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当我们谈论纽约时,我们在谈论什么

2016/05/03 15:41:42 3004 400-999-3700

当我们谈论纽约时,我谈论什么

 陈丹青记纽约二三事

文/Anita

 

152月再次造访纽约,我及其真地自己列了一份清(to-do-list),当是弥补彼时的遗憾和错过。正是这单子,鞭策着我在纽约风雪夹击的凌厉寒冬,脚下生风,从现代艺术博物馆(MOMA)穿越30多条街步行至古根海姆(Guggenheim)。白色的贝壳样建筑,在风雪拍打下更彰显如出水芙蓉且遗世独立一般的淡泊与冷清。恰与光怪陆离的纽约相映成趣。


“纽约琐记”

他们说,在纽约你可以完成任何你想去做的事情。(If you can make it here you can make it anywhere.) 然而,只有在离开之后,才能够冷静客观地谈论她的模样,正有一种不识庐山真面目,只缘身在此山中的错觉。纵横交错的钢筋水泥,喷涌水蒸气的地下井盖,路边兜售5美元一份热狗的小贩,这些碎片一样的记忆必定要在你告别于她之后,才如录放机一样开始在脑海里循环上演。如此的体验,在陈丹青于《纽约琐记》中,也得到了佐证。 旅居纽约18年,他却从未画过她。倘若不离开她,兴许也不会有这本杂记的诞生。




Chen Danqingis a Chinese American artist, writer, and art critic. He was born in Shanghai in 1953, and graduated from China Cenntral Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to the United States in the 1980s, and became a citizen there.


In 1982, Chen moved to New Yorl, USA, for professional painter. In the early 1980s, Chen painted in the Socialist Realist style, and was at one stage described by the government as the most talented oil painter in China. But beginning with his series of paintings about Tibetans in the mid-1980s, Chen broke away from the manners of officialdom. Influenced by French Realist Jean-Francois Millet, his Tibetans series in turn had a tremendous influence on the emerging Native Oil Painting movement. This new work departed from the monumental size of his earlier Socialist Realist painting in favour of the intimate style and scale of the nineteenth-century French naturalists




丹青



《朝圣》西藏画之一丹青 1980


纽约拆迁

纽约似乎始终是以一副“看上去很美”的姿态而存在。可看到的“美”,美于自由女神像的辉煌,美于第五大道的奢华,美于华尔街的金光,美于星星点点的艺术瑰宝。然而置于“美”之外的,也是纽约之所以成为纽约的重要成分(component);地下铁里肥硕的耗子,街边衣着褴褛的流浪人,唐人街油腻的街道,一次性饭盒售卖的Chicken Over Rice。这也最终会成为谈资,在茶余饭后,在纸面笔尖。陈丹青在《纽约琐记》中,正好描绘了一副隐匿于纽约时代广场(Time Square)中“不够美好”的画面。


90年代初,陈丹青位于纽约时代广场中的画室,经历了一番有如中国房地产开发商与钉子户的对峙。画室楼内的艺术家们,眼睁睁地看着楼门口的成人中心悄然关闭,对街的梦露性感广告被轰然拆卸,窗外墙上出现了巨大的迪士尼卡通广告,他们对于这条位于曼哈顿的黄金街道即将“改邪归正”的事实显得难以接受。楼中的艺术家们开始躁动,直到两位西装笔挺,梳着油头的男人登门拜访,为他们递上了一份“市府开发四十二街计划”,他们开始聚集商讨,诉至法院,街头游行,散发传单。传单上的标语更是骇人听闻:“纽约杀害艺术家”,“四十二街新上演的百老汇悲剧”。陈丹青用调侃的文字回忆着那一段沉重却又顽皮的搬迁时光。挑头反抗的人丛中,有一位长得酷似吉普赛人的意大利女艺术家,她如革命者一般的坚定,目光如炬,咬牙切齿。这无法不让人联想到中国钉子户在弹尽粮绝,停水断电后依然强硬的做派。然而一切反抗并没有扭转艺术家们被扫地出门的结局。梵高和莫奈被迪士尼的米奇米妮两只小老鼠打败。那之后,艺术家们画室所在的街区被迪士尼集团的高档连锁店所取代。街区附近,咖啡馆,服饰店相继开张迎客。这种蓬勃向上的繁荣之美,似乎才是大多数人眼中纽约应有的美。当然,这一切在陈丹青眼中,“说实在也不算回鸟事”,几年后,全只是谈资和写作材料。




纽约时代广场



New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500art galleries of all sizes. The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts. Wealthy business magnates in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as the famed Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Museum of Art,that would become internationally established. The advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theater productions, and in the 1880s, New York City theaters on Broadway and along 42nd Street began featuring a new stage form that became known as the Broadway musical. Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, productions such as those of Harrigan and Hart, George M. Cohan, and others used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope and ambition.



纽约艺术记

《纽约琐记》确为琐事随记。陈丹青絮絮叨叨、洋洋洒洒地在书中回忆起了在纽约不胜繁多的艺术回顾展(retrospective)200来页,他慢悠悠地“说”了两年。其中他表示将避免评论,尽量止于回顾的口吻,却也不难从字里行间辨别出他的个人喜恶:对马奈印象派作品的垂涎,对罗丹雕塑和人体速写的摒弃,对卡拉瓦乔的探究,字字珠玑,言之有物。


纽约得益于其开放共融的土壤,孕育出了丰厚浓郁的文化艺术市场。画廊,博物馆,艺术展在此遍地开花。陈丹青于《纽约琐记》中,也长篇大论地谈论着纽约的艺术之美。美术馆,能让参观的人也变得好看起来;画廊,艺术家做生意的场所;画室,充满了松节油的气味,供艺术家们做白日梦的地方。以及一系列在纽约经过的艺术家回顾展。无知如我,在逗留纽约的两年时间里,没有深刻地谈论过纽约的艺术美,只是更多的沉浸在了街边油腻又欲罢不能的小吃摊,却也当之是纽约不可缺少的美景之一。




纽约现代艺术博物馆 (MOMA)


后记

纽约之于不同人,有不同之美。她美的高傲亦或卑微,放眼望去,也都是极好的景观。腐败或是盛开的种子,都浇灌于这片土地之上,开花结果,枝繁叶茂。而于陈丹青,纽约便是因承载了他相当之长的一段光阴岁月,而美得更加深沉和丰韵了罢。



Vocabularies:

·        art critic   n.艺术评论家

·        Socialist Realist Style 社会现实主义风格

·        talented  adj. 有才华的

·        oil painter  n.油画画家

·        oil painting  n.油画

·        component   n.成分,组成部分

·        art galleries  n.艺术画廊

·        fund  n.&v. 资金;资助

·        annual budget 年度预算

·        famed  adj.著名的

·        advent  n.到来,出现

·        elaborate  adj.精心制作的,详尽的

·        retrospective   n.回顾展


Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Danqing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York