最后兩章沒有提到的事實是:當(dāng)今世界幾乎所有的國家都有優(yōu)秀的畫家。因此,無論走到哪里,都應(yīng)該去參觀值得欣賞的繪畫作品。
91 MODERN SCULPTURE現(xiàn)代雕刻
MODERN sculpture can be non-realistic just as painting can, Non-realistic sculpture gives the idea, the thought, the impression of something. The sculptor doesn’t try to make an exact copy of something he sees.
If you will look at the picture called “Bird in Space” you will see an example of non-realistic sculpture. You can see that it doesn’t look like a bird. But it does give the idea of flight. The flight of a bird depends upon wings and this sculpture seems to be all wing. At least most people think it looks wing-like. It is a smooth streamlined wing shape. Constantin Brancusi, its sculptor, carved into it no feathers, no body, no head or tail of a bird. Some people think that a piece of sculpture called a bird should look like a bird. In this sculpture, however, the flight of a bird, not the bird itself, is the important idea.
Non-realistic sculpture is a twentieth century kind of sculpture. Brancusi was one of the first to develop this style. He was born in Romania and studied art there as a young man. Then he went to Paris and worked in the studio of the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. At first his sculpture was realistic like Rodin’s. But he became interested in non-realistic sculpture and soon stopped making realistic statues.
Brancusi not only made new forms of sculpture but he tried using many different materials. He made sculptures in wood, bronze, marble, stone, glass, and steel. “Bird in Space” is his best-known work.
The sculpture called “Girl Washing Her Hair” is by Hugo Robus, an American born in Cleveland. It is much more realistic than Brancusi’s “Bird in Space.” It isn’t, however, very realistic. It isn’t a portrait. It has no eyes, nose, or mouth to show which girl this is. It’s any girl. What she is doing is more important than who she is. The sculptor didn’t need to show us a whole person to let us see that hairwashing is being done. If anything else were added (like a nose or mouth or feet) it would not make the idea of hairwashing any clearer.
No.91-1 BIRD IN SPACE(《空中的鳥》)
BRANCUSI(布朗庫西制)
Collection the Museum of Modern Art,
New York
No.91-2 GIRL WASHING HER HAIR (《洗頭發(fā)的少女》) ROBUS (羅布斯 制)
Collection the Museum of Modern Art, New York
It’s fun to find a piece of sculpture that is not too dignified and serious. Most sculpture has been, in the past, very dignified and very serious. There are the busts of powerful men like the Roman emperors, statues of Greek gods and of heroes on horseback and of Christian saints. There are imaginary figures called Victory, or Liberty, or Justice. These are all very solemn and impressive statues, as if the sculptors didn’t want to waste their valuable time and marble on unimportant subjects that are familiar and amusing.
People, however, like familiar and amusing things. Statues of the kind of people we see every day, doing the things we are all used to, are usually well liked. More and more modern sculptors are carving these familiar and everyday kind of people like the “Girl Washing Her Hair.” Nobody ever saw Victory or Liberty or Justice washing their hair, even as statues.
Look back at page 196 at the “Boy with Thorn.” Even two thousand years ago some sculptors had found it fun to make such familiar, everyday, amusing statues. “Boy with Thorn” is much more realistic than “Girl Washing Her Hair.”
No.91-3 A SECTION OF THE RAINEY MEMORIAL GATEWAY BY PAUL MANSHIP.
NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK(紐約動物園雷尼紀(jì)念館門道一部分)
(保羅·曼希普 制)
Courtesy of Paul Manship
You don’t have to go to a museum to see the different kinds of sculpture. Every city has sculptures in parks and on monuments and on the outside of buildings. As they are out of doors they are easy to photograph and make good subjects for your camera.
When you visit the city of Washington you see sculpture almost everywhere. When you visit New York City you probably will go to Rockefeller Center and to the zoo. At Rockefeller Center you can see a large bronze piece of sculpture called “Prometheus.” It is by a famous American sculptor, Paul Manship. And at the New York Zoological Park you can see the beautiful bronze entrance gates. They are also by Paul Manship. Entrance gates to a zoo, you might think, should be decorated with carvings of animals. Paul Manship thought so too. The bronze work around the gates is full of wild animals: bears, deer, baboons, lions. Paul Manship’s work is realistic and has a fine decorative quality.
Modern sculpture, you see, is of several kinds. Some is non-realistic like Brancusi’s“Bird in Space.” Some is more realistic, giving the general form of an object but not trying to be a close copy of the living thing, like “Girl Washing Her Hair” by Robus. And some modern sculpture is realistic, but decorative, like Paul Manship’s“Prometheus” and his animals of the zoological gates. All three kinds of modern sculpture are worth seeing.
現(xiàn)代雕刻和繪畫一樣也有非現(xiàn)實主義風(fēng)格。非現(xiàn)實主義的雕刻傳達(dá)了對事物的看法、觀點和印象。雕刻家對他們所看到的事物一般不會原原本本地雕刻出來。
如果你有幸看到一尊名為《空中的鳥》的雕刻作品,那你就看到非現(xiàn)實主義的雕刻的例子了。你會發(fā)現(xiàn)它看起來根本不像一只鳥。但是它確實傳達(dá)了一種飛翔的理念。鳥的飛翔主要是靠翅膀,而這尊雕刻似乎全部都是翅膀。線條整體光滑而流暢。君士坦丁堡的布朗庫西,這幅作品的雕刻家,將它雕成一只沒有羽毛、沒有身體、沒有腦袋,甚至沒有尾巴的鳥。有些人認(rèn)為稱作鳥的雕刻應(yīng)該看上去像只鳥才對。但是這件作品,表達(dá)的是鳥的飛翔,而不是鳥本身,而飛翔才是它所要表達(dá)的重要主題。
非現(xiàn)實主義雕刻是二十世紀(jì)的一種雕刻風(fēng)格。布朗庫西是開發(fā)這種風(fēng)格的鼻祖之一。他出生在羅馬尼亞,青年時期在那兒學(xué)習(xí)藝術(shù)。他后來去了巴黎,在法國偉大雕刻家奧古斯特·羅丹的工作室工作。但他卻對非現(xiàn)實主義的雕刻發(fā)生興趣,很快就不再雕刻現(xiàn)實主義的作品了。
布朗庫西不但創(chuàng)作了新的雕刻形式,還嘗試使用不同的雕刻材料,如木頭、青銅、大理石、巖石、玻璃和鋼鐵。“空中的鳥”是他最著名的作品。
這尊叫《洗頭發(fā)的少女》的雕刻作者是雨果·羅布斯,一個出生在克里弗蘭的美國人。它比布朗庫西的《空中的鳥》要寫實得多,但也不是太現(xiàn)實。它不是肖像畫。它沒用眼睛、鼻子,甚至也沒用嘴巴,來表明這位少女是誰。她可以是任何一位少女。她正在做的事比她是誰要重要得多。雕刻家不需要向我們展示整個人體來讓我們知道洗頭發(fā)這件事。如果非要加上一點什么的話(如鼻子、嘴巴或腳),這些添加的東西并不會使洗頭發(fā)這個主題更加清晰。
發(fā)現(xiàn)某件不太體面或輕佻的雕刻是非常有意思的事。過去的大部分雕刻都是非常嚴(yán)肅體面的。譬如那些有權(quán)柄之人的半身像,如羅馬君王;還有希臘神像、馬背上的英雄以及基督教圣徒的雕像等;再就是想象中的人物,如勝利女神、自由女神或正義女神。這些都是非常莊嚴(yán)、讓人印象深刻的雕刻。雕刻家們好像不想把他們的寶貴時間和大理石浪費在不重要的、常見的或搞笑的對象上吧。
但是人們都喜歡熟悉和搞笑的事物。那些我們在日常生活中看到的形形色色的人物雕像,以及他們平時做的普普通通的事情,都是我們所喜歡的。越來越多的現(xiàn)代雕刻家正在雕刻像《洗頭發(fā)的少女》這些人們熟悉的日常事物。沒有人看過勝利女神、自由女神或正義女神正在洗頭發(fā)這件事,即便是雕像也是如此。
往回翻到第39章圖39-4,看看《拔刺的男孩》雕像。即便是在兩千年前,就有雕刻家發(fā)現(xiàn)制作日常生活中熟悉的、搞笑的雕像也是非常有趣的。只是《拔刺的男孩》比《洗頭發(fā)的少女》的手法更加寫實。
你沒有必要非到博物館去看各式各樣的雕刻作品。當(dāng)你去紐約訪問時,你可能會去洛克菲勒中心或動物園。在洛克菲勒中心你會看到一座名叫《普羅米修斯》的巨型銅雕。它的制作者是美國著名雕刻家保羅·曼希普。在紐約動物園里,你可以看到美觀的青銅大門。那也是出自保羅·曼希普之手。你或許會認(rèn)為,動物園的大門上肯定要用動物雕像來做裝飾的。保羅·曼希普也是這樣想的。大門上雕的青銅作品中有各種動物:熊、鹿、狒狒和獅子。保羅·曼希普的作品是寫實的,裝飾效果非常好。
你看到了吧,現(xiàn)代雕刻也有好幾種類型。有些是非現(xiàn)實主義的雕刻作品,像布朗庫西的《空中的鳥》;有些比較寫實,刻出了對象的形態(tài),雖然并沒試圖刻出活物的全貌,像羅伯斯的《洗頭發(fā)的少女》。還有一些現(xiàn)代雕刻作品就是寫實的,但卻具有裝飾性,如保羅·曼希普的《普羅米修斯》以及他在動物園大門上刻的動物雕像。這三種現(xiàn)代雕刻作品都值得一看。