美国国家公共电台 NPR The Flag Still Flies For Jasper Johns

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. I want you to consider these objects - an American flag, a target and a number. Would you ever think to make paintings of them? Well, the American artist Jasper Johns did that. And now six decades of his work are on view at The Broad museum here in Los Angeles. Johns was first known for getting us to look at ordinary objects and to see them in new ways. This exhibition, though, goes beyond those early works to show his various preoccupations over the years.

NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg couldn't get past the first paintings, though, and why and how exactly they are art.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE¹: Go look at that one, a guide in the gallery said.

BRIANNA MACGILLIVRAY: It's kind of like an optical illusion, where you see colors that aren't really there.

STAMBERG: Brianna MacGillivray points at Jasper Johns "Flags," 1965. The painting is enigmatic yet direct, much like the artist - two rectangles on a gray background. The top one has black stars on an orange field. The stripes are black and green. There's a tiny white dot on one of the green stripes. Underneath² this rectangle is another one, all gray.

MACGILLIVRAY: If you focus your eyes on the dots, you start to see red and blue on the flag that's painted in gray below.

STAMBERG: Looking at that white dot?

MACGILLIVRAY: Mmm hmm.

STAMBERG: I just did.

MACGILLIVRAY: Do you see the...

STAMBERG: I see the red (laughter).

MACGILLIVRAY: Yeah. The reds are...

STAMBERG: Green and red are complimentary³ colors. So are orange and blue. Look at green and orange long enough, and you see red stripes and a blue field of white stars - really.

ED SCHAD: I actually love it because it produces a flag that, for all intents and purposes, is not there.

STAMBERG: Ed Schad, co-curator of the Jasper Johns show, a collaboration⁴ with the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

What was it with him and flags?

SCHAD: I think it was a way to take something that we're already emotional about and get into how we see it.

STAMBERG: Johns did some 40 flag paintings, the first when he was 24. It put him on the road to fame. Some years ago, a flag painting went for $36 million. And, you know, flags do make us emotional. We feel patriotic⁵, proud, angry, nostalgic. Here's what Jasper Johns said about his flag paintings.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JASPER JOHNS: One night, I dreamed I painted a large American flag. And the next morning, I got up. And I went out and bought materials to begin it.

STAMBERG: Paints, melted wax into which he mixes color pigments⁶ - it's called encaustic - strips of newspaper. His stripes are bumpy⁷, dimensional.

JOANNE HEYLER: It's both painting and sculpture.

STAMBERG: Joanne Heyler is director of The Broad. This was original, she says, and a challenge to the ropes and splatters of paint that Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists had done. Johns was making something new - recognizable but different. And flags, sacred objects to many, in John's hands are a bit off-putting, intentionally⁸.

HEYLER: Trying to take you off your guard a little bit as a viewer, slow down and look in a new way.

STAMBERG: He paints, in his words, things the mind already knows, and makes us see them in new ways - like his Numbers series - big, Arabic numerals, different numbers, different colors, different combinations and different mediums made over six decades. The motivation? - well, Jasper Johns, age 87 now, doesn't like talking about his work. But in the 1960s, he jotted⁹ this in a notebook.

HEYLER: (Reading) Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else.

STAMBERG: Which pretty much sums up his artistic¹⁰ philosophy.

HEYLER: He is a master of understatement, in a way. But, you know, his directness also, kind of like his paintings of American flags, also contains a great deal of complexity¹¹.

STAMBERG: So do his target paintings - archery targets, concentric circles in various color combinations - blue, yellow and red or just blue and yellow or all white. It's actually gorgeous, very textured¹² and layered and unnerving.

SCHAD: Because what's going on here? Are you trying to hit the target? Is someone standing¹³ behind you? Are you in the way of someone out in the world that's trying to hit the target?

STAMBERG: My feeling about targets when I see them is nervousness. They make me scared.

SCHAD: I think that that would be a just reading. There was a critic - unfortunately, I can't remember who it was. But they said something; the equivalent is, Jasper Johns can make you feel uncomfortable in your own kitchen.

STAMBERG: Well, yeah, that's why they linger in the mind. The flags, the targets provoke reactions. His later work - and there's lots of it in this exhibition - is often glorious. It's more abstract, rich colors, especially the art he made while he and the late, great artist Robert Rauschenberg were lovers. Their breakup turns Johns' canvases gray for a while. Then he finds color again and new obsessions¹⁴ and explorations.

Is he still painting flags?

HEYLER: Who knows?

STAMBERG: At The Broad museum in Los Angeles, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARTIST: JASPER JOHNS")

SCHOOL OF YULE: (Singing) Jasper Johns, the American artist, did paintings composed of simple motifs¹⁵. Motifs are recurring¹⁶ ideas in artwork.

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 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

3 complimentary   

adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的

参考例句：

• She made some highly complimentary remarks about their school.她对他们的学校给予高度的评价。
• The supermarket operates a complimentary shuttle service.这家超市提供免费购物班车。

4 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

5 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

6 pigments   

n.（粉状）颜料( pigment的名词复数 )；天然色素

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls. 古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。 来自辞典例句
• The original white lead pigments have oxidized and turned black. 最初的白色铅质颜料氧化后变成了黑色。 来自辞典例句

7 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

8 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

9 jotted   

v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下

参考例句：

• I jotted down her name. 我匆忙记下了她的名字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The policeman jotted down my address. 警察匆匆地将我的地址记下。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 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。

11 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

12 textured   

adj.手摸时有感觉的, 有织纹的

参考例句：

• The shoe's sole had a slightly textured surface. 鞋底表面稍感粗糙。
• Shallow burial seems to preserve chalky textured porosity. 浅埋藏似能保留具白垩状结构的孔隙。

13 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

14 obsessions   

n.使人痴迷的人（或物）( obsession的名词复数 )；着魔；困扰

参考例句：

• 95% of patients know their obsessions are irrational. 95％的病人都知道他们的痴迷是不理智的。 来自辞典例句
• Too often you get caught in your own obsessions. 所以你时常会沉迷在某个电影里。 来自互联网

15 motifs   

n. （文艺作品等的）主题( motif的名词复数 )；中心思想；基本模式；基本图案

参考例句：

• I try to develop beyond the old motifs. 我力求对传统的花纹图案做到推陈出新。 来自辞典例句
• American Dream is one of the most important motifs of American literature. “美国梦”是美国文学最重要的母题之一。 来自互联网

16 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。