美国国家公共电台 NPR See Red In A New Light: Imperial China Meets Mark Rothko In D.C. Exhibition

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

OK. Here in Washington, D.C., a single color, red, is the focus of a small exhibition at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Asian Art. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg says the show finds links between a 15th-century Ming dynasty dish and a 20th-century Mark Rothko painting.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE¹: A curator fell in love with the dish - simple lines, rich color - red - made for an emperor in 1430. Rare, maybe just 35 of them left; gorgeous - she wanted it for her gallery's collection. Jan Stuart showed the dish - it's really more like a shallow bowl - to experts, board members, national art commissioners². Reaction?

JAN STUART: Oh, I get it. It's like Rothko.

STAMBERG: The bowl was bought. A concept was born. Put it on view with a Mark Rothko painting from the National Gallery. His luminous³ work layers different tones of red into two vertical⁴ rectangles. The result? A mini show brought together by color. The Ming reminds Jan Stuart of fruit.

STUART: The dish has a glaze⁵ that is like crushed raspberries.

STAMBERG: Imperial potters mixed a tiny amount of finely ground copper⁶ oxide⁷ into their glaze - very tricky⁸ - to get the right red.

STUART: So difficult.

STAMBERG: Too much copper, you get liver color; too little, it totally disappears in the firing.

STUART: It is the single hardest color to control in the kiln⁹.

STAMBERG: The colors change as the piece cools, depending on where it sat in the kiln. The single glaze gives the old dish two tones of red. The bottom is dark, dark orange. The sides are crimson¹⁰. You can see it at npr.org. The result had to be perfect - nothing but perfection for the emperor.

STUART: Hundreds and hundreds of these were destroyed.

STAMBERG: Jan Stuart says this was a ritual dish. The emperor used it in prayers.

STUART: He would have filled it with probably fruit and put it on an altar during ceremonies to the sun.

STAMBERG: Eventually, the imperial potters stopped making these red dishes. In the 18th century, the court tried to revive them with no luck. An apocryphal¹¹ story goes that one potter even sacrificed himself to achieve it.

STUART: He threw himself in the kiln.

STAMBERG: In hopes that the secret of the red would be revealed for him to pass on to living potters.

Suicide is also a tragic¹² connection between the Ming and Rothko reds. Known for contemplative colors shapes that vibrate, the American painter ended his own life in 1970. But years before, Mark Rothko made more than 30 murals for the Seagram Building in Manhattan. One of those is at the Sackler. It's magnetic.

STUART: You're being pulled in. One red seems warmer and happier. One red seems very somber¹³. So it's trying, I think, through the movement of the colors and the shapes, to make you feel a range of emotion.

STAMBERG: Eventually, Rothko withdrew from the project. He realized the building's busy restaurant was not the place for artistic¹⁴ contemplation. His theory about the power of colors couldn't flourish there.

STUART: Colors are to inspire ecstasy¹⁵, tragedy and doom¹⁶.

STAMBERG: Mark Rothko wrestled¹⁷ alone with his colors and canvases. In China, 72 pairs of hands helped create the copper red dish - mining the clay, cleaning it, shaping the pot, mixing the glaze. At the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery until late February, curator Jan Stuart says the dish and the painting are thrilling evidence of the power of color.

STUART: There is a kind of a beauty of red. You could almost weep with the beauty of red. I feel it equally in both - color, texture¹⁸, mood emotion.

STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News, Washington.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 commissioners   

n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官

参考例句：

• The Commissioners of Inland Revenue control British national taxes. 国家税收委员管理英国全国的税收。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The SEC has five commissioners who are appointed by the president. 证券交易委员会有５名委员，是由总统任命的。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

3 luminous   

adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的

参考例句：

• There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
• Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。

4 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

5 glaze   

v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情

参考例句：

• Brush the glaze over the top and sides of the hot cake.在热蛋糕的顶上和周围刷上一层蛋浆。
• Tang three-color glaze horses are famous for their perfect design and realism.唐三彩上釉马以其造型精美和形态生动而著名。

6 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

7 oxide   

n.氧化物

参考例句：

• Oxide is usually seen in our daily life.在我们的日常生活中氧化物很常见。
• How can you get rid of this oxide coating?你们该怎样除去这些氧化皮？

8 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

9 kiln   

n.（砖、石灰等）窑，炉；v.烧窑

参考例句：

• That morning we fired our first kiln of charcoal.那天上午，我们烧了我们的第一窑木炭。
• Bricks are baked in a kiln.砖是在窑里烧成的。

10 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

11 apocryphal   

adj.假冒的，虚假的

参考例句：

• Most of the story about his private life was probably apocryphal.有关他私生活的事可能大部分都是虚构的。
• This may well be an apocryphal story.这很可能是个杜撰的故事。

12 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

13 somber   

adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• He had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
• His coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。

14 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

15 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

16 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

17 wrestled   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• As a boy he had boxed and wrestled. 他小的时候又是打拳又是摔跤。
• Armed guards wrestled with the intruder. 武装警卫和闯入者扭打起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。