The gallery where the exhibition was to be held was a new two-story building. It was recently built by one of the most famous architects, whose works were distinguished by innovation and sophistication. The first floor of the building сomprised a s.p.a.cious exhibition hall, with all the necessary equipment for the expositions. Temperature and humidity sensors, which automatically regulated the conditions in the room, depending on what type of exhibition was in the hall. On the second floor, there were rooms for master cla.s.ses and workrooms, the roof was decorated in the form of an open and s.p.a.cious garden.Elena looked around the room, she liked it from the very first moment, as soon as she crossed the threshold. And the exhibition, which was to be held the next day, was the first both for the girl and for this gallery. Maybe that"s why she experienced a certain amount of excitement from the upcoming event.
"Mrs. Anderson, you have arrived! I already thought that I would not see you today because of yesterday"s event. Congratulations, Lenali Enterprise"s banquet was simply awesome!" The young woman, who seemed to be in her early thirties, flew up to Elena like a b.u.t.terfly, fluttering her wings.
"Thank you, Marie. I"m glad you liked it," Elena smiled at her. Marie was the main person in charge of organizing such events, and her work experience in the best museums and halls of the world, such as the Louvre or the Hermitage, made this woman a professional with a capital P. She was in seventh heaven when Elena handed her an invitation to the banquet, but today she looked even happier.
"It seems to me, or are you shining like never before? Did something marvelous happen?" Elena asked the woman.
"Mrs. Anderson, something amazing has happened! Remember the painting that we lacked for the collection? So, the museum in Toronto finally agreed to provide it to us and it will be delivered here within an hour!" Maria exclaimed and threw her hands up like a little child waiting for the delivery of the desired toy.
"Really?! This is wonderful, Marie!" This news pleased Elena not less than her administrator. Now their collection was complete, exactly as it was exhibited only once, before all the paintings were bought by the best museums in the world.
"Oh, I"m so happy! You have no idea what it means for me, as a big fan of creativity of Liu Yang, to see her very first collection live and in full composition! And even more, to help with the organization! What a pity that she left this world so young at the very peak of her career, her work was special." The woman thought for a moment, notes of sadness slipped in her joy.
Elena smiled but said nothing. For her, this exhibition was not just an opportunity to collect works of a once-famous artist, but also a personal matter, after all, it was about her father"s wife.
Liu Yang was a young girl who barely graduated from school when her work was noticed by famous critics and recognized her as the genius of her time. In her paintings, people saw some special meaning; a glance at them evoked warmth in their hearts and made them think about what they themselves did not suspect.
Her first collection, "Fragments of Time", created a huge sensation in the art world; no one has yet portrayed the transience and mundanity of a human"s life. From the side, the paintings looked completely ordinary, but the aura emanating from them made the viewer dive into the world depicted on the canvas without even noticing it.
"Mrs. Anderson, the paintings are already posted in their places, except for the one that is to arrive soon. Want to take a look? You haven"t seen them before, have you?" Marie asked Elena.
"No, I saw only one of them, I saw the others in the catalog, but the images were not very clear," she answered and followed the administrator to the hall.
As soon as Elena crossed the threshold of the exhibition hall, it seemed to her that she had fallen into a world centered on one person. The person, who was depicted in the paintings.
The little girl circled in an unknown dance, stepping from one canvas to another. The landscapes were changing, her outfit was changing, and with each step, she herself became more and more mature.
In the first picture she is not more than five years old, she froze in her dance under the falling petals of j.a.panese cherry blossoms. On the other canvas, she is already ten years old in Red Indian costume dancing on the ruins of Machu Picchu.
With each transition from painting to painting, she grew older, but all these paintings united one thing — none of them depicted her face. And now, at the very last painting, the girl was standing with her back to the viewer and looking into the distance to the white peaks of the mountains, and under her feet was a huge plain stretching for tens of kilometers.
Elena looked at the canvas and froze. She knew this place and saw this landscape in her life with her own eyes. Six years ago.
"Cave of Spirits, Tibet," she whispered, not believing her eyes. "Marie! Come here for a second, please!" Elena turned to the woman and she hurried to her, "Marie, do you know when this picture was painted?"
"The late Mrs. Lee wrote this episode when she was still in high school in Europe. She was sixteen years old then, so these pictures are already more than thirty years old," the administrator replied.
"Sixteen years old? It turns out, even before my birth," Elena thought to herself and an unexpected thought occurred to her, "Marie, what is depicted in the picture that you have to bring? Isn"t that... the sun, by any chance? You know, big red sun?"
"No, Mrs. Anderson, there are the pyramids of Giza. Sacral places of the planet are involved in this series as an indicator of time and history. None of the paintings have such a sun that you describe," the woman replied to Elena"s question and returned to her duties.
Elena continued to look at the picture, and her eyes were attracted by a new detail, she began to move from canvas to canvas and noticed something in common in all the paintings. At first, this did not catch her eye, but then, when she focused her attention, she was sure that this was exactly what she was thinking about.
The girl took out the phone and dialed the number, "h.e.l.lo, Armand? Do you have a sec to talk? ... Yes, I"m in the gallery now, you know that tomorrow is the opening of the exhibition? Can you come? I need your help... With what? You know sign language, right? Yes, that"s why I need you. I want you to look at something." Elena received confirmation from her friend and hung up the phone.
She looked at the picture again and then looked at the hands of the girl depicted in it.
From the first time, it seemed to her that she was standing in the usual posture peculiar to the national dance, depending on the landscape behind her back, but then Elena looked into her hands and saw a familiar gesture. She did not know the finger language, but this gesture was the only one she knew. And it meant "Look."
A strange idea arose in her head, and she would rather have believed that she had just seemed to see everything, but somewhere inside, she wanted to be right. In these pictures, there was something special, something that was not visible to the ordinary viewer, and when Elena saw Tibet in front of her eyes, she realized that everything was not so simple.
While the girl was looking at the pictures, another pair of eyes was following her with interest, and this interest had not the most tactful hint. The man, kept looking at her, glancing at every centimeter of the woman"s body, pressure was growing inside him, and primitive desires began to appear in his head.
He straightened his back and walked toward Elena with a confident step.
"What a pleasant meeting, Mrs. Anderson. I did not expect to see you for two days in a row," he came up from behind and put his hand on the girl"s waist.
Elena shuddered in surprise and took a step aside to avoid his touching, "h.e.l.lo, Mr. Carter. I am glad to see you, but please, do not sneak up on me like this anymore. You scared me."
The man grinned slyly and bowed his head in an apology, "I beg your pardon, I did not want to take you by surprise. Next time I"ll be careful."
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"Let"s avoid anything like this next time. I have reflexes that I cannot control all the time, so now you are lucky that I did not accidentally hit you in the nose with my elbow."
The girl"s warning didn"t cause the reaction in the man that Elena hoped for. His desire to attract the attention of this una.s.sailable fortress under the name of Elena Anderson aroused hunting instincts in Carter.
"Hmmm, I always a.s.sumed you were a hot woman, Elena," he narrowed his eyes and scanned the girl from head to toes. "I will be glad to see you tomorrow at the opening of the exhibition. I"m sure my picture will perfectly fit into your collection." He winked and walked away with his head held high.
Elena sighed and rolled her eyes. If it were not for this man"s fame in art and media circles, she would prefer to avoid this partnership. But what to do if he was part-owner of half of the paintings hanging here? Well, in any case, it remained only to survive the exhibition time, and then they will part their ways.