novelraw Chapter 347 - 185: Are You Using Counterfeits to Extort People? (2)
Chapter 347 - 185: Are You Using Counterfeits to Extort People? (2)
Damn, it’s so awkward.
Zhao Jingzhong’s face turned red, and the other experts were speechless.
Paintings like this demand realism; the more they return to nature, the more they align with essence, and the more valuable they seem.
After Yang Chen’s analysis, everyone instantly felt that Zhao Jingzhong’s painting was worthless.
Yang Chen then pointed to a nearby painting, "Green Hills and Clear Waters," and commented, "This painting is good in terms of content and color, but I still have to call it garbage."
The face of the master of Chinese painting, Tang Shoucheng, tightened suddenly, as it was one of his proud works.
Zhang Tiancang: "Kid, how can you say that?"
Yang Chen couldn’t stand him anymore and said, "Deputy Director Comrade, you’re quite jumpy. Neither the Head Director nor the experts have said a word, yet you keep calling me kid and talking nonsense. How on earth did you become Deputy Director with such a mentality? Bought the position with money? Didn’t your father teach you not to interrupt when others are talking? You have no basic manners, how dare you show up here?"
Zhang Tiancang: "You... you... talk so recklessly, you..."
Director Liu Qingguo loudly said, "Enough! None of us will talk, let him speak freely! I didn’t see any flaws in this painting, so I want to hear how he points them out."
Everyone nodded and fell silent.
Lin Shuying looked at Yang Chen with admiration, thinking, "This guy has always been avoiding confrontation; I thought he was timid. I didn’t expect him to be so brave when he got mad. Hehe..."
Yang Chen originally didn’t want to criticize them, but they insisted on exchanging ideas because of their fame.
In exchanging, one doesn’t need to only say good things and avoid saying bad ones, right?
What’s the point of the exchange then!
Yang Chen had his reasons for calling Tang Shoucheng’s painting garbage.
Every primary school student knows that an essay should fit its theme. If the essay topic is "Green Hills and Clear Waters," it should emphasize green hills and clear waters, not waste paragraphs on other things.
Everyone understands this principle, right?
Applying this principle to painting, it’s the same.
Tang Shoucheng’s "Green Hills and Clear Waters" should have focused on emphasizing the green hills and clear waters, meaning these two themes should occupy most of the painting.
However, in his rendition, the green hills and clear waters are in the distance, only occupying a small part, while the people and trees are in the foreground, occupying most of the painting. Can this still be called "Green Hills and Clear Waters"?
After hearing Yang Chen’s analysis, everyone suddenly realized.
A painting needs a clear distinction between primary and secondary elements; the artist’s theme must take the absolute center stage, and it should be the largest in volume. The worst thing is to let the secondary elements overshadow the primary ones.
Lin Shuying: "What if we change the name of the painting? Like calling it Stroll in the Forest or something?"
Yang Chen shook his head and said, "Still no good! Because the theme of this painting is green hills and clear waters, even though those parts are too small, they occupy the center. If you change the name to something like Stroll in the Forest, indeed, the people and forest are in the foreground and occupy most of the space, but they aren’t the center. Standing from the front, what I see first are the small parts of the green hills and clear waters, not the people and forest. If it’s called Stroll in the Forest, it still doesn’t perfectly express the theme. So, this painting is garbage with no hope of saving it!"
Damn!
The proud work of master Chinese painter Tang Shoucheng was actually called garbage by him!
The key point is that no one could find a reason to refute it, but they were so annoyed they couldn’t accept it internally, yet they were helpless.
Lin Zhengtian was now a bit nervous; Yang Chen hadn’t yet critiqued his painting.
If flaws were also found in his painting, it would be too embarrassing.
"What’s taking Anxiang so long with that painting? It’s driving me crazy," Lin Zhengtian thought to himself.
Yang Chen approached Lin Zhengtian’s "Roaring Tiger in the Forest."
Lin Zhengtian immediately became nervous, his heartbeat accelerated, palms sweating, like a student facing an exam from a teacher.
Yang Chen thoroughly appreciated it and said, "This painting is very good; basically, there are no flaws to point out."
Lin Zhengtian was still not satisfied; either there are flaws or there aren’t, what does it mean by basically no flaws?
Lin Zhengtian: "Hehehe... Xiaochen, just speak your mind; we’re all old-timers, not that narrow-minded. Don’t worry."
Yang Chen nodded and said, "I’ve seen ’Roaring Tiger in the Forest’ online, rumored to be a work of Tang Bohu. If I’m not mistaken, he painted a tiger and a big tree, mainly showing the momentum of a tiger descending the mountain and dominating the landscape. But the author of this painting considered things more comprehensively and expressed it better. Besides the descending tiger, he used some brush and ink to depict the mountains and trees. However, it’s this very forest that introduces a slight flaw. We can imagine a tiger’s roar; what kind of impact would it have on the other animals in this forest?"
Lin Zhengtian: "Other small animals would be frightened and scatter in all directions, but since they’re in the woods, they don’t necessarily have to be drawn."
Yang Chen: "Exactly, but what about the birds? A tiger roars, and in such a large forest, there can’t be no birds at all, right? If a group of birds scattering in panic could be shown above the forest, it would be perfect, enhancing the sense of a single tiger’s roar making all beasts scatter. After all, the theme of your painting is exactly the roaring tiger in the forest, swallowing the landscape."