A friend of Jack Ma’s failed the college entrance examination for four consecutive years and drew 13 melon-eating primary school students. How much did he sell it for?

The world is so imperfect. If you want to gain something, you have to lose something. ——Plato

Art reflects reality, but transcends reality. It is the concentration of the artist's emotions, which is warm and vibrant. The emotions conveyed by art ignore differences in region and skin color. It infects everyone who sees it without any benefit, allowing people to roam together in a sea called "art". But unfortunately, when it comes to food and clothing, or even reputation and status, everything seems to have gone bad.

A "Portrait - Xiaowen" by Leng Jun, the leader of my country's hyperrealist oil painting, was sold for a high price of 60 million, while another painter influenced by German Expressionism, Zeng Fan A painting of "The Last Supper" by Zhi Zhi even achieved a record price of 140 million yuan. As a result, the debate on the Internet about which of the two painters is better began.

Who is Zeng Fanzhi?

To be able to assign a value of 140 million to a painting, Zeng Fanzhi must have an extraordinary background, but before becoming famous, he was just an ordinary person who failed the college entrance examination for four consecutive years. In 1964, Zeng Fanzhi was born in an ordinary family in Wuhan, Hubei Province. When he was a boy, he was ordinary in appearance and shy to express himself. He was ignored by teachers and classmates and became the only three students in his class who failed to join the Young Pioneers. The alienation of the environment was contrary to his self-esteem. After graduating from junior high school at the age of 16, he begged his parents to let him enter society.

The acquaintance with a neighbor’s brother changed Zeng Fanzhi’s destiny, and he gradually embarked on the artistic path of painting. At the age of 17, Zeng Fanzhi came into contact with the works of modern Western painters during his travels. He was very amazed by them, which further strengthened his idea of ??entering a professional school and studying art in depth. However, he entered the society too early and lacked the study of cultural courses, so he failed in his studies for four consecutive years. It was not until the age of 23 that he was successfully admitted to the Oil Painting Department of Hubei Institute of Technology.

Studying at school was not smooth. Zeng Fanzhi, who advertised himself as a free artist at the time, preferred to arrange his own daily schedule. After being influenced by German Expressionism, the school's teaching philosophy became increasingly difficult. Get his approval. In his junior year, he took his "discriminatory expressionist" works to the teacher for evaluation, but received polarizing evaluations ranging from a low score of 68 to a high score of 98. Zeng Fanzhi and Jack Ma are friends. They once painted an oil painting of "Peach Blossom Spring" together, which sold for a high price of 34.69 million yuan.

Which one is higher or lower?

Later he painted a work of "The Last Supper". This painting was auctioned by Sotheby's in Hong Kong. The starting price was HK$70 million, and the transaction price of HK$140 million refreshed the public's understanding of the painting. Regarding artworks, Zeng Fanzhi is undoubtedly favored by capital. At this time, everyone is curious about this sky-high price painting. What kind of work is so valuable?

In the description of netizens, the protagonists of "The Last Supper" are "13 children wearing masks and eating melons", which seems so inexplicable! This painting is neither noble nor elegant, so how can it be worthy of its extremely high price? However, Zeng Fanzhi's paintings cannot be overgeneralized. The superficial nonsensicalness reflects the deeper connotation - the true humanity under the "mask".

In this impetuous society, when faced with strangers and unfamiliar environments, people always put on protective masks to cover up their inner anxiety, just like those conversations in "The Last Supper" Very happy and posing people. The watermelons placed messily in front of them represent the power that has been divided up. The people at the table are "full of wine and food" at the moment, but maybe they will break up in the next moment and never regain the peace of the past. Unlike other people wearing red scarves, one of them is wearing a "gold tie", which is also a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", implying that Judas's face has long been revealed.

While people were suddenly enlightened, they were eager to share this insight with others, and even used comparisons to highlight the excellence of Zeng Fanzhi's paintings. Leng Jun's work "Portrait -" sold for 60 million. -Xiaowen" was dragged out and walked many times by meddling people. Some people ridiculed: What’s the use of painting like it? Is it different from the photo? As mentioned above, Leng Jun is the leader of hyperrealist oil painting, but he himself prefers the term "translimital painting", that is, his works have exceeded the limits of oil painting. Obviously, his paintings and those of Zeng Fanzhi are from two different dimensions.

In Leng Jun’s view, color is the most fundamental thing in oil painting, but it is more difficult for a camera to accurately capture color than with the naked eye. Hyper-realistic painters use precise visual perception to achieve this on the basis of restoring reality. The painting effect of "delicate but not greasy, lifelike but not real", this creative concept is very different from Zeng Fanzhi's. How is the comparison between the two?

Controversy

Being ahead of others, excessive attention and excessive expectations are often not a good thing for Zeng Fanzhi’s creations. Zeng Fanzhi's work "Rabbit" is said to be very similar to Dürer's sketch version of "Rabbit". The posture, expression, and even the angle of sitting and lying on the rabbit in the painting are almost exactly the same. The only difference is that there are more "Rabbit" in Zeng Fanzhi's work. Messy lines and dark background.

Zeng Fanzhi's "Since 1830" was also accused of having the same problem, which is very similar to Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People", especially the iconic character - the woman holding the flag high. .

And his work "Leopard", which was sold for HKD 36 million at the Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art Auction in Hong Kong, was discovered by netizens to be the same as the award-winning work "Leopard in the Snow" shot by British photographer Steve Winter. similar. This kind of creative style sounds like a tribute to the predecessors, but sounds bad like plagiarism.

At the same time, he carried out cross-border cooperation with many celebrities, so in addition to the label of painter, he also became a businessman. He also said in an interview: "I only sell paintings to people who appreciate them, and then these people will help me promote my works." He has cooperated with Jack Ma, Feng Xiaogang, Edison Chen, Andy Lau, etc., and there are doubts from the outside world Constantly, some people say: He painted Andy Lau like an African native...

Peking University professor Chen Shaofeng also expressed his own views on Zeng Fanzhi's sky-high price: "Zeng Fanzhi's sky-high price has affected many people in China." It is meaningless, because it is the product of the cooperation between the Western pricing system and the Hong Kong auction system. It does not correspond to the domestic art system, and it can be said that it has no guiding significance.”

There is no way to praise or criticize it from the outside. In conclusion, after all, there are few fellow travelers on the road of artistic creation, and the understanding of works varies from person to person.

But we have to admit that while gaining the favor of capital, an artist’s most fundamental qualities may be slowly wearing away...