I love museums. Have you guys ever been to the Natural History Museum? In New York City?
Obožavam muzeje. Jeste li ikada bili u Prirodnjačkom muzeju? U Njujorku?
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
So one of the things that I do is I take my kids to the museum. Recently I took them to the Natural History Museum. I had my two sons with me, Sabian and Dabith. And we go into the front entrance of the museum, and there's that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt out there. You guys know which one I'm talking about. Teddy Roosevelt is sitting there with one hand on the horse, bold, strong, sleeves rolled up. I don't know if he's bare-chested, but it kind of feels like it.
Jedna od stvari koje radim je da vodim svoju decu u muzej. Nedavno sam ih odveo u Prirodnjački muzej. Sa mnom su bila moja dva sina, Sabijan i Dabit. Ušli smo na prednji ulaz muzeja i tu je bila neverovatna skulptura Tedija Ruzvelta. Znate na koju mislim. Tedi Ruzvelt sedi sa jednom rukom na konju, hrabar, snažan, zavrnutih rukava. Ne znam da li je golih grudi, ali stiče se takav utisak.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking. And on the right-hand side of him is an African-American walking. And as we're moving up the stairs, getting closer to the sculpture, my oldest son, who's nine, says, "Dad, how come he gets to ride, and they have to walk?"
Sa njegove leve strane hoda Indijanac. A sa njegove desne strane hoda Afroamerikanac. Kako idemo uz stepenice i približavamo se skulpturi, moj najstariji sin koji ima devet godina, kaže: „Tata, kako to da on jaše, a oni moraju da hodaju?“
It stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me in my tracks. There was so much history that we would have to go through to try to explain that, and that's something I try to do with them anyways. It's a question that I probably would have never really asked. But fundamentally what he was saying was, "That doesn't look fair. Dad, that doesn't look fair. And why is this thing that's so not fair sitting outside of such an amazing institution." And his question got me wondering, is there a way for us to amend our public sculptures, our national monuments? Not erase them, but is there a way to amend them?
To me je ukopalo. Ukopalo me je u mestu. Toliko je istorije kroz koju bismo morali da prođemo da bih pokušao da to objasnim, a to je svakako nešto što nastojim da radim sa njima. To je pitanje koje verovatno nikada ne bih stvarno postavio. U suštini, on je govorio: „To ne izgleda pravično. Tata, to ne deluje pravedno. Zašto ova stvar koja je toliko nepravedna stoji ispred tako neverovatne ustanove?“ Ovo pitanje me je navelo na razmišljanje o tome da li postoji način da popravimo naše javne skulpture, naše nacionalne spomenike? Ne da ih obrišemo, već da li postoji način da ih popravimo?
Now, I didn't grow up going to museums. That's not my history. My mother was 15 years old when I was born. She is amazing. My father was struggling with his own things for most of my life. If you really want to know the truth, the only reason I got into art is because of a woman. There was this amazing, amazing, fantastic, beautiful, smart woman, four years older than me, and I wanted to go out with her. But she said, "You're too young and you're not thinking about your future." So I ran on down to the junior college, registered for some classes, ran on back, and basically was like, "I'm thinking about my future now."
Ja nisam odrastao uz obilaske muzeja. Moja prošlost nije takva. Moja majka je imala 15 godina kada sam se rodio. Ona je neverovatna. Moj otac se mučio oko svojih ličnih stvari većim delom mog života. Ako hoćete baš da znate istinu, jedini razlog što sam krenuo putem umetnosti je zbog jedne žene. Bila je to neverovatna, fantastična, prelepa, pametna žena, četiri godine starija od mene, a ja sam hteo da izađem sa njom. Ali rekla mi je: „Previše si mlad i ne razmišljaš o svojoj budućnosti.“ Zato sam otrčao do više škole, prijavio se na neke kurseve, dotrčao nazad, i u suštini sam rekao: „Sad razmišljam o svojoj budućnosti.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
"Can we go out?"
„Možemo li da izađemo?“
For the record, she's even more amazing. I married her.
Da se zna, bila je još neverovatnija. Oženio sam se njome.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
So when I randomly ran down to the junior college and registered for classes, I really wasn't paying attention to what I was registering to.
Tako da, kada sam otrčao nasumično do više škole i prijavio se za časove, nisam baš obraćao pažnju za šta se prijavljujem.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So I ended up with an art history class, and I didn't know a thing about art history. But something amazing happened when I went into that class. For the first time in my academic career, my visual intelligence was required of me. For the first time. The professor would put up an image, bold strokes of blues and yellows, and say, "Who's that?" And I'd go, "That's Van Gogh. Clearly that is Van Gogh. I got this."
Tako sam završio na predavanjima istorije umetnosti, a nisam znao baš ništa o istoriji umetnosti. Međutim, nešto neverovatno se dogodilo kada sam počeo da pohađam ta predavanja. Prvi put u mojoj akademskoj karijeri od mene se tražila vizuelna inteligencija. Prvi put. Profesor bi postavio sliku, odvažne poteze plave i žute boje, i upitao bi: „Ko je to?“ A ja bih rekao: „To je Van Gog. Očigledno je da je to Van Gog. Sve mi je jasno.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I got a B in that class. For me, that was amazing. In high school, let's just say I wasn't a great student. OK? In high school, my GPA was .65.
Imao sam devetku na tom predmetu. Za mene je to bilo neverovatno. U srednjoj školi - može se reći da nisam bio sjajan učenik. Okej? U srednjoj školi je moj prosek bio 0,65.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Decimal point first, six five. So me getting a B was huge, huge, absolutely huge. And because of the fact that I realized that I was able to learn things visually that I couldn't learn in other ways, this became my strategy, this became my tactic for understanding everything else. I wanted to stay in this relationship. Things were going well.
Prvo nula, zarez šest i pet. Stoga je to što sam dobio devet za mene bilo velika stvar, apsolutno velika. A usled činjenice da sam shvatio da umem da učim vizuelno ono što nisam mogao da saznam na drugi način, ovo je postala moja strategija, moja taktika da razumem sve ostalo. Hteo sam da ostanem u ovoj vezi. Stvari su se dobro odvijale.
I decided, let me keep taking these art history classes. One of the last art history classes, I will not forget, I will never forget. It was one of those survey art history classes. Anybody ever have one of those survey art history classes, where they try to teach you the entire history of art in a single semester? I'm talking about cave paintings and Jackson Pollock just crunched together all in the same -- It doesn't really work, but they try anyway. Well, at the beginning of the semester, I looked at the book, and in this 400-page book was about a 14-page section that was on black people in painting. Now, this was a crammed in section that had representations of black people in painting and black people who painted. It was poorly curated, let's just put it that way.
Rešio sam da nastavim da pohađam ova predavanja istorije umetnosti. Jedno od poslednjih predavanja istorije umetnosti neću nikada zaboraviti. Bilo je to jedno od onih opštih predavanja. Da li je neko od vas nekada išao na neko od tih opštih predavanja, kada pokušaju da vas nauče celokupnoj istoriji umetnosti za samo jedan semestar? Govorim o pećinskom slikarstvu i Džeksonu Poloku strpanim zajedno u istom - To baš i ne funkcioniše, ali svakako pokušavaju. Pa, na početku semestra, pogledao sam knjigu i u toj knjizi od 400 strana bila je oblast od oko 14 strana koja je bila o crncima u slikarstvu. To je bilo nabijeno u poglavlju koje je sadržalo prikaze crnaca na slikama i crnaca koji su slikali. Bilo je loše organizovano, hajde da tako kažemo.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Nonetheless I was really excited about it, because in all the other classes that I had, we didn't even have that conversation. We didn't talk about it at all. So imagine my surprise when I get to class and on the day that we're supposed to go over that particular chapter, my professor announces, "We're going to skip this chapter today because we do not have time to go through it."
Ipak sam bio veoma uzbuđen zbog toga, jer na ostalim predavanjima koja sam pohađao nismo čak ni razgovarali o tome. Uopšte nismo pričali o tome. Zato zamislite moje iznenađenje kada sam stigao na predavanje i onog dana kada je trebalo da pređemo baš to poglavlje, moja profesorka je objavila: „Preskočićemo ovo poglavlje danas jer nemamo vremena da ga pređemo.“
"Whoa, I'm sorry, hold on, professor, professor. I'm sorry. This is a really important chapter to me. Are we going to go over it at any point?"
„Čekajte, izvinjavam se, pričekajte, profesorka, profesorka. Izvinite. Ovo je za mene zaista bitno poglavlje. Hoćemo li ga preći u nekom trenutku?“
"Titus, we don't have time for this."
„Tajtuse, nemamo vremena za ovo.“
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, I really need to understand. Clearly the author thinks that this is significant. Why are we skipping over this?"
„Izvinite, izvinite, izvinite, izvinite, molim vas, zaista moram da razumem. Očigledno da autor smatra da je ovo značajno. Zašto preskačemo ovo?“
"Titus, I do not have time for this."
„Tajtuse, nemam vremena za to.“
"OK, last question, I'm really sorry here. When can we talk, because we need to talk."
„U redu, poslednje pitanje, stvarno se izvinjavam. Kada možemo da razgovaramo? Jer moramo da razgovaramo.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I went to her office hours. I ended up getting kicked out of her office. I went to the dean. The dean finally told me, "I can't force her to teach anything." And I knew in that moment if I wanted to understand this history, if I wanted to understand the roles of those folks who had to walk, I was probably going to have to figure that out myself. So ... above you right here on the slide is a painting by Frans Hals. This is one of the kinds of images that was in that chapter. I taught myself how to paint by going to museums and looking at images like this.
Otišao sam kod nje na konsultacije. Na kraju sam izbačen iz njene kancelarije. Otišao sam kod dekana. Dekan mi je na kraju rekao: „Ja ne mogu da je nateram da nešto predaje.“ Tog trenutka sam znao da, ako hoću da razumem ovu istoriju, ako hoću da razumem ulogu onih ljudi koji su morali da hodaju, verovatno ću to morati sam da otkrijem. I tako... Ovde iznad vas na slajdu je slika Fransa Halsa. To je jedna od slika koja je bila u tom poglavlju. Sam sam sebe naučio da slikam odlazeći u muzeje i posmatrajući ovakve slike.
I want to show you something.
Želim da vam nešto pokažem.
I made this. I --
Ovo sam ja napravio. Ja -
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
I made some alterations. You'll see there are some slight differences in the painting. All this art history that I had been absorbing helped me to realize that painting is a language. There is a reason why he is the highest in the composition here. There is a reason why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here. He's trying to tell us something about the economic status of these people in these paintings. Painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important. It's coded. But sometimes, because of the compositional structure, because of compositional hierarchy, it's hard to see other things. This silk is supposed to tell us also that they have quite a bit of money. There's more written about dogs in art history than there are about this other character here. Historically speaking, in research on these kinds of paintings, I can find out more about the lace that the woman is wearing in this painting -- the manufacturer of the lace -- than I can about this character here, about his dreams, about his hopes, about what he wanted out of life.
Uneo sam neke izmene. Videćete da postoje male razlike na slici. Celokupna ta istorija umetnosti koju sam upijao pomogla mi je da uvidim da je slika jezik. Postoji razlog zbog čega je on najviši na kompoziciji. Postoji razlog zašto nam slikar prikazuje ovu zlatnu ogrlicu ovde. Pokušava da nam kaže nešto o ekonomskom statusu ovih ljudi na slici. Slikarstvo je vizuelni jezik, pri čemu je sve na slici smisleno i značajno. Šifrovano je. Ali ponekad, zbog strukture kompozicije, zbog hijerarhije kompozicije, teško je videti druge stvari. Ta svila takođe treba da nam kaže da imaju poprilično novca. Više je zapisano o psima u istoriji umetnosti nego o ovom liku ovde. Istorijski rečeno, pri istraživanju ovakvih slika, mogu saznati više o čipki koju nosi žena na ovoj slici - o proizvođaču čipke - nego o ovom liku ovde, o njegovim snovima, o njegovim nadama, o tome šta je želeo u životu.
I want to show you something. I don't want you to think that this is about eradication. It's not. The oil that you saw me just put inside of this paint is linseed oil. It becomes transparent over time, so eventually what's going to happen is these faces will emerge a little bit. What I'm trying to do, what I'm trying to show you, is how to shift your gaze just slightly, just momentarily, just momentarily, to ask yourself the question, why do some have to walk? What is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums? What is the impact of these kinds of paintings on some of our most vulnerable in society, seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time? I'm not saying erase it. We can't erase this history. It's real. We have to know it. I think of it in the same way we think of --
Hteo bih da vam pokažem nešto. Ne bih da pomislite da se ovde radi o eliminaciji. Ne radi se o tome. Ulje koje ste videli da stavljam na boju je laneno ulje. Vremenom postaje providno, pa će na kraju ova lica postepeno pojavljivati. Ono što pokušavam da uradim, što pokušavam da vam pokažem, jeste kako da samo malčice pomerite svoj pogled, samo na trenutak, samo na trenutak, kako biste se zapitali zašto neki moraju da hodaju. Kakav je uticaj ovakvih skulptura u muzejima? Kakav je uticaj ovakvih slika na neke od naših najugroženijih u društvu, stalnog gledanja ovakvih njihovih prikaza? Ne kažem da ih izbrišete. Ne možemo obrisati ovu istoriju. Ona je stvarna. Moramo je znati. Razmišljam o njoj na isti način na koji mislimo o -
Let me step back a second. You remember old-school cameras, where when you took a picture, you actually had to focus. Right? You'd put the camera up, and if I wanted you in focus, I would move the lens a little to the left and you would come forward. I could move the lens a little to the right, and you would go back and the folks in the background would come out. I'm just trying to do that here. I'm trying to give you that opportunity. I'm trying to answer that question that my son had. I want to make paintings, I want to make sculptures that are honest, that wrestle with the struggles of our past but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present. And we can't do that by taking an eraser and getting rid of stuff. That's just not going to work. I think that we should do it in the same way the American Constitution works. When we have a situation where we want to change a law in the American Constitution, we don't erase the other one. Alongside that is an amendment, something that says, "This is where we were, but this is where we are right now." I figure if we can do that, then that will help us understand a little bit about where we're going.
Da se vratim unazad na sekundu. Sećate se starih kamera, kod kojih ste, kada ste slikali, morali da fokusirate, je l' tako? Podigli biste kameru, i ako bih hteo fokus na vama, pomerio bih objektiv malo ulevo i vi biste došli napred. Mogao bih da pomerim objektiv malo udesno i vi biste otišli unazad, a ljudi u pozadini napred. Samo pokušavam da to uradim ovde. Pokušavam da vam dam tu priliku. Pokušavam da odgovorim na to pitanje koje je moj sin postavio. Želim da slikam slike, da pravim skulpture koje su iskrene, koje vode borbu sa bitkama naše prošlosti, ali se pozivaju na raznolikost i napretke naše sadašnjosti. A to ne možemo tako što uzmemo gumicu i otarasimo se nekih stvari. To tako neće ići. Mislim da to treba da uradimo na isti način na koji funkcioniše američki ustav. Kada imamo situaciju u kojoj želimo da promenimo zakon u američkom ustavu, ne brišemo onaj drugi. Pored toga je amandman, nešto što kaže: „Ovde smo bili, a ovde smo sada.“ Mislim da, ako to možemo da uradimo, to će nam onda pomoći da razumemo kuda smo se zaputili.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)