Chapter 17 (1) - The Mysterious Art Museum
Alphonse Mucha asked, holding up the picture of the refrigerator.
"Is this part painted in a different color the door?"
"Yes, that's right."
"............"
It must be because Mucha hasn't seen the real thing.
Actually, I also thought the refrigerator was pretty when I passed by. It's hard to explain the modern design mindset to someone who was born in the 1800s.
Mucha dropped his hand holding the picture and said.
"Do you know what the five powers that make a good picture are?"
It was a story that I had heard so often in college that my ears were sore. I answered right away.
"Expression, style, self-world, idea, and immersion."
Mucha nodded slightly.
I answered well, but I wish I could do one of those five things well.
Mucha looked at the sketch of the refrigerator and said.
"There are masters of expression who make even the layman marvel at their pictures. They have such perfect composition that they create a universe of their own. Do you know who they are?"
"Yes, sir."
"Would you like to tell me?"
I gauged the era for a moment.
I was worried that I might mention a painter from the future that Mucha didn't know. After a brief memory, I soon answered.
"There is Jan van Eyck, who is known as a Dutch painter, but should be seen as a Belgian."
Mucha smiled and said.
"He was a painter who pursued extreme precision that did not shake no matter how much he enlarged it. Do you know his masterpiece?"
"Yes, 'The Portrait of Arnolfini Couple'."
"Ha ha, you studied hard."
I'm a scholarship student who graduated from a prestigious university in Korea. Of course, I wouldn't be able to hand out a business card in front of you.
Mucha asked again.
"Who else is there?"
"There is Diego Velzquez of Spain, who was a royal painter. His masterpiece is 'The Maids of Honor'."
"Ah, he was a painter with excellent spatial control."
"There is also Johannes Vermeer of the Netherlands. His masterpiece is 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'."
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a work that was made into a movie based on the painting in 2003.
I was too young to see it when it was released, but I remember looking for it later because Scarlett Johansson, who is still active, was in it.
Mucha nodded again.
"You are indeed an art student. He was a master of touch who perfectly captured the warmth of the fabric and the texture of the air on the canvas."
I immediately added.
"Next, I can mention Leonardo da Vinci. He was a genius who created impossible time and space on the canvas in reality. His masterpiece is the Mona Lisa."
Mucha, who had been looking at me with perfect theory, flicked my sketch with his finger and said.
"You know a lot. But where is the expression in this refrigerator design?"
"................"
There is none, because that's not a picture, it's a design. Ha, I don't know how to explain this to him.
Mucha looked at me quietly and asked.
"Can you explain the second of the five powers that determine a good picture, style?"
I never missed an A+ in art history classes. Of course, most of the others were A+ too.
I confidently spoke about what I knew.
"Yes, sir. There are people who have established their own style through the core of the art world. Examples include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Czanne, Henri mile-Benoit Matiss, El Greco, and Marc Chagall of France."
Mucha blinked his eyes and looked at my face.
"I know the others, but I've never heard of Marc Chagall and Henri Matiss."
I freeze for a moment. Did I make a mistake? No, wait a minute.
'Chagall was born in 1887, Henri Matiss was born in 1869. It's 1939 now. They're both alive in this era.'
I said with a good-natured face.
"They may not have been heard of in Czechoslovakia. They're both young."
"Hehe, I didn't know there were such painters. I really want to see their paintings, cough cough."
You probably won't have a chance to see their paintings.
In an era without the internet, you have to go to the museum to see the paintings, but you are not very mobile right now.
When I stopped talking, Mucha sighed after coughing and said.
"Yes, Monet was a painter who captured light, not objects. Renoir was a painter who overwhelmed with beauty by capturing the lively and cinematic beauty of women on canvas. Czanne was a person who drew a great presence beyond reality. El Greco was a person who drew dramatic effects of distortion and distortion."
Mucha gestures for me to explain the two painters he doesn't know. I coughed and said.
"Um, Chagall was a painter who captured the world of dreams on canvas. Matiss is evaluated as creating another reality in a place that is detached from reality."
Mucha leans towards me, interested.
"Tell me more."
"Hmm."
I wondered how to explain it and recalled what I had heard from my professor.
"When you fall asleep, you dream and if you have something you wanted or a feeling left in it, it becomes a thought in us. A love that you couldn't confess to your favorite person also becomes a thought. The person who expressed the thoughts that remained like regret in a fantastic way on canvas is Marc Chagall."
"What are his masterpieces?"
"There is a picture titled Birthday."
"Birthday, what kind of picture is it?"
"It's a picture that Chagall drew thinking of when his lover Vera came to congratulate him with flowers on his birthday. A ghost-like man who is floating in the air and bending his body kisses a woman who is holding flowers and heading towards the window."
"That's an interesting expression."
"Yes, those who see his paintings don't care about the face of the dove or the fish jumping and playing the violin. He literally drew the residual thoughts that remained after dreaming."
"Ha ha, I really want to see that picture. You said he was young, how old is he?"
"................"
For a moment, I couldn't calculate. I hated math since I was young, so I gave up on math subjects since elementary school. Marc Chagall was born in 1887, so it's 1939 now... uh... and... fuck, I don't know.
"He must be about 50 years old."
"Hehe, that's not a young age."
"Ha ha, that's right."
"Then what kind of painter is Henri Matiss?"
"He is a painter who escaped from the colors of nature."
"Hmm?"
"If you look at the picture he painted with his wife as a model, you can see that it doesn't look like a person at first glance. It looks like a tool for expressing color. He is a painter who can draw freely without paying attention to the details of the other person."
"Just hearing it makes my heart beat."
I talked with Mucha for a very long time that day.
Stories about many painters who existed in history. What they wanted to express. I looked back at myself as I listened to their thoughts.
'Have I ever drawn a picture thinking of the five elements that determine a good picture?'
No.
Rather, I only tried to imitate the skills of the great painters. Because entrance exams and competitions are a feast of skills. In the life I have walked and lived so far, skills were more important.
As I stopped talking because of the thoughts that came to mind, Mucha quietly waited for me without saying anything. He knew that this moment was the most important moment for a person to grow, because it was what he had walked and experienced.
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