艺术家投身其中,彼此联♥系♥
and artists dropped in and connected,
那儿所有人都彼此认识
got to know everybody on the scene.
我去了纽约闲逛、流浪,挨饿
“I went to New York to wander around, bum about, starve a bit.
有一天我参加了一个艺术课程
Then one day, I wandered into an art class.
所有学生都在画人体素描
All the students were sketching this nude model.
我觉得那很了不起
I thought it was marvellous.
我对此着了迷
I was intoxicated by it,
我立刻决定那就是我想要的生活
and right away I decided that was the life for me.
我觉得我父亲的探索是一个哲思的过程
I think my father’s approach was really a philosophical one
当我回顾他投身视觉艺术的过程时
when I look back at how he made his decision to become a visual artist.
我认为他专注于寻找合适的媒介
I think he was really searching around to look for what medium
承载他所要表达的观念和情感
he could use to express the ideas and the emotions he wanted
来传递给观众
to convey to the public.
从20年代初,父亲和Milton Avery成为朋友
My father became very friendly with Milton Avery, starting in the 1920s,
作为导师和艺术家,他对父亲..
which was essential for him both to have a mentor,
影响深远,他成为父亲的老师和榜样
as an artist, someone he could really look up to and learn from and
父亲长时间泡在工作室里,因为他需要那些经验
spend time in their studio because he’d had no experience with that.
Avery一家非常慷慨地资助他
The Averys actually fed him a great deal when he really had
在他早期穷困潦倒的时候
barely 2 cents to scrape together in those early years and
尤其在大萧条时期
particularly during the Depression.
如果你去看父亲当时的肖像作品
I think that if you look at my father’s figurative work from
你能发现很多都是Avery
that period, you can see a lot of indebtedness to Avery,
他是画肖像画的
who was painting figurative paintings,
但是高度抽象,非常风格化
but highly abstracted, highly stylised,
不追求写实的画法
not looking to depict visual reality as we see it,
而是捕捉对时间和地点的感觉与情绪
but to capture a feeling and emotion of time and place.
父亲早期画了几百幅肖像作品
There are hundreds of early figurative works by my father,
画布作品和纸面作品都有
both on canvas and on paper.
据我们所知,他的第一批画就是那时候画的
His first paintings, that we know of are from those early years,
那批画看起来没什么前途
were not terribly promising.
他好像对此缺乏天分
He doesn’t seem to have a lot of facility right out of the gate.
他卡在那儿好久,他漫长的职业生涯
He sticks with it for some reason, and it’s a long career with
充满了美妙的转折,直到他…
wonderful twists and turns until he…
成为Rothko,直到他找到自我。
he becomes Rothko, until he finds himself, you could say.
1933年夏天,马克和他的新婚妻子,艾迪斯,
In the summer of 1933, Mark and his new wife, Edith,
搭车横穿美国去波特兰拜访家人
hitchhiked across the country to visit with family in Portland.
他们住哪儿?不是他母亲那里,不是。
And where did they stay? Not with his mother, no.
住他姐姐那?不
With his sister? No.
他们在西山露营,在西山的某处
They camped in the West Hills, somewhere in the West Hills,
眺望东边的威拉米特
overlooking the Willamette to the east side.
他们在那儿的时候,马克画了风景画
While they were up there, Mark painted the landscape.
我们看到东面有些树木,他把这副美好的
We saw an east side that had trees, and he gave these very sweet
水彩画送给了家庭成员
watercolour paintings to members of the family.
我家人觉得他有点神经,在山区露营
My family thought he was a little crazy sleeping out on the hillside
还搭车穿越美国
and hitchhiking across the country.
他们无论何时来,我都在吃早午餐
Whenever they came, I would have a brunch.
我们屋外有个小平台,我会召集家人聚会
We had a deck outside of the house, and I’d gather all the family
那真是美好的聚会
that I could, and it was just a nice warm gathering.
我觉得父亲的家人从未理解他的想法
I think my father’s family never quite understood this whole idea
成为艺术家,更不会理解他的作品
of being an artist or certainly what his artwork was about,
但这不影响他们关系亲密
and yet he remained very close to them.
他们占据他生命中的中心
They were central to his life.
那是我父亲,摩西。这是阿尔伯特
That’s my father, Moise. This is Albert,
这是马克
and this is Mark.
我感觉和他很亲近,虽然我经常见不到他
I felt very close to him, even though I didn’t see him very often
因为他住在纽约,我经常给他写信
because he lived in New York, but I used to write letters to him.
我母亲经常抱怨他从不往家里寄钱
My mother used to complain that he never sent home any money.
但他当时是个潦倒的艺术家
But he was a poor starving artist.
我的叔父们比他更加务实
My father’s brothers were far more practical than he was,
他们都选择了药剂师
and they went on to pursue careers as pharmacists,
对于新一代来说,那是家族传统生意
which was the family business for a few generations,
他们有时会埋怨最小的孩子离开了
and they were sometimes resentful that the youngest child went off
在他还有母亲要供养的情况下,去追寻艺术家那个疯狂的职业
in pursuing this crazy career as an artist when he had a mother to support.
家里有些人会取笑他的画
Part of the family used to make fun of his paintings.
他姐姐那时对她说
His eldest sister honestly said to him at that time,
“我一点都不懂你的艺术
“I don’t understand a thing about your art.
马克,给我画点我看得懂的画吧”
Mark, paint me a picture that I can understand.
所以,作为弟弟,他给姐姐画了一幅画
So, as a dutiful brother, he did paint her a picture
她看得懂的画,一副小画
that she could understand, a small picture.
对我来说很了不起的是,在他职业生涯的前25-30年
It’s always been remarkable to me that for the first 25 or 30 years
父亲创作的那么多的作品
of his career, my father created so much artwork,
都是利用晚上和周末的时间完成的
but it was all done nights and weekends
因为他白天要工作,要教书
because he had a day job as a teacher,
同时他的画卖♥♥不出去
and he was selling essentially zero paintings.
我觉得他肯定多次质疑过自己的选择
I think he must have questioned many times whether making art was
质疑过从事艺术是否是人生目标
going to be the answer to what he was gonna do with his life.
从40年代早期的那些事情中,我们能看出来
We believe he struggled with depression, from everything
他那时深受抑郁和消沉的困扰
we can piece together, in the very early 1940s.
我们知道他有一段时间,最起码一年
We know he had a period, really at least a year,
他停止作画
when he did not really paint.
我们还知道在那段时期,他的第一次婚姻陷入困境
We also know at that time that his first marriage was not going well.
她视自己为珠宝制♥造♥商,艺术家
She viewed herself as a jewellery maker, as an artist.
我觉得父亲不认同她是艺术家
I don’t think my father really considered her an artist,
我认为这在他们之间
and I think that was actually a source of a fair amount of tension
造成了一系列紧张的关系
between the two of them.
她想要获得他在艺术方面的帮助
She wanted him to help her with her arts, and she felt she was
她认为自己是家庭的收入来源,而他只管追求
the one who was supporting the family, and he was set in pursuing
他自己的事情
exactly what he was doing.
所以我觉得那段关系充满了争吵
So I think it was a tumultuous relationship,
但他抑郁的程度远远超出了
but his level of depression seems to have gone beyond
对发生在周遭事情的反应
just being a reaction to what was going on around him.
在30年代晚期,父亲在创作主题为..
Well, in the late ’30s, my father was working on a series of
纽约地铁的系列画作
paintings related to the New York subway.
那是非常奇异且孤独的场景,并且..
It’s a very strange and lonely scene in many ways, and, you know,
那映射出他自己的感受
that may reflect how he felt.
某种程度上,纽约待他不错,但另一方面,
In one way, New York was treating him well, but in another way,
纽约也是一个令他苦苦挣扎的地方
it was a place where he was really struggling at the time.
那些画充满了耸动和不安的画面
They are very moving and disturbing images.
人物总是藏身在廊柱之后,或之间
Figures almost hiding between and behind the columns,
形体细长且瘦弱
very elongated, emaciated.
有一个场景,大概是地窖之类的场所
There’s a sense of maybe being in a catacomb.
你几乎可以看到几何构成
And you can see almost the geometric configurations
那正是他所关注,所操纵,
that he’s looking at and playing with,
将会以纯粹抽象的方式创造的东西,那是大概15年之后
that he will be doing in a purely abstract way 15 years later or so.
现在我们在国家美术馆,我们负责照顾
What we do here at the National Gallery, we’re caring for
这些落脚在华盛顿特区的人造物
handmade objects that have ended up here in Washington, D.C.
这些珍稀的收藏是我们要研究的对象
This incredibly rare treasured collection is ours to learn about,
去学习,去关注
to study, and to take care of.
这些杰作无可替代,处理起来很有挑战性
The challenge of working with masterpieces is that they’re irreplaceable.
保存者做决策时肩负很重的责任
There’s a lot of responsibility on the conservator making right decisions,
使用恰当的材料
using the right materials.
今天要处理的这幅是Rothko晚期的作品
The picture I’m working on today is a late picture of a Rothko,
1969年末
late 1969.
画作蒙受了画布背面的冲击造成的裂缝
Picture sustained a few impact cracks from the reverse,
画布的弯曲,造成表面脆弱的颜料…
so the canvas was flexed and the slightly more brittle paint
产生了裂缝
on the surface cracked.
裂缝有点突起,你能看到暗黑色的颜料下面
The cracks have slightly raised, and you can begin to see the white
露出了白色的底面
ground below this dark black paint.
我所要做的,只是往这些裂缝里
What I am doing is just flowing the right black colour
填充一些恰当的黑色颜料
into these cracks…
这样裂缝就看不见了
..so that you don’t see them any more. The cracks just-
我是说,裂缝并没有闭合,但之前的白色缝隙
I mean, they haven’t physically closed, but you no longer see
不再能被看到了
the white of a crack.
可逆性是现代保存工作最关键的特质之一
Reversibility is a key tenant of modern conservation,
我们所做的一切都可以安全的撤销,这就是可逆性的理念
with the idea being that everything we do can be safely undone.
假如你试图修饰一处瑕疵,你会希望所用的材料..
So if you apply retouching for a loss, you want that material
在50年之内都具有非常高的可溶性,以备有人需要将其清理掉
to be very soluble 50 years from now if somebody ever needs to remove it.
我们工作的目的在于,当你在画廊里展示一幅画
A lot of what we do is, if you can get a picture to present well
你的视线在画面上不断游移
in the gallery so that your eye keeps moving across the surface
不被打断,我们的工作就算做好了
and doesn’t stop, you’ve accomplished a lot.

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