VIP Early Access
Eksklusif untuk member VIP
Password Protected
Chapter ini dikunci dengan kode khusus
Chapter 37: The Children's Art Competition (2)
TL: Enuma ID
"Director Park. Observers may not intervene in the judging."
"I'm not trying to intervene in the judging. I'm only trying to lay out the facts."
Kang Ji-won glanced at the other judges for a moment.
They all nodded, as if to say they had no objection.
Éńu mã . і̂d̃
"Keep it brief."
Park Sang-hoon rose from his seat.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"I'll speak as the recommender of this painting. Lee Jun is a real, living five-year-old, and this painting was done by the boy Lee Jun himself. As a director of the Korean Art Association, I vouch for that fact."
"And on what grounds do you vouch for it?"
Kang Ji-won asked.
"I have materials documenting the child's progress. The sketchbooks from his weekly foundational lessons, and──"
W̄ е̄ b̈ ňо v é.l̃ Е n u̇m а̂
"Director Park."
Kang Ji-won cut him off. Gently. But firmly.
"Of course a recommender vouches for the entrant. The problem is that a recommender's word alone can't lay the ghost-painting suspicions to rest. A recommender is an interested party."
Park Sang-hoon's face hardened.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Kim Yo-han rose from his seat.
"Let me speak."
W̆е̇ b̊ n о̂ vеl. Е nûm̀ а́
Kang Ji-won's gaze turned to Kim Yo-han.
The air in the conference room changed.
The judges sensed the tension between the two men.
"Professor Kim Yo-han, you too are an observer. And the recommender of this entrant as well."
"Yes. And the boy's teacher."
"Teacher and recommender both. An interested party as well, then."
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"More than an interested party, I'm the one who knows this child's ability better than anyone."
Kim Yo-han took a step forward.
"I taught this child myself for three months. I met him every week, checked his homework every week, and watched every step of how his foundational skills grew."
"And?"
"The glazing technique in this painting is not something I taught him."
The judges' puzzled eyes gathered on Kim Yo-han.
Wе̃ b̊.nо̀vе̊ l Е n̄ um а̃
"He discovered it on his own, looking at a Mark Rothko at the Leeum Museum. That when you layer thin paint over and over, the color glows from within. A five-year-old worked it out independently from looking at a Rothko."
"A five-year-old taught himself glazing from looking at a Rothko?"
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Kang Ji-won laughed.
"Professor Kim Yo-han. I've been in art a long time myself. Stand a graduate student in front of a Rothko, and how many of them read the glazing on their own? And you're telling me a five-year-old did it?"
"Yes. That's exactly what makes this child extraordinary."
"Whether it's truly extraordinary, or whether someone drummed it into him from the sidelines."
Е̊ n u m̄а́ .ї d
Kang Ji-won said, leaning forward.
"All right, Professor Kim. Let's be honest with each other."
"Go ahead."
"Did you not teach this child glazing? Did you really not drum the impasto into him? Did you not lay out the composition for him?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Kim Yo-han's eyes sharpened.
"I did not."
W̆ eb̌ń_о̌v̂е l̂ Ê nũ m̊ ӑ
"Is that so? Can you prove it?"
"I can't show you what I didn't do. But I can show you what I did."
Kim Yo-han took sketchbooks out of his bag. Several of them.
"These are the sketchbooks the child has filled over two months. The work assigned each week as homework: straight-line practice, ellipses, chiaroscuro gradations, still-life drawing. Every step of his steady climb from the basics is recorded right here."
Park Sang-hoon spread the sketchbooks open on the table.
"Throughout all of it, I taught nothing but the fundamentals. I did not teach him oil painting. The oil-painting techniques he learned and worked out entirely on his own."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Learned and worked out the techniques on his own? That's preposterous!"
Kang Ji-won scowled.
His expression unchanged, Kim Yo-han took out a tablet.
"And this is a video of the child painting in oils."
He set the tablet on the table.
A video was playing. Footage of the five-year-old Lee Jun working a brush across a canvas taller than himself.
W̊ ё.b n̆о̃vе l̆ Ӗn̂ u m а̇
It was a painting he'd started after finishing this competition entry.
"Watch the video and you'll see that this child painted that picture.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
He handles a brush and oil paints as naturally as breathing. Even in this video he uses impasto with complete freedom. And glazing, next to impasto, is something you can do once you grasp the principle and just have the time."
The judges' eyes fixed on the tablet.
Only Kang Ji-won, the head judge, was glaring not at the tablet but at Kim Yo-han.
The judges murmured among themselves.
W е̃b n̊ о̊v̌ е̂l̄ Еň ūm̌ а
"A five-year-old really painted this?"
"An adult could've been guiding him through it."
"If that were so, he wouldn't be standing his ground this boldly."
Kim Yo-han pointed to the first page of Lee Jun's practice sketchbook.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Look here. The straight lines from the first week. They waver. The ellipses are lopsided. This is the sketchbook of a child who's only just begun learning the basics."
Kim Yo-han's voice gathered force.
Е̃ńú m̃а̄
Then he opened the next sketchbook.
"Two months on from there. Look at the work from this final week. These clean straight lines and ellipses. He's even pulled off the still-life drawing flawlessly. Do you see this rate of growth? I'm asking whether this child's talent really is invisible to your eyes."
He held the sketchbook out toward the judges.
One of the judges took off his glasses and examined it. The rest of the judges kept their eyes fixed on the tablet.
"This oil painting was done by the five-year-old child Lee Jun himself, with no one's instruction and no one's help.
If you disqualify it on the grounds that 'it's too well done to have been painted by a five-year-old', wouldn't that be the very thing that tramples a child's talent?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The sketchbook went around the table and came to Kang Ji-won.
Kang Ji-won looked through it, turning the pages. Slowly.
"......."
The sketchbook was genuine. The progress showed, date by date.
Forging it would mean fabricating months of work, one entry at a time. That wasn't realistic.
But Kang Ji-won did not back down.
Е̊ n̊u̇.ḿа̊ ._іd
"I've reviewed the sketchbooks and the video. I'll grant that this child learned the basics. That he grew fast, and that he has a gift for painting, too."
Kang Ji-won said, rapping the sketchbook against the table.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"But that and this painting are two separate matters."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The sketchbook may well be this child's. Drawing straight lines, drawing ellipses. A five-year-old can manage that much.
But combining glazing and impasto to construct a composition like this is on a completely different level from basic sketching."
Е ňûm̀а̇ . і̇d̈
Kang Ji-won pointed at the canvas.
"There's a plan behind this painting. Stacking dozens of layers of underpainting, laying thick paint over them, anchoring the center of the picture, steering the eye with a silhouette. This is not something a five-year-old does on instinct. It's the judgment of a thoroughly trained adult."
"And what's your basis for declaring it isn't a five-year-old's instinct?"
"Experience. I've spent over thirty years in art education myself. For a five-year-old to make judgments like these is, by any reasonable measure, impossible."
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"Does the fact that it's absent from your experience make it proof that it doesn't exist?"
"Hey there, Kim Yo-han."
Ē ň ǔ m̀а. іd
Kang Ji-won's whole manner changed.
He glared at Kim Yo-han as he spoke.
"I was wondering what brought you sticking your nose into Association business. You came here just to spout that kind of garbage?"
"I'm stating facts."
"Facts? A five-year-old teaching himself glazing from a Rothko, that's a fact? Who's going to believe garbage like that?"
Kim Yo-han's eyes did not waver.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"A fact is a fact. It's only that the child's talent is so great you can't bring yourself to believe it, Vice President."
"Hey, Kim Yo-han."
Kang Ji-won rose from his seat.
"You. Ever since you came back from abroad, all you've done is teach at the university. Have you ever produced a real work? Have you ever once held an exhibition under your own name? That's what I'm asking."
Kim Yo-han's already-stiff face grew stiffer still.
"You're finished as a painter, so now you're trying to float a student instead, aren't you? Manufacturing a five-year-old genius to get your own name back up there, aren't you!"
W̌.е b̂ n o v̌ е́ l Ѐ ṅ ŭ m̄ ȧ
The conference room went quiet.
The judges held their breath. Even so, it was a remark that crossed the line.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
The color drained from Kim Yo-han's face.
Coming home broken from abroad.
Never having put a work out into the world.
Never once holding an exhibition.
W̆ е b̂ nо v̊ е̃l̊ Èn üm а̄
It was where Kim Yo-han hurt most.
Kang Ji-won knew it, and he struck there on purpose.
"...Kang-sunbae."
If anything, Kim Yo-han's voice grew calmer.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"My circumstances are my circumstances, and this child's painting is this child's painting. Please judge the two separately."
"Separately? When your name is on a painting by a child you taught, listed as the recommender?"
Ě n ǔm а́
"One moment."
Park Sang-hoon cut in.
"Vice President Kang Ji-won."
"...What is it?"
"I've seen the child paint, too. The studies he's done since he was three, as well.
This boy is the real thing. Because I saw it, I put my name down as recommender, in my capacity as a director of the Korean Art Association. I vouch for this on my own name."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Park Sang-hoon stepped forward boldly, like the hero of the scene.
Kang Ji-won, however, did not so much as stir.
"And?"
Park Sang-hoon was flustered.
"Wh-what do you mean, 'and'...... You saw it yourself just now, in the video, the child holding the brush and painting with his own hand, didn't you, Vice President?"
"Not a video of him painting this entry, though. And even if such a video existed, if it's a painting done at an adult's direction, then it runs against the whole purpose of a children's art competition."
Е̌ ǹ um а.і̇d
"B-but if you watch the video, surely it's proof enough that it isn't a ghost-painting......"
"So what you're saying is, there's no video of him painting this very entry!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Kang Ji-won's tone turned rough again.
Then, as if reining himself in, he let out a sigh and spoke.
"Director Park. As its recommender, I understand your wish to see the work you put forward make it through, one way or another. But as the head judge, I have to uphold the principle that a work under suspicion can't be given an award."
Kim Yo-han took up the point again.
Ē ň ũḿа
"And this principle of yours, is it to disqualify a work on suspicion alone, with no evidence?"
"Cut the bullshit! What evidence! The very claim that a five-year-old painted this is a fraud!"
The moment Kim Yo-han opened his mouth to speak again.
Creeeak.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The conference room door opened.
Every eye turned toward the door.
Еn̄ũ m а̄.i d̃
"Am I a little late?"
An old man in his seventies, hair gone white.
Lean-framed, leaning on a cane.
But his eyes were clear. Those eyes alone knew nothing of age.
Seo Jeong-hwan.
He was the holder of the special juror's seat that had sat empty.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
The conference room froze.
He was the figure everyone had assumed wouldn't come.
Professor emeritus of Seoul National University. A towering figure of the Korean art world. A living witness to the history of Korean Western painting.
And, to both Kang Ji-won and Kim Yo-han, a shared master.
Kang Ji-won was the first to shift his bearing.
"M-Master?! You've come?"
Ӗ n ûm̆ a
He hurried over and pulled out the chair at the special juror's seat.
"Started already?"
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Seo Jeong-hwan asked curtly, his gaze drifting slowly around the room.
Kang Ji-won and Kim Yo-han on their feet, and Park Sang-hoon.
The tense faces of the remaining judges, still seated.
Sketchbooks and a tablet strewn across the table.
Ẃ еb̌n̊ о̊ v е̄l Еń um a
And in the middle of it all, the No. 15 canvas.
He read the mood in an instant.
He shook his head from side to side and said,
"What's this, fighting again?
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Tsk, tsk. Grown men, the lot of you, old enough to know better."
No one could answer.
Е n u m ǎ .ïď
In front of Seo Jeong-hwan, Kang Ji-won and Kim Yo-han alike were nothing but fledglings.
Leaning on his cane, Seo Jeong-hwan walked slowly over and sat down in the special juror's seat.
Without even taking off his coat. Standing the cane up beside him.
He looked at Kim Yo-han, standing in the observers' section.
Their eyes met.
Kim Yo-han bowed his head slightly.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Seo Jeong-hwan turned his gaze away. To the canvas on the table.
"Is that the painting?"
Kang Ji-won answered.
"Yes, Master. It's an entry in the preschool division, listed as painted by a five-year-old. Which is why there are now ghost-painting suspicions──"
"Never mind that."
Kang Ji-won's words were cut off.
Еń.u ma_
In front of Seo Jeong-hwan, even an Association vice president was no more than a mere student.
"Yo-han. That's the painting by that student of yours you told me about?"
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Something disgruntled in his voice.
But the look in his eyes as he gazed at Kim Yo-han, that alone was warm.
"...Yes, Master."
Kim Yo-han bowed his head deeply.
Ӗ n̊ u mа .і d
"Bring it over here."
One of the judges carried the canvas over with great care.
The canvas was set down in front of Seo Jeong-hwan.
"Hmm."
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Wrinkled eyes ran over the canvas.
The whole conference room held its breath.
Еnumа̄. і̆ d̄
Sky. Clouds. Grass. A silhouette.
From the surface inward. From inside back to the surface.
No one spoke.
Not Kang Ji-won, not Kim Yo-han, not Park Sang-hoon, nor any of the remaining judges.
Eyes that had lived alongside painting for seventy years were reading Lee Jun's painting.
A wrinkled hand brushed across the canvas.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
As if to make sure this really was a painting.
Without lifting his eyes from the canvas, Seo Jeong-hwan spoke.
"As a special juror, I'm allowed a word too, I take it?"
Kang Ji-won answered.
"O-of course, Master."
Seo Jeong-hwan ran his eyes over the canvas once more. Slowly.
Е̂n ú.m а̊
Then he raised his head.
"You rascal, Yo-han."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
He looked at Kim Yo-han.
"I wondered what you wanted, coming to call on a half-dead old man, and it was to show me this?
Are you trying to give an old man a heart attack?"
Kim Yo-han could not answer. He only kept his head bowed.
Wе̌ b̈ n̄ӧ vеl Е̌ num̊а̂
Seo Jeong-hwan looked at the canvas again.
"Five years old."
He muttered, as if to himself.
"What was I doing when I was five?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
His wrinkled eyes swept the room.
Then they stopped on Kang Ji-won.
Е́_ńǔma
"Ji-won."
"Yes, Master."
"Do you remember? What you were doing when you were five?"
Kang Ji-won's mouth opened and closed before he finally managed an answer.
"......I don't remember."
"Neither do I. Probably out playing in the dirt."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Heh, heh. Seo Jeong-hwan chuckled low.
"To think there's a kid out there who paints like this at that age. It's a wide world, all right. Live long enough and you really do see everything."
Seo Jeong-hwan leaned back in his chair and spoke.
"Magnificent."
A single word.
"A magnificent painting, nothing more you could ask of it."
Ѐñ u m ǎ .і̊ď
The conference room fell still.
Everyone hung on his every word.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"This sky. The patience in it is remarkable. For a five-year-old, that alone already makes him a breed apart."
After the sky, he pointed to the clouds.
"Look at this. Brushwork like acrobatics. Controlling the thickness, making the bright spots brighter, playing with the paint. Technically flawless."
His finger moved to the silhouette.
Wеb̆ṅ о̄ v ӗ_l Е̇n̂um.ӓ
"But here. This black figure. Two white dots."
Seo Jeong-hwan's voice softened.
With the look of a man gazing at his grandchild's drawing.
"On top of that acrobatic brushwork, the innocence of a five-year-old is melted right in. Technique alone doesn't produce a painting like this."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Seo Jeong-hwan looked at Kang Ji-won.
"Ji-won."
Е́ ňu mа̃.i.d
"Yes, Master."
"What did you say earlier? That there were ghost-painting suspicions?"
Kang Ji-won opened his mouth.
"Master, for a five-year-old child to paint something like this──"
"Ghost-painting, my eye."
Seo Jeong-hwan waved a hand through the air.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"Even I couldn't paint this."
A stir went through the conference room.
Seo Jeong-hwan. A living witness to Korean Western painting, saying that even he couldn't paint it.
"This is something only a child could paint. An adult can't. Paint it like this, paint it like that, learn it that way, and a painting like this will never come out of you."
Seo Jeong-hwan said, raising himself from his seat.
"This year is going to be the year a great star rises over our art world."
Ẇ е̌b̌ nо v еľ Е̇ ñ ũ m̀а̊
Lastly, Seo Jeong-hwan looked at Kim Yo-han.
"Yo-han. You've got yourself a fine student."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Head bowed, Kim Yo-han could not answer.
His lips were trembling.
Seo Jeong-hwan looked around at the judges.
"Now then. What do the rest of you think?"
Wѐ b̀ ň о́v̂ е l Е n̆ŭm а̌
One of the professors answered at once.
"I agree completely with what Master Seo Jeong-hwan has said. I recommend it for the preschool division Grand Prize."
The critic followed.
"Agreed. There's no award to give this painting short of the Grand Prize."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The artist nodded too.
"I agree as well."
Е ńū m а̃
The remaining professor as well.
"Agreed."
Every one of the four judges but Kang Ji-won agreed on the Grand Prize.
Kang Ji-won kept his mouth shut.
"Ji-won. And you?"
Seo Jeong-hwan turned to Kang Ji-won.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
"Does this painting still look like a ghost-painting to you?"
Kang Ji-won was silent for a moment.
He looked into Seo Jeong-hwan's eyes. He could not lie before his master's gaze.
"......I agree as well."
It came out low.
Seo Jeong-hwan nodded.
W е̊b̈_n о v̊ е̂ l̂ Ёňů ṁа
Unanimous.
Preschool division Grand Prize, Lee Jun.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
It was the moment Lee Jun's first award was decided.
*****
Konten Bab Belum Tersedia
Bab ini belum memiliki konten teks atau sedang dalam proses penyuntingan.
