大師何為大師？
簡(jiǎn)介
彼?！っ傻吕锇玻≒iet Cornelies Mondrian；1872年3月7日-1944年2月1日），荷蘭畫(huà)家，風(fēng)格派運(yùn)動(dòng)幕后藝術(shù)家和非具象繪畫(huà)的創(chuàng)始者之一，對(duì)后代的建筑、設(shè)計(jì)等影響很大。
蒙德里安及其荷蘭“風(fēng)格派”，作為一種藝術(shù)運(yùn)動(dòng)，并不局限于繪畫(huà)。它對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)的建筑、家具、裝飾藝術(shù)以及印刷業(yè)都有一定的影響。事實(shí)上，“風(fēng)格派”內(nèi)的許多成員正是各藝術(shù)領(lǐng)域的積極活動(dòng)家。提到蒙德里安，我們馬上會(huì)想到那些規(guī)格不同的矩形方格子。某些美術(shù)評(píng)論家認(rèn)為蒙的作品只適用于廣告設(shè)計(jì)、家具、印刷品和建筑裝潢，根本談不上“繪畫(huà)”二字。這種批評(píng)其實(shí)是抽象的，因它離開(kāi)了時(shí)代特征，當(dāng)時(shí)蒙德里安不這樣認(rèn)為，他一步一步地走上繪畫(huà)幾何學(xué)的抽象構(gòu)圖道路，是沿著立體派和未來(lái)派的單純化結(jié)構(gòu)而來(lái)的。
下面翻譯一則國(guó)外的文章
Our eyes are far too good for us. They show us so much that we cant take it all in, so we shut out most of the world, and try to look at things as briskly and efficiently as possible.What happens if we stop, and take the time to look more carefully? Then the world unfolds like a flower, full of colors and shapes that we had never suspected.In this column, I am going to be pondering how we see the world. I will be describing how to look at paintings, photographs, and sculptures (that is my field, art), but also grass, sand, twigs, sunsets, Egyptian scarabs, discolored porcelain teeth, cheddar cheese, viruses, X-Rays, spectra, fingerprints, candle flames, galaxies, graphs of bird song, engineering drawings, ice halos behind palm trees, the lines in an elderly face, the ripples of muscle in a shoulder, the logic of crystals, the colors in a rainbow, the shapes of culverts, the species of mirages, the faint lights in the night sky, the zig-zag patterns on moths wings, the engraved designs in postage stamps, the things you can contrive to see inside your own eyes.
我打算漫談我們看待這個(gè)世界的方式。我會(huì)說(shuō)說(shuō)怎么看待繪畫(huà)、攝影、以及雕塑（這些藝術(shù)算是我的專(zhuān)業(yè)領(lǐng)域），但同時(shí)還有草葉、沙粒、枝椏、日落、古埃及的圣甲蟲(chóng)、褪色的陶瓷牙齒、英國(guó)的切達(dá)芝士、病毒、X光、光譜、指紋、燭光、星系、鳥(niǎo)鳴聲譜、工程制圖、棕櫚樹(shù)后的光暈、老人臉上的皺紋、肩部肌肉的起伏、晶體的結(jié)構(gòu)、彩虹的色彩、水渠的形狀、海市蜃樓的種類(lèi)、夜空中的微光、飛蛾翅膀的蜿蜒、還有郵票上的雕刻設(shè)計(jì)，那些你用自己的雙眼無(wú)法捕捉到的事物。
What I have in mind is a series of lessons about how to use your eyes more concertedly, with more patience, than you might ordinarily do. Its about stopping, and taking the time to simply look, and keep looking, until the details of the world slowly reveal themselves. I especially love the strange feeling I get when I am staring at something, and suddenly I understand: the object has structure, it speaks to me. What was once a shimmer on the horizon becomes a specific kind of mirage, and it tells me about the shape of the air I am walking through. What was once a meaningless pattern on a moths wing becomes a code, and it tells me how that moth looks to other moths. And paintings show me more each time I look; there is apparently no limit to what they can mean.
我現(xiàn)在想到一連串的內(nèi)容，都是關(guān)于怎樣比平常更耐心更自如地運(yùn)用你的雙眼。關(guān)鍵在于逗留，把時(shí)間充分用于觀看，并且保持觀看，直到每個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)都慢慢地展露出來(lái)。我尤其享受一種奇特的感覺(jué)，就是當(dāng)我盯著某件東西，然后頓悟的瞬間：原來(lái)這樣?xùn)|西是有結(jié)構(gòu)的，它本身就在和我對(duì)話(huà)。
My opening example is Mondrian.
Specifically, one of the Mondrian paintings in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, across the street from where I work. It is called Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray and it was painted in 1921. Its a simple picture: off-white, with black stripes and four color areas: black, blue, pale lemon yellow, and a touch of orangey red. At least thats what I thought before I had looked closely at it.
我的首例就是蒙德里安。
具體地說(shuō)，是我工作的大街對(duì)面的芝加哥美術(shù)館收藏的一幅蒙德里安畫(huà)作。這幅叫《黃、黑、藍(lán)、紅、灰菱形構(gòu)圖》的畫(huà)作繪于1921年。這是幅簡(jiǎn)單的作品：灰白背景，黑線(xiàn)條，以及四個(gè)色塊——黑色、藍(lán)色、淡淡的檸檬黃、和少許橘紅色。至少在近距離看它之前，我是這么認(rèn)為的。
I have occasionally taught a course in which students copy paintings in the museum. The course was open to anyone, even students who had never painted. The only requirement was bravery, because it turns out that when you put up an easel and canvas in the museum, everyone talks to you. They give you advice and criticism, and they arent always polite. One of my students was harangued for choosing to paint a nude, "even though," as the angry visitor said, "youre a woman yourself." Another time, a guard asked me if I thought my student was worthy of copying a small painting showing Moses crossing the Red Sea. "Do you think your student believes the Bible story?" the guard asked. I said, "I dont know, but do you think the painter believed in the Bible?" He said he wasnt sure, and hed get back to me. The next week, he said hed decided the painter was an atheist, because the painting didnt have enough thunder and lightning in it--it wasnt dramatic enough to ring true. (I think the guard was thinking of the movie "The Ten Commandments.") After that, the guard left us alone: he decided that a non-believer could copy a non-believers painting, but he just wasnt interested in the result.
我教過(guò)一門(mén)課專(zhuān)門(mén)讓學(xué)生臨摹展館里的繪畫(huà)。這門(mén)課面向任何人，甚至是從沒(méi)畫(huà)過(guò)畫(huà)的學(xué)生。唯一的要求是勇氣，因?yàn)樵诓┪镳^里支起畫(huà)架放上畫(huà)布的結(jié)果是，人人都來(lái)和你說(shuō)話(huà)。他們會(huì)對(duì)你的畫(huà)指手劃腳，而且不一定客氣。我有個(gè)學(xué)生就曾因?yàn)檫x擇臨摹裸女被大聲訓(xùn)斥過(guò)，“盡管你自己也是個(gè)女的。”那個(gè)氣憤的參觀者說(shuō)。還有一次，一個(gè)保安問(wèn)我覺(jué)得某個(gè)學(xué)生臨摹一副摩西穿越紅海的小畫(huà)值不值得。他問(wèn)：“你看這個(gè)學(xué)生相不相信圣經(jīng)？”我說(shuō)：“不知道，但你看這個(gè)畫(huà)家相不相信？”他回答說(shuō)不確定，但是會(huì)稍后給我回答。到第二周，他告訴我確信了這幅畫(huà)的作者是個(gè)無(wú)神論者，因?yàn)楫?huà)里沒(méi)有足夠的雷鳴電閃——不夠戲劇化也就不足以為真。（我估計(jì)他想像的是《十誡》的那種情形。）再之后，這個(gè)保安就不管我們了：他表示無(wú)信仰者是可以臨摹無(wú)信仰者的畫(huà)的，他只是對(duì)結(jié)果不再感興趣了。
When one of my students asked to copy that Mondrian, I said it might not be very rewarding, because it was so simple. It turns out I was very wrong, and since then Ive had three students try to copy the painting. Its a very difficult and complex image, masquerading as a simple abstraction.
If you step right up to the cordon, youll see that Mondrian changed his mind about whether the stripes should go right up to the edges of the canvas. He painted out the ends of the stripes, so that they appear to stop where the canvas stops.
當(dāng)一個(gè)學(xué)生要求臨摹蒙德里安的時(shí)候，我回應(yīng)說(shuō)那對(duì)他不一定有什么好處，因?yàn)檫@畫(huà)太簡(jiǎn)單了?？山Y(jié)果我完全錯(cuò)了，并且從那時(shí)起已經(jīng)有3個(gè)學(xué)生試著臨摹這畫(huà)。這是一個(gè)相當(dāng)困難復(fù)雜的圖像，只是被冒充成簡(jiǎn)單的抽象畫(huà)罷了。
如果你從右邊的邊線(xiàn)開(kāi)始畫(huà)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這里蒙德里安改變了主意，沒(méi)讓線(xiàn)條繼續(xù)往上走到畫(huà)布的邊緣。他描出了線(xiàn)條的終點(diǎn)，使之看起來(lái)結(jié)束在畫(huà)布邊緣。
(All photos: author.)
He wasnt especially careful with his repainting, which is a clue to how closely he expected people to look. Art historians have noticed his change of mind, and it has been said that before the early 1920s, Mondrian thought of his compositions as part of an infinite plane, which could go on indefinitely in all directions. Starting with paintings like this one, the canvas is the whole object, the whole universe, and there is nothing beyond it.
他在重畫(huà)的時(shí)候不是那么細(xì)心，所以可以推斷出他當(dāng)時(shí)估計(jì)人們看畫(huà)時(shí)的距離。藝術(shù)史學(xué)家注意到他改變了想法，而且據(jù)說(shuō)在20世紀(jì)20年代前，蒙德里安曾把他的作品當(dāng)作是無(wú)限平面上的一部分，所以每個(gè)方向都會(huì)無(wú)限延伸。從諸如這樣的繪畫(huà)開(kāi)始，畫(huà)布就成為一個(gè)完整的對(duì)象，完整的宇宙，沒(méi)有任何東西可以超越。
If you bend down, and look up against the light--often a good trick in museums, because it reveals flaws and shows off the paintings surface--you can also see that Mondrian painted the black rectangle with thin paint, so the warp and weft of the canvas shows through. (The warp and weft are at forty-five degrees to the stripes, because the stretcher is rotated.) The yellow area is painted much more thickly.
An even closer look at the yellow shows how luscious the paint surfaces are, some ribbed, some rubbed into the weave. Its also possible to see how Mondrian smoothed the edges of the yellow region, creating a glossy painted frame.
如果你蹲下身，逆光往上看這幅畫(huà)——在展館里是個(gè)很狡猾的辦法，因?yàn)檫@樣會(huì)暴露出畫(huà)作的裂縫以及表面——從畫(huà)布的紋理可以看出蒙氏畫(huà)作中黑色長(zhǎng)方形用的顏料較薄。（畫(huà)布紋理與線(xiàn)條呈45度，原因是框架是轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)的）而黃色色塊使用的顏料就厚重多了。
再湊近點(diǎn)看黃色區(qū)域能發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)繪畫(huà)表面相當(dāng)豐郁，一部分起了棱紋，一部分滲入了紡線(xiàn)里面。這里也能看出蒙德里安打磨了黃色色塊的邊緣，弄出了一個(gè)光滑的邊框。
Each surface and stripe has its texture: the stripes are scored with little ridges, and some of the surfaces, like the blue area, show those freehand back-and-forth brush textures house painters try to avoid. Altogether the painting is rich in surface textures, what art historians call facture.
每個(gè)表面和線(xiàn)條都有它的紋理：條紋被刻出了脊線(xiàn)；一些表面，比如藍(lán)色區(qū)域，有油漆工人試圖避免的徒手畫(huà)出來(lái)回刷筆的紋理痕跡。放在一起這幅畫(huà)作有了豐富的表面紋理，藝術(shù)史學(xué)家稱(chēng)之為制作法。
My student tried hard to get the thick furred look of the blue area, but all he could manage was a flaccid, watery pool of blue:
我的學(xué)生花了很多力氣想弄出藍(lán)色色塊上厚實(shí)茂密的表面，但是他的努力只得到一片松軟散淡的藍(lán)色：
So far none of this is new to art history, and there have also been some very careful analyses of the ways some stripes go over others, and how Mondrian built his paintings into a kind of woven bas-relief. (There are excellent accounts of this by Yve-Alain Bois and Harry Cooper.) But it is not difficult to go beyond what has been discussed in art history.
目前為止提到的對(duì)藝術(shù)史都不是什么新鮮事，除此之外還有很多謹(jǐn)慎的分析講到線(xiàn)條如何相交，蒙德里安如何把他的繪畫(huà)塑造成淺浮雕編織。（維亞阿蘭保爾和哈利庫(kù)珀的評(píng)論里非常多的證據(jù)。）然而，要往超出這些藝術(shù)史的討論之外了說(shuō)也不難。
If you look very closely at the borders of the stripes, you see they arent just lines where black meets white or blue or yellow. The edges of the stripes are rough. It is known that Mondrian painted his stripes by laying down strips of paper, the way decorators and contemporary painters use masking tape. But that produces a clean border, and the borders in this painting are messy. Unfortunately, with the naked eye its hard to see exactly what makes them messy.
如果你向這些條帶的邊界湊得非常近的話(huà)，你會(huì)看到它們并不只是單純的黑與白或藍(lán)或黃交會(huì)的線(xiàn)。這些條帶的邊緣是粗糙的。據(jù)悉蒙德里安是用鋪上紙條來(lái)畫(huà)的，就像很多裝潢師和當(dāng)代畫(huà)家用封口膠紙的道理一樣。但是這種辦法可以形成一個(gè)清爽的邊界，而這幅畫(huà)里的邊界卻是混亂的。不幸的是，肉眼很難看出到底是什么攪亂了它們。
I have two devices to me solve mysteries like that: a camera with a macro lens, and a pair of surgeons glasses, which are heavy metal frames with little binocular telescopes mounted on them. The little telescopes are amazing: if I stretch my arm out in front of me, the telescopes focus on one-quarter of one of my fingernails. (The surgeons glasses are also embarrassing to use, because they have a kind of dorky mad scientist look. My student and I got lots of odd stares while we were inspecting the painting.)
我有兩個(gè)設(shè)備來(lái)揭開(kāi)這個(gè)謎：一架有微距鏡頭的相機(jī)，和一副內(nèi)置了微型雙目顯微鏡的重金屬框架手術(shù)眼鏡。微型顯微鏡太厲害了：如果我在身前伸展胳膊，顯微鏡會(huì)聚焦到我一片手指甲上的一小塊。（手術(shù)眼鏡倒是讓我用得有些難堪，因?yàn)樗髌饋?lái)就像個(gè)呆里呆氣的瘋狂科學(xué)家。在勘測(cè)這幅畫(huà)時(shí)，我和我學(xué)生就榮獲了不少古怪的注目禮。
In this photograph, taken with my macro lens, my student is trying to reproduce the complicated marks at the border of one of the stripes. (He is wearing plastic gloves to protect himself from the toxic chemicals in the paint; some painters prefer the old, poisonous solvents and pigments to the new healthier materials.) He is painting freehand, without a paper strip to help him, because he thought that is what Mondrian did.
在這張用我的微距鏡頭拍下的照片中，我的學(xué)生試圖復(fù)制其中一條條帶邊界的復(fù)雜的痕跡。（他戴著塑膠手套以防止顏料里的有害物質(zhì)；一些畫(huà)家會(huì)寧可選擇舊的有毒溶劑而不是新的更安全的材料。）他在徒手作畫(huà)，也沒(méi)有用紙條輔助，因?yàn)樗X(jué)得蒙德里安就是這么做的。
A closer look at the original shows that Mondrian did put a paper strip down, and he painted over it to get a sharp edge: but then he removed the strip, put another one down in a slightly different place, painted over that one, and so on, creating a kind of little stairway of paint.
而靠近蒙德里安的原作看可以發(fā)現(xiàn)他的確鋪過(guò)紙條上去，而且他從上面涂過(guò)以得到一個(gè)利落的邊緣：但是之后他移動(dòng)了這張紙條，在略微不同的地方鋪上了另外一張，涂過(guò)了那張上面，諸如此類(lèi)，結(jié)果就成了一種階梯狀的繪作。
In other parts of the painting, Mondrian clearly painted freehand, with no paper to guide him. On one place, its possible to see how he painted vertically, carefully edging up to the stripe. To see that, look very closely at the bottom edge of the stripe in the next photo, about an inch to the left of center.
在這幅畫(huà)的其他部分，蒙德里安顯然是用徒手畫(huà)的，完全沒(méi)有用紙條引導(dǎo)。在一個(gè)地方，可以看出他是怎樣垂直往，小心地繪完這條帶子。要想發(fā)現(xiàn)這點(diǎn)，可以往下張照片里的條帶底部邊緣，也就是中心偏左一寸左右，使勁湊近看。
My student and I studied that, but again his copy failed, because he couldnt get just the right texture of paint--Mondrians paint was sticky, and the bristles on his brushes were stiff. My student ended up with an ugly ridge of paint:
我學(xué)生和我的研究結(jié)果是，他的臨摹再一次失敗是因?yàn)樗麤](méi)法弄出筆觸的準(zhǔn)確質(zhì)地——蒙德里安的顏料非常的粘稠，而且他畫(huà)筆上的毛刷非常堅(jiān)硬。我學(xué)生的最后畫(huà)出的是一個(gè)難看的邊脊：
In some places, Mondrian painted parallel to his stripes, trying to keep his hand from wavering. In other places it seems he enjoyed the slight tremble and wander of his hand. There is a lot to see in this last detail: underneath the stripe, you can see where Mondrian carefully edged his brush up to the stripe, overlapping some horizontal marks hed made freehand. Over the stripe there is a thick hedge of short marks, all freehand, intended to give the stripe a rich, entangled margin.
在某些地方，蒙德里安以和線(xiàn)條平行的方向作畫(huà)，以避免讓手搖晃。而在其他地方，他似乎挺滿(mǎn)意手上輕微的顫抖和晃動(dòng)。在最后一張細(xì)節(jié)圖上有很多值得注意的地方：在條帶下面，你可以找到蒙德里安小心的在線(xiàn)條上收尾，改過(guò)他徒手水平畫(huà)的痕跡。在線(xiàn)條之上有一欄很厚的短痕跡，全部徒手，為這個(gè)條帶形成豐富而相互纏繞的邊緣。
You dont see any of this from two or three feet away, and its clear Mondrian expected his viewers to stand back so they wouldnt see things like the sloppy way he truncated the ends of his stripes. But you are aware of a richness, a shimmering effect, a depth. The paintings are three-dimensional. The paint has visible gestures, it is human, it moves. In the language of art history, it is painterly. It belongs to the tradition of Titian and Rembrandt and Delacroix, and not just to the asceticism and idealism of the early twentieth century.
從兩三步之外你是完全看不出這些的，顯然蒙德里安估計(jì)觀者應(yīng)該往后站從而不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)像他截?cái)鄺l紋末端的草率。但是你意識(shí)到一種豐富，光耀的效果，一種深度。這幅畫(huà)是三維的。畫(huà)有看得見(jiàn)的姿態(tài)，它是人性的，是靈動(dòng)的。在藝術(shù)史的語(yǔ)言里，它是畫(huà)家式的。它屬于提香、倫勃朗和德拉克洛瓦的教派，而不僅僅是20世紀(jì)初期的禁欲主義和唯心主義。
In the Art Institute of Chicago, as in many museums, the Mondrians hang next to other paintings of the time, also geometric and abstract. In comparison to their resolute, sterile flatness, Mondrians paintings have depth. They speak to the deeper history of painting. Its true Mondrian is forbidding, ascetic, pure, impersonal, ideal, clear beyond the mess of an ordinary life. But it is also true that he was thinking of Old Masters, and of what paint could do. He just kept the poetry so tightly reined that it is nearly invisible.
在芝加哥美術(shù)館，和在許多別的展館一樣，蒙德里安的畫(huà)作被懸掛在了同時(shí)期的同樣是幾何和抽象的作品邊上。與它們堅(jiān)決而枯燥的平坦不同，蒙德里安的繪畫(huà)是有深度的。它們?cè)谙蚶L畫(huà)的歷史深處訴說(shuō)。誠(chéng)然蒙德里安是嚴(yán)峻的、禁欲的、單純的、冷漠的、唯心的，明顯凌駕于世俗生活的喧囂之外。然而他心念著早期的繪畫(huà)巨匠，思索著繪畫(huà)能做什么也是事實(shí)。他只是把那份詩(shī)意封鎖得太緊以至于幾乎看不見(jiàn)了。
Perhaps it requires a slightly abnormal sort of seeing to notice all this--geeky doctors glasses, an expensive camera lens, a student who is willing to fail while people watch. But once you have seen how the painting works, Mondrian will never be the same.
可能這些還是需要某些非常手段才能注意到——比如怪胎醫(yī)生的眼鏡、昂貴的相機(jī)鏡頭，還有敢于在眾人面前失敗的學(xué)生。但是一旦你看到這幅畫(huà)是怎樣完成的，蒙德里安就和之前不再是同一個(gè)人了。
I know there are many questions lingering here. What is close looking, exactly? What happens to the experience of the artwork when you look very slowly? It seems artificial or unnatural to look closely: after all, it runs against the grain of todays very distracted, fast-motion seeing. And yet poets do it all the time: close reading is part of good reading.
我知道還有很多沒(méi)解決的問(wèn)題。到底什么才是細(xì)看？緩慢地觀看藝術(shù)作品會(huì)帶來(lái)怎樣的經(jīng)驗(yàn)轉(zhuǎn)變？看起來(lái)細(xì)看是很做作而不自然的：畢竟這違背了今天分散而快速移動(dòng)的觀看方式。而詩(shī)人卻一直那樣做：文本細(xì)讀是精讀的一部分。
I am up for all those subjects, and more. I hope this column will inspire you to stop and consider art more closely, but also to see all sorts of things that are absolutely ordinary, things so clearly meaningless that they never seemed worth a second thought. Once you start seeing them, the world--which can look so dull, so empty of interest--will gather before your eyes and become thick with meaning.
我希望這篇文章能激發(fā)你去停留去更細(xì)致地思考藝術(shù)，同時(shí)去觀賞生活中最平凡的那些事物，那些似乎都不值得再看一眼的事物。一旦你開(kāi)始凝視它們，這個(gè)世界——這個(gè)本來(lái)如此乏味而了無(wú)樂(lè)趣的世界——會(huì)在你的眼前重新組合，濃墨重彩，意味深長(zhǎng)。
文獻(xiàn)參考資料
[1]原文 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-elkins/post_1036_b_756669.html
[2]譯文 http://select.yeeyan.org/view/135550/145631
他的畫(huà)稿
Alberi 1908
At The Amstel Sun
Broadway Boogie Woogie 1943
Amaryllis 1910
Anemones In A Vase
加劉景長(zhǎng)語(yǔ)：有的東西或許你覺(jué)得很簡(jiǎn)單，只是因?yàn)椴恢滥怯卸嚯y。（此話(huà)并不用于#你行你上#這種邏輯）
很多人第一次看到蒙德里安的作品也是一樣不解他就是擺了幾個(gè)色塊為何能成為大師，但實(shí)際上看似隨意的色塊和線(xiàn)條都是經(jīng)過(guò)精細(xì)的配比和組織。
現(xiàn)在蒙德里安的作品理念已經(jīng)被應(yīng)用到生活的方方面面。
