I'm going to tell you about an affliction I suffer from. And I have a funny feeling that quite a few of you suffer from it as well. When I'm walking around an art gallery, rooms and rooms full of paintings, after about 15 or 20 minutes, I realize I'm not thinking about the paintings. I'm not connecting to them. Instead, I'm thinking about that cup of coffee I desperately need to wake me up. I'm suffering from gallery fatigue.
我即将会给你讲述一个我曾受很大的折磨 然后我有点感觉到你们有些人 也受到过这个折磨 当我在一个艺术博物馆里走来走去 一间间的屋子里全是画 过了15到20分钟后 我意识到我想的不是这些画 我跟它们没有联系 我满脑子想的都是要来一杯咖啡 让自己好好清醒清醒 我正在受到博物馆审美疲劳的折磨
How many of you out there suffer from -- yes. Ha ha, ha ha! Now, sometimes you might last longer than 20 minutes, or even shorter, but I think we all suffer from it. And do you have the accompanying guilt? For me, I look at the paintings on the wall and I think, somebody has decided to put them there, thinks they're good enough to be on that wall, but I don't always see it. In fact, most of the time I don't see it.
有多少人曾有过同样的经历? 哈哈,果然是有 有时候你坚持的时间也许长过20分钟 有时候不足20分钟 不过我认为我们都受过这样的折磨 那你们有没有伴随着一种罪恶感? 对于我来说,看着墙上的那些画 然后我就想到有人决定把它们放在这里 认为他们在墙上摆着足够好 但我不总这样想 实际上,大多数情况我都不这么想
And I leave feeling actually unhappy. I feel guilty and unhappy with myself, rather than thinking there's something wrong with the painting, I think there's something wrong with me. And that's not a good experience, to leave a gallery like that.
然后呢我离开的时候心情还不好 我对我自己感觉到一种罪恶感以及不愉快 而不是感觉到是墙上那些画有问题 我会认为是我有问题 当然对于离开一个展览馆来说,那种感觉一点儿都不好玩
(Laughter)
(笑声)
The thing is, I think we should give ourselves a break. If you think about going into a restaurant, when you look at the menu, are you expected to order every single thing on the menu? No! You select. If you go into a department store to buy a shirt, are you going to try on every single shirt and want every single shirt? Of course not, you can be selective. It's expected. How come, then, it's not so expected to be selective when we go to an art gallery? Why are we supposed to have a connection with every single painting?
事实上,我认为我们应该给我们自己一个暂停 如果你想要去一家餐馆 当你看菜单的时候,你期待着把菜单上 所有东西都点了吗? 不!你选. 如果你去一个大商场去买件衬衫, 你会把所有衬衫都试一遍然后 都买下来么? 当然不会,你可以进行选择.这都是预先想好的 那为什么当去展览馆的时候,进行选择 又不是被所期待的呢? 为什么我们非得跟每幅画都有个联系?
Well I'm trying to take a different approach. And there's two things I do: When I go into a gallery, first of all, I go quite fast, and I look at everything, and I pinpoint the ones that make me slow down for some reason or other. I don't even know why they make me slow down, but something pulls me like a magnet and then I ignore all the others, and I just go to that painting. So it's the first thing I do is, I do my own curation. I choose a painting. It might just be one painting in 50. And then the second thing I do is I stand in front of that painting, and I tell myself a story about it.
我在试图走另一条路 因此我做了以下两件事: 当我走进一个展览馆的时候,首先我很快地走一遍 我每个都看,然后我把那些能让我慢下来的 画都记下来 我不知道为啥它们让我慢了下来,不过 有些东西就跟磁铁一样吸住了我 然后我把其他的全部忽略,直接去看那幅画 因此我做的第一件事是自己筛选 我先选一副画.有可能是50选一 然后第二件事就是站在那副画的面前 我给我自己讲个关于那画的故事
Why a story? Well, I think that we are wired, our DNA tells us to tell stories. We tell stories all the time about everything, and I think we do it because the world is kind of a crazy, chaotic place, and sometimes stories, we're trying to make sense of the world a little bit, trying to bring some order to it. Why not apply that to our looking at paintings? So I now have this sort of restaurant menu visiting of art galleries.
为什么呢?嗯..因为我们是连接的 我们的DNA让我们去讲故事 我们时时刻刻都在讲各种各样的故事 因为这个世界其实挺疯狂,挺混乱的 有时候我们可以通过故事来更进一步了解世界 并且带来一些秩序 那为什么我们不也在画上用呢? 现在我手里有个餐馆的菜单似的东西 是参观艺术展览馆得来的
There are three paintings I'm going to show you now that are paintings that made me stop in my tracks and want to tell stories about them. The first one needs little introduction -- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer, 17th-century Dutch painter. This is the most glorious painting. I first saw it when I was 19, and I immediately went out and got a poster of it, and in fact I still have that poster. 30 years later it's hanging in my house. It's accompanied me everywhere I've gone, I never tire of looking at her.
我现在准备给你看三幅作品 这些是令我放慢脚步的画 并且想给我讲一个故事 第一个需要我介绍一下-- "戴珍珠耳环的女孩"由Johannes Vermeer创作 17世纪的荷兰画家 这是我见过最繁华的绘画作品 我19岁的时候第一次看到它 然后我立刻去了海报店买了一张 实际上现在我还有那个海报呢,30年后还在我家挂着 我每次去哪它都伴随着我 我看她从未感到无聊
What made me stop in my tracks about her to begin with was just the gorgeous colors he uses and the light falling on her face. But I think what's kept me still coming back year after year is another thing, and that is the look on her face, the conflicted look on her face. I can't tell if she's happy or sad, and I change my mind all the time. So that keeps me coming back.
之所以它令我放慢脚步 是因为这些美丽的颜色 以及在她脸上的坠下的光芒 不过我认为令我不断回来欣赏的原因 是另外一个东西,那就是 她脸上矛盾,纠结的表情 我看不出来她高兴还是伤心 而且我时时刻刻在改变主意 因此它持续吸引我注意力
One day, 16 years after I had this poster on my wall, I lay in bed and looked at her, and I suddenly thought, I wonder what the painter did to her to make her look like that. And it was the first time I'd ever thought that the expression on her face is actually reflecting how she feels about him. Always before I'd thought of it as a portrait of a girl. Now I began to think of it as a portrait of a relationship. And I thought, well, what is that relationship?
一天,在我在墙上挂的这幅海报16年后, 我躺在床上看着她 然后我突然想到,我想知道 画家是怎样把她画成这样的 那是我第一次想到这一点 她脸上的表情实际上反映出她对 画家本人的看法 在我之前总认为这只不过是对一个女孩的画像, 现在我觉得是对于一段感情的描绘 然后我就想到,嗯...那是什么感情呢?
So I went to find out. I did some research and discovered, we have no idea who she is. In fact, we don't know who any of the models in any of Vermeer's paintings are, and we know very little about Vermeer himself. Which made me go, "Yippee!" I can do whatever I want, I can come up with whatever story I want to.
因此我做了些研究,然后发现 我不知道她是谁 实际上,我们不知道任何出现在Vermeer 画中的人是谁 而且我们对于Vermeer也是知道很少 这让我也是很兴奋! 我可以想干啥干啥.我可以随便想一个故事
So here's how I came up with the story. First of all, I thought, I've got to get her into the house. How does Vermeer know her? Well, there've been suggestions that she is his 12-year-old daughter. The daughter at the time was 12 when he painted the painting. And I thought, no, it's a very intimate look, but it's not a look a daughter gives her father. For one thing, in Dutch painting of the time, if a woman's mouth was open, it was indicating sexual availability. It would have been inappropriate for Vermeer to paint his daughter like that.
现在我告诉你我怎么想的故事 首先,我想到, 我得把她带到房间来, Vermeer怎么知道她的 有记录表明 她是他的12岁的女儿 在那副画里,他女儿当时就是12岁 我又想到,不,这个表情很亲近, 但是不是一个女儿给爸爸的表情 对于当时的荷兰绘画来说, 如果一个女的嘴巴是张开的,就表明她是性开放的 对于Vermeer来说是不会把他女儿 画成那样的
So it's not his daughter, but it's somebody close to him, physically close to him. Well, who else would be in the house? A servant, a lovely servant. So, she's in the house. How do we get her into the studio? We don't know very much about Vermeer, but the little bits that we do know, one thing we know is that he married a Catholic woman, they lived with her mother in a house where he had his own room where he -- his studio. He also had 11 children. It would have been a chaotic, noisy household. And if you've seen Vermeer's paintings before, you know that they're incredibly calm and quiet.
因此呢这不是他女儿,但是是一个跟 他很靠近的人 那么,还有谁在他的家呢? 一个管家,很漂亮的管家 她在房间里 那我们怎么把她弄到工作室里呢? 我们对于Vermeer不是很了解 不过对于他起码我们知道他与一个 天主教的女人结婚了,他们与她母亲同住 在他自己有一个房间的房子里-- 他的工作室.他还有11个小孩, 家里按说应该非常吵闹和乱 不过你如果之前看过Vermeer画的画, 你知道他画的画都特别的镇静和安静
How does a painter paint such calm, quiet paintings with 11 kids around? Well, he compartmentalizes his life. He gets to his studio, and he says, "Nobody comes in here. Not the wife, not the kids. Okay, the maid can come in and clean." She's in the studio. He's got her in the studio, they're together. And he decides to paint her.
一个画家是怎样在11孩子身边画出这样安静的作品呢? 他把自己的生活隔离了起来 每回他进工作室的时候,他会说:"没人能进这里." 妻子不行,孩子不行.好吧,管家可以进去进行打扫 这样她就在工作室里面,他们在一起 于是他决定给她画副画
He has her wear very plain clothes. Now, all of the women, or most of the women in Vermeer's other paintings wore velvet, silk, fur, very sumptuous materials. This is very plain; the only thing that isn't plain is her pearl earring. Now, if she's a servant, there is no way she could afford a pair of pearl earrings. So those are not her pearl earrings. Whose are they? We happen to know, there's a list of Catharina, the wife's clothes. Amongst them a yellow coat with white fur, a yellow and black bodice, and you see these clothes on lots of other paintings, different women in the paintings, Vermeer's paintings. So clearly, her clothes were lent to various different women. It's not such a leap of faith to take that that pearl earring actually belongs to his wife.
他让她穿上很朴素的衣服 在Vermeer的画里,大多数女人 都穿天鹅绒,丝质品,毛制品,非常奢侈的衣服 但这却很朴素,唯一一个不朴素的 是她的珍珠耳环 如果她是个管家的话,显然她不可能买得起 这样的耳环 因此这些耳环不是她的,那是谁的呢? 不过我们得知他妻子Catharina的衣服 其中有一件是带着白色毛的黄色大衣 一件黄色加黑色的紧身上衣 你可以在其他很多作品中见到 在Vermeer的作品中见到 因此很明显,她妻子的衣服曾借给过很多人 说那对耳环其实是他妻子的 其实也并不夸张
So we've got all the elements for our story. She's in the studio with him for a long time. These paintings took a long time to make. They would have spent the time alone, all that time. She's wearing his wife's pearl earring. She's gorgeous. She obviously loves him. She's conflicted. And does the wife know? Maybe not. And if she doesn't, well -- that's the story.
因此呢我们把故事中所有元素都找到了 她在工作室里与他呆了很长时间 这些画用了很长时间 他们单独在一起呆了很长时间 她在戴着他妻子的耳环, 她长得漂亮极了.她很爱他.但是她又很矛盾 那他妻子知道么?估计不知道. 如果她不知道的话,那么呢.... 好吧,故事完了.
(Laughter)
(笑声)
The next painting I'm going to talk about is called "Boy Building a House of Cards" by Chardin. He's an 18th-century French painter best known for his still lifes, but he did occasionally paint people. And in fact, he painted four versions of this painting, different boys building houses of cards, all concentrated. I like this version the best, because some of the boys are older and some are younger, and to me, this one, like Goldilocks's porridge, is just right.
下一个我要讲的画叫做 "建造卡片房子的男孩"由Chaedin创作 他是个以他的静止生命绘画所著名的18世纪法国画家 不过他偶尔也画画人 实际上,他画过这幅画的四个版本 不同的造卡片房子的男孩,都是聚集在一起的 我最喜欢的是这个版本,因为这里面有些男孩年轻点, 有些年长点,而且对我来说 这幅就像是Goldilock的粥,感觉太对了
He's not quite a child, and he's not quite a man. He's absolutely balanced between innocence and experience, and that made me stop in my tracks in front of this painting. And I looked at his face. It's like a Vermeer painting a bit. The light comes in from the left, his face is bathed in this glowing light. It's right in the center of the painting, and you look at it, and I found that when I was looking at it, I was standing there going, "Look at me. Please look at me." And he didn't look at me. He was still looking at his cards, and that's one of the seductive elements of this painting is, he's so focused on what he's doing that he doesn't look at us. And that is, to me, the sign of a masterpiece, of a painting when there's a lack of resolution. He's never going to look at me.
他不是完全一个小孩,也不是完全一个男人 他完全介于天真的成熟之间 这就是为什么这幅画令我放慢了脚步 我看着他的脸.有点像是Vermmer画的 光从左边进来,他的脸 被光芒笼罩着.就在画面的正中央 如果你看看的话,当我看的时候 我就站在那说话:" 看着我.快看着我." 不过他还是看着他的卡片 这是他的画诱惑人的一个地方 他在专注于自己正在干的事情以至于他不关注别人 对我来说,那就是一副杰作的标志 一个缺少决心的画 他永远不会看着我
So I was thinking of a story where, if I'm in this position, who could be there looking at him? Not the painter, I don't want to think about the painter. I'm thinking of an older version of himself. He's a man, a servant, an older servant looking at this younger servant, saying, "Look at me. I want to warn you about what you're about to go through. Please look at me." And he never does.
因此我在想一个故事 如果我在那个位置的时候,谁又会看着我呢? 不会是画家,我不想去想那个画家 我在想一个更老一点的他自己 他是个男人,一个管家,一个年长的管家看着这个年轻的管家 说到:"看着我.我想要告诫你 你将会遇到什么.请看着我." 不过他从来不看
And that lack of resolution, the lack of resolution in "Girl with a Pearl Earring" -- we don't know if she's happy or sad. I've written an entire novel about her, and I still don't know if she's happy or sad. Again and again, back to the painting, looking for the answer, looking for the story to fill in that gap. And we may make a story, and it satisfies us momentarily, but not really, and we come back again and again.
就是那种决心的缺少,在"戴着珍珠耳环的女孩"中 我们不知道她到底是高兴还不伤心 我写过整个一本关于她的小说, 但是我还是不知道她到底是高兴还是难过 一次又一次,我回到那幅画 想找到一个答案,找到一个能给出答案的故事 而我们可以编一个故事,它可以使我们暂时性的满足 不过不是完全的,然后我们再次回来
The last painting I'm going to talk about is called "Anonymous" by anonymous. (Laughter)
最后一个我要讲述的画呢 叫做"匿名",是由匿名画的.(笑声)
This is a Tudor portrait bought by the National Portrait Gallery. They thought it was a man named Sir Thomas Overbury, and then they discovered that it wasn't him, and they have no idea who it is.
这是一个对都铎的描绘,是由国家素肖像览馆购买的 他们认为这是个叫Thomas Overbury的男人 不过在他们发现不是他后, 他们就不知道是谁了
Now, in the National Portrait Gallery, if you don't know the biography of the painting, it's kind of useless to you. They can't hang it on the wall, because they don't know who he is. So unfortunately, this orphan spends most of his time in storage, along with quite a number of other orphans, some of them some beautiful paintings.
在国家肖像展览馆中, 如果你不知道作品的来龙去脉 那就没什么用了 他们没法把这幅作品挂出来,因为他们不知道他是谁 因此很可惜,这个孤儿在库房度过了大多数的时间 同时跟其他的一堆孤儿一起度过的 有一些是很美丽的绘画
This painting made me stop in my tracks for three reasons: One is the disconnection between his mouth that's smiling and his eyes that are wistful. He's not happy, and why isn't he happy? The second thing that really attracted me were his bright red cheeks. He is blushing. He's blushing for his portrait being made! This must be a guy who blushes all the time. What is he thinking about that's making him blush? The third thing that made me stop in my tracks is his absolutely gorgeous doublet. Silk, gray, those beautiful buttons. And you know what it makes me think of, is it's sort of snug and puffy; it's like a duvet spread over a bed.
有三个原因这幅画让我停了下来 一个是他的带着笑容的嘴巴与留恋的眼睛 之间的分离 他不是很高兴,不过为什么呢? 第二个吸引我的是 他亮红的脸蛋 他脸都红了,因为别人在给他画肖像 肯定是一个脸很容易红的家伙 那他在想什么以至于他的脸红了呢? 第三件事就是 他非常漂亮的紧身上衣 丝质,灰色,带着美丽的扣子 它令我想到 这件衣服很温暖很舒服,就跟在床上的一床羽绒被一样
I kept thinking of beds and red cheeks, and of course I kept thinking of sex when I looked at him, and I thought, is that what he's thinking about? And I thought, if I'm going to make a story, what's the last thing I'm going to put in there? Well, what would a Tudor gentleman be preoccupied with? And I thought, well, Henry VIII, okay. He'd be preoccupied with his inheritance, with his heir. Who is going to inherit his name and his fortune? You put all those together, and you've got your story to fill in that gap that makes you keep coming back. Now, here's the story. It's short.
我不断想着床和他们的红脸蛋 当然我看他的时候,我一直在想着性爱, 然后我就想,他是不是就在想性爱呢? 我又想到,如果我要编一个故事, 我最不想编的是什么? 一个都铎的绅士应该全神贯注与谁呢? 嗯..应该是亨利八世,好吧. 他应该对他的家产和遗产很着迷 谁会继承他的名字的财富呢? 你把这些都加进去,你就有你的故事了 这样你就填满了漏洞,使得你不断回来 这就是我的故事 非常短
"Rosy"
"玫瑰红"
I am still wearing the white brocade doublet Caroline gave me. It has a plain high collar, detachable sleeves and intricate buttons of twisted silk thread, set close together so that the fit is snug. The doublet makes me think of a coverlet on the vast bed. Perhaps that was the intention. I first wore it at an elaborate dinner her parents held in our honor. I knew even before I stood up to speak that my cheeks were inflamed. I have always flushed easily, from physical exertion, from wine, from high emotion.
我还是穿着Caroline给我的白色棉缎的紧身上衣 它有个高的领子,可以卸掉的袖子 以及用卷在一起复杂丝线做成的扣子 这些都在一起因此衣服穿起来很舒服 紧身上衣使我想起了在一张大床上的床单 也许这是我的初衷 我在她家长举行的一次晚宴上第一次穿这件衣服, 在我站起来说话之前我就 知道我的脸蛋发烫 我从来都是很容易就脸红了,体育锻炼, 红酒,以及强的情感
As a boy, I was teased by my sisters and by schoolboys, but not by George. Only George could call me Rosy. I would not allow anyone else. He managed to make the word tender. When I made the announcement, George did not turn rosy, but went pale as my doublet. He should not have been surprised. It has been a common assumption that I would one day marry his cousin. But it is difficult to hear the words aloud. I know, I could barely utter them.
当我是个小孩的时候,我被我的姐姐们和在学校的男孩们嘲笑 不过George从未嘲笑我 只有George把我叫做玫瑰红 我只允许他一个人这么叫 他想要让这个世界更加温暖 当我在发表演讲时,George 没有变玫瑰红,但却变得跟我紧身上衣一样白 他不应该变得这么惊讶 应该很容易就推测出来 有一天我要区他的表妹 不过实际听到这一刻却很难 我几乎说不出来了
Afterwards, I found George on the terrace overlooking the kitchen garden. Despite drinking steadily all afternoon, he was still pale. We stood together and watched the maids cut lettuces. "What do you think of my doublet?" I asked.
在那之后,我看到George在阳台上鸟瞰厨房的花园 尽管他整个下午都在思考,但他的脸还是白的 我们站在一起,注视着管家把生菜切掉 "你觉得我的紧身上衣怎么样?"我问到
He glanced at me. "That collar looks to be strangling you."
他扫了我一眼."领子看起来要把你勒死."
"We will still see each other," I insisted. "We can still hunt and play cards and attend court. Nothing need change." George did not speak. "I am 23 years old. It is time for me to marry and produce an heir. It is expected of me."
"我们还会见面的."我坚定地说到 "我们还是可以去打猎,去玩牌,还有出席在法院. 没有任何事会改变." George没说话 "我都23岁了.也该是结婚和找继承人 的时候了.对我来说这都是理所当然的."
George drained another glass of claret and turned to me. "Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, James. I'm sure you'll be content together." He never used my nickname again.
George喝干了另一杯葡萄酒然后转了过来 "我对你的婚姻表示祝贺,James. 我相信你们在一起一定很幸福." 至此之后,他再也没有用过我的昵称了.
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(鼓掌)