美国国家公共电台 NPR Baltimore Museum Says Goodbye Warhol, Hello Younger, More Diverse Collection

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This week, a painting by Kerry James Marshall sold for more than $21 million. It is believed to be the most ever paid for the work of a living black artist. The buyer was just revealed to be Sean Combs. It's the kind of work that more museums are trying to add to their collections. But these pieces cost money, as that happens. In the same auction¹ were works by Andy Warhol and Franz Kline. We mention them because they were sold for exactly this reason - to fund acquisitions of art by women and artists of color. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And that leads us to lot no. 22, property from the Baltimore Museum of Art...

ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE²: Let's start with the Warhol auction.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And I'll start the bidding of 2,200,000...

LIMBONG: This is from Sotheby's auction house in New York City where well-dressed people are making bids on Andy Warhol's "Oxidation Painting." It's a rust-colored splatter work made out of paint and urine. Bids go up until...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Lady's bid - and selling - at $2,800,000. Thank you, madam.

LIMBONG: When a museum sells off pieces from their collection, there's a fancy $10 term for it - deaccession. And to do it - well, here's Christopher Bedford, the director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

CHRISTOPHER BEDFORD: It's a very, very long, attenuated³, moderately agonizing⁴ process to deaccession, and it should be.

LIMBONG: A museum selling art is a little different from, say, you selling your old iPhone for a better one. That's because when a museum obtains a piece of art, it's making a sort of compact between them and the public saying, I am buying this specifically so that you and other people in this community can come and see it. To sell is to sort of breach⁵ that compact. Museums often get in trouble for not deaccessioning the right way. For example, in Massachusetts recently, things got heated when the Berkshire Museum announced they'd be selling some pieces.

CAROL DIEHL: It's like your mother selling your heirlooms that you're supposed to get.

LIMBONG: That's Carol Diehl, a member of a campaign to save the art, talking to New England Public TV last month. The Berkshire's deaccessioning was opposed by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors, groups that make the rules for this sort of thing. Those groups did, however, give their blessing⁶ to the Baltimore Museum of Art to sell pieces by Andy Warhol, Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg and others. The idea is to make the collection better reflect the city, which is about 60 percent black.

BEDFORD: We're actually not saying, in any sense, that those white males that dominate American museum collections are an illegitimate part of history. They are absolutely a part of history.

LIMBONG: The pieces sold were stuff that was redundant⁷, not shown that often or even just kept in storage. The Baltimore museum still has plenty of Warhol's, Rauschenberg's, Kline's up on the walls. But with the money from the sale, Bedford is looking to acquire art by people of color and women going back to the '40s.

BEDFORD: I believe that we as museums have not properly represented art history as a consequence of conscious prejudice and unconscious prejudice. And it's our job now to go back and to begin to look at those artists who meet the criteria⁸ of excellence⁹ but who have been written out for various different reasons usually based on race or gender¹⁰.

MELEKO MOKGOSI: To not do this is to say that we already know everything. It's not representing the textures¹¹ and experiences and lives of those people in that community.

LIMBONG: That's Meleko Mokgosi. He's a painter who's got an exhibition up at the Baltimore Museum of Art right now that happens to be about representation of black people in art.

MOKGOSI: And the Baltimore museum is saying, no, that is not the case. We don't know everything, right? The things - the histories and the people and the cultures that are already dominant¹² in the fine arts, that's not the whole story.

LIMBONG: Baltimore Museum of Art Director Christopher Bedford says the museum plans on announcing what pieces they're buying with this new money at the end of the month. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.

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1 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

2 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。

3 attenuated   

v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱

参考例句：

• an attenuated form of the virus 毒性已衰减的病毒
• You're a seraphic suggestion of attenuated thought . 你的思想是轻灵得如同天使一般的。 来自辞典例句

4 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

5 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

6 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

7 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

8 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

9 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

10 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

11 textures   

n.手感( texture的名词复数 )；质感；口感；（音乐或文学的）谐和统一感

参考例句：

• I'm crazy about fabrics textures and colors and designs. 我喜欢各式各样的纺织物--对它的质地，色彩到花纹图案--简直是入了迷。 来自辞典例句
• Let me clear up the point about the textures. 让我明确了一点有关的纹理。 来自互联网

12 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。