Chapter 1421 The first payment and the last payment
When it comes to the miracles of contemporary painting, Fan Zeng is one of them.
His rise to fame is closely related to the island nation. It can even be said that the market path of contemporary Chinese painters originally started from the island nation's hype about Fan Zeng.
Fan Zeng transferred to the Art History Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1957, to the Chinese Painting Department half a year later, and to Jiang Zhaohe's studio sixty years later. After graduating in 1962, he worked at the Museum of Chinese History, where he followed Shen Congwen in compiling and drawing materials on clothing from past dynasties in China, and copied many outstanding paintings.
After that, he began his creative career, which was characterized by painting historical figures. He also experienced several ups and downs in the process. His paintings also won many domestic awards and were collected by Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Great Hall of the People.
In 1979, Fan Zeng made his first visit to the island country and was well received. He was praised by the island country as "one of the top ten painters in modern China".
In 1981, the 43-year-old Fan Zeng went to Japan to hold a personal exhibition in Tokyo at the invitation of Nippon Co., Ltd. In 1983, at the invitation of Seibu Department Store in the island country, I held another solo exhibition in Tokyo.
In 1984, the island nation of Okayama established the permanent "Fanzang Art Museum".
In 1986, he won the Gold Medal for Special Contribution to Japan-China Art Exchange. His works such as "Singing and Roaring Pictures of Spiritual Movement" are collected in the Okayama Fanzen Art Museum, "Pictures of the Eight Immortals" are collected in the National Art Museum of China, and "Ode to the Sound of Autumn" are collected in the Birmingham Museum in the United States.
In 1987, in order to donate money to build the Oriental Art Building of Nankai University, Fan Zeng went to Japan again to hold art exhibitions in Dagu and Okayama, Tokyo. The exhibition was a great success.
After that, Fan Zeng started on the road to stardom, becoming famous in the island countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and started the cycle of creation, exhibition arrangement and publication of collections of works.
From 1979 to now, almost every other year, there have been his heavyweight painting exhibitions in island countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition to paintings, calligraphy has also become very popular. In the past two years, it has even begun to take place in Europe. Cruise.
The prices of his works have also skyrocketed, subverting the traditional domestic tradition of "the paintings are valuable only when the painter has left the field", and embarked on a path similar to that of Zhang Daqian and Zao Wou-Ki.
Nowadays, his fine paintings are approaching an auction price of tens of millions of yuan.
Of course, the paintings at this price are limited to those in the album "Fan Zeng's One Hundred Paintings" selected and published by Fan Zeng himself.
What's even more amazing is that in 1987, when the Oriental Art Building of Nankai University was being planned to be built, the prices of Fan Zeng's paintings were not particularly high. He painted two hundred works, but only raised three million yuan.
Many of these works have flowed into places such as Gongmei. In the past few years, when Zhou Zhi used Grandma Yuan to acquire the works of contemporary painters by shoveling land at the Beijing Painting Academy and Rongbaozhai, he only spent less than 30,000 yuan. For the price, I received several pieces.
Since the year before last, the works of several modern and contemporary Chinese painters have begun to rise, including Qi Baishi and Fan Zeng.
This time coincides with the time when art auction houses such as Hanhai and Christie's began to expand their business in China, which is a bit interesting.
In any case, exchanging the works of modern and contemporary painters for the scrolls of ancient painters may not be a wise behavior in the eyes of others when several modern and contemporary painters are popular.
But Zhou Zhi has no reluctance to give up. If possible, he would even exchange his collection of Wu Guanzhong's "Lion Grove" and Li Keran's "Ten Thousand Rivers and Thousands of Mountains" for exchange.
"There are probably three or four." Zhou Zhi did not expect that Fan Zeng's paintings would be so hyped in the island country. Even people with strict tastes like Anzhai Eiichi paid attention to them: "Except for one of Zhong Kui's "The Power of God" "Picture of stepping on ghosts", The rest are large-scale works with multiple figures, including "Nine Elders", "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Forest", and "Song of the Eight Immortals in Drinking". "These are all included in Mr. Fan's "One Hundred Paintings". Work!" Anzhai Eiichi said excitedly.
“Yes, there is a lot of room for appreciation.” Zhou Zhi said: “Hanhai Auction House analyzed the market situation of Mr. Fan’s paintings and believes that in the next two years, except for "The Power of the God Walking on Ghosts", 》The length is small, and the other three paintings are not big problems. 》
"Well...that's true." Eiichi Anzhai also calmed down: "But it certainly cannot be exchanged at this price now, even with the bonus of Mr. Fan's self-selected album and the expectation of future appreciation. Eight million would be the best.”
"Eight million is fine," Zhou Zhi said: "Add the four million from "The Legend of Divine Power to Stamp Ghosts", this is 28 million, still short of 22 million."
"Yes. It’s a bit embarrassing for Zhou Sang. “I don’t know why, seeing Zhou Zhi like this. Piecing things together, Anzhai Eiichi seemed to think of himself decades ago: "If there is another piece of fine porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it would be almost the same."
Zhou Zhi shook his head resolutely: "The Fujiwara family... Bian, do you have any special collecting hobbies? Or is there a category bias? I mean Song...Yuan...Ming Dynasty and later."
This time it was Anzhai Eiichi's turn to shake his head firmly: "The Fujiwara family's collection taste is not bad, except for those before you. Very distinctive artwork, otherwise… ...At least it’s as good as the Yuan Dynasty blue and white dragon-peony amphora with curly grass pattern.”
Zhou Zhi pondered for a while and said, “Mr. Anzhai, I want to ask if you can trust me. Character? ”
"Why did Zhou Sang say such a thing?" An Zhaiying said with a smile: "Your character can be known from the appraisal meeting before the last Hanhai auction. Of course I believe it."
"Mr. An Zhai, Twenty-two million yuan is just over three million U.S. dollars, so it’s not much.” Zhou Zhi said: "But I really can't get it out for a while. I wonder if I can ask my husband to come forward and ask the Fujita family to give me a two-month reprieve? After two months, I will definitely collect the remaining payment."
"Don't you know many famous people?" An Zhai said with a smile: "For example, Hanhai It's easy for a girl Lin, her father-in-law, and her brother-in-law to raise three million dollars, right?"
"Yes, that's true," Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "Actually, we can also ask Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi. Ask for help, ask the country to take action.”
“But in this case. You have made things complicated. There will be times when you will beg them in the future. If you can overcome it now, it is best to overcome it yourself." Zhou Zhi said sincerely: "Besides, sir, your reputation in the island country's collection community is not far away. Better than those old men I know?”
"Hehehehe... This little kid is setting me up." An Zhaiying said with a smile: "Well, you don't want 22 million yuan. You can find a way to make up 25 million yuan. I I will mortgage the blue and white amphora from the Yuan Dynasty to the Fujiwara family."
"Two generations of Jurentang porcelain and Mr. Fan's paintings will be used as down payment, and I will ask the Fujiwara family to give you the six-hand scroll. .”
"Twenty-five million yuan is the final payment, which will be paid in two months. How about redeeming my blue and white jar?"
In fact, with Anzhai Eiichi's status in the island country's collection circle, three hundred The credit guarantee of 10,000 US dollars can only be a matter of one sentence at most. The reason why it is so complicated and a piece of Yuan blue and white is pledged to the Fujiwara family to endorse Zhou Zhi is actually mainly to put pressure on Zhou Zhi.
Including the additional three million, it was also a lesson Anzhai taught Zhou Zhizhang, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world.
(End of this chapter)