for those news stunts that don’t even count as art...

She always greeted them with a mocking laugh.

With the merciless and venomous sarcasm of the ice queen-like young lady in a wheelchair, the comments suddenly became livelier.

"Calling those performance artists apes seems a bit too much."

"This girl is strong, not pretentious at all."

"Wow, the young lady is so sharp-tongued, I really like it! Sister, sister, curse me!"

"Die, masochist, you’ve successfully disgusted me."

In the image, Thomas took out his blank card: "Elina, how many points would you give to this painting?"

"One point, honestly I wanted to give zero, but somehow... it’s still better than that ridiculously incompetent online illustrator, so by comparison, I’ll just give one point."

"One point... alright, honestly, I myself can’t really appreciate this painting either, I’ll just give him two points."

Thomas pondered for a moment and wrote a [2] on the cardboard.

The safety officer also gave a [2].

To everyone’s surprise, the fan guy actually gave a [9].

"Why are you looking at me? Bro, anyway, I think this painting is very artistic." The guy in hip-hop attire shook the braids on his head.

The camera switched back to Anna’s face.

Anna showed no expression, without any intention to mock the fan guy.

Art appreciation is very subjective, and since it’s free scoring, everyone can have their unique insights.

If you allow Duchamp’s urinal to be praised by various art galleries, then you should allow the fan guy to give high scores to his favorite work.

This is her personal cultivation.

"Okay, 1+2+2+9, the highest score in our challenge match is fourteen so far, let’s see which work will surpass it next."

Thomas gestured for Anna to continue choosing.

Without any hesitation, Anna picked the third painting.

She again picked up a walnut frame and handed it to Thomas.

This is an illustration that looks fairly ordinary, using colored markers commonly seen in illustrations.

"No major errors, but also not captivating. Compared to the previous two, this illustration finally meets the passing line for a commissioned illustration. But—"

Anna gazed at the painting.

"But—it’s just generally good. I can see this painter painted very earnestly, his pencil drawings revised many times. He’s a responsible artist, and this is commendable. But the most brutal fact in the art industry is that hard work alone won’t result in good works."

Anna’s tone softened. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

There are many practitioners in the painting industry,

If you count all those learning painting through professional channels worldwide, there are probably around fifty million painting boys under eighteen globally, among which those who become professional painters are exceptional.

Not everyone with exceptional talent can become a master, but every master possesses exceptional talent.

"My little darling, I love you dearly, but I won’t compliment your paintings like some typical parents or teachers trying to please in-home tutors. Because your painting isn’t good. The earlier you realize in the artist industry that you don’t have the talent for greatness, the luckier you will be."

When Anna was little, right inside this glass studio, her aunt seriously scrutinized Anna’s work and said such an evaluation.

"If you want to continue being a painter, of course, there’s no problem. With our family’s artistic connections, even if you were just a mediocre painter, a painting might sell for tens of thousands of euros in the future. But as your elder, I have the responsibility to tell you, it’s hard to achieve greatness, and the world doesn’t lack mediocre painters. You can’t become a great Van Gogh, but you still have the hope of being the one who discovers Van Gogh."

From that day on, Anna’s dream of being a painter broke.

But her belief in pursuing art did not change, a remarkable art critic can still leave her name as a footnote in certain pages of modern art history.

This illustrator evidently belongs to the sufficiently diligent but lacks talent category.

She started introducing the flaws of this illustration to the camera.

This posed no difficulty to Anna, as viewed from an art piece perspective, the illustration had too many flaws.

Firstly, the repeated alterations and frequent erasures of the signature pencil sketch disrupted the overall harmony.

If this wasn’t severe enough,

The repeated use of the eraser damaged the waterproof layer on the special marker paper, causing the marker’s waterlines to permeate the paper’s absorbent fibers, resulting in color smudging.

The color smudging further caused the marker lines to blur, with inconsistent brightness and insufficient saturation.

The first mistake began, like a chain of dominoes collapsing one after another.

Considering it as a commercial commissioned work, these aren’t significant errors, but from an art perspective, these flaws are fatal.

Moreover, the flaws during the painting process are just minor issues.

Even ignoring these flaws, Anna found a ton of problems.

The muscles under the bat suit blurred into a mess.

The person’s height and physique are completely different from the photo that Thomas gave her.

The limbs, shoulders, and torso all have varying degrees of distortion.

...

"The character in the painting is waving money as Batman but not wearing the bat suit like you."

Anna looked up and said to Thomas.