藝術，夏加爾和Angie
藝術，夏加爾和Angie
Art，Chagall & Angie
對於藝術這東西我向來知之甚少，就繪畫而言，以前我總覺得「畫得像才是畫得好」，這一無知言論遭到嘲笑之後，對於藝術我開始謹言慎行，好像稍說錯點什麼，生活品味審美能力就被狂甩兩條街。
I have always known little about art. As for painting, Iused to think a painting is good only when it looks like athing or a person. This stupid idea has been a butt of myfriends』 jokes. After that I started to be discreet about art not to say anything wrong, as if my taste of life andaesthetic appreciation would lag behind for my words.
而事實是，無論我怎麼裝，我終究是沒明白藝術這回事，我曾經向很多人提問如何定義藝術和藝術家，得到過不同的高見，曾經穿梭在梵蒂岡博物館這樣的藝術殿堂，而更震撼我的是排隊時間之長，博物館佔地之大，曾經去過大大小小博物館藝術展無數，但終因欣賞不來而沒有留下太深刻的印象。無論我怎麼竭盡全力去欣賞某件藝術作品，我還是發自內心地覺得「像的才是好的」，藝術的概念還是模糊地猶如水蒸氣，飄忽不定。我真是個凡人。
But the fact is, no matter how I pretend, I have no clue about what art is. I』ve asked people how they woulddefine art or an artist and got different ideas. I』ve walked through Vatican Museum, the palace of art, but whatamazed me most was the time I spent in waiting in lineand the massive size of the place. I』ve been to lots ofother museums and art shows, big or small, not beingable to appreciate made it nothing impressive to me. No matter how hard I』ve tried to enjoy a certain piece of art, I feel from the bottom of my heart that 「It』s good when it looks like a thing or a person.」 The concept of art hasalways been as hazy as steam, jumbled and confusing. I』m just ordinary.
最近讀了畫家夏加爾的自傳，書里插了大量夏加爾的作品，在開始閱讀之前隨便翻了幾頁，問別人你覺得這畫怎麼樣，有人說好有人說不好，我甚至看不清畫的什麼，更不知其想通過這些畫作表達些什麼，忽明忽暗的色彩，凌亂的場面，在城市上空的人和動物，飛走的頭顱。和其他自傳一樣，夏加爾的自傳無非也就是介紹自己的生平，和其他自傳不一樣的是，他把他的這些生平寫得像他的畫一樣的跳躍和天馬行空。
I finished reading the autobiography of the artist Marc Chagall recently. There are lots of his works displayed in the book. I showed people some paintings in it before I read the book and asked what they think of them. Some said they』re good and some just ok. I can"t even have an idea what"s exactly in these paintings, let alone knowing what he intended to express with these bright and dark colors, disordered scenes, people and animals over the city or flying skulls. Same as other autobiographies, in his book Chagall wrote nothing but his life. Different from other autobiographies, he wrote about his life in the same way he did his paintings, imaginary and unconstrained.
夏加爾出生於俄國維捷布斯克一個貧困的猶太家庭，身為搬運工的父親希望他能夠學習文化以找到一份像樣的能養家糊口的工作，但是夏加爾從小便有敏銳的觀察力以及對繪畫的特殊興趣，在最初去畫室學畫以及在去聖彼得堡時，父親把極少的錢扔在地上，夏加爾當時的感受是「淚水和自尊令我窒息」。在歷盡艱辛從俄羅斯輾轉到法國之後，夏加爾終於逐漸得到認可並成名。這樣，我對藝術家的基本理解就是，無論多難，做你熱愛的事，過你想過的生活。
Chagall was born in a Jewish family of great poverty in Vitebsk, Russia. His father, a porter, hoped his eldest son would get education so that he would be able to find a decent job to support the family. But Chagall, as a little kid, had shown keen insight in life and great interest in painting. When he first went to a painting school and later on moved to St. Petersburg for further development, his dad always threw a tiny amount of money, basically coins, on the ground. Chagall described it as 「Tears and dignity suffocated me.」 When he made it to move from Russia to France through unbelievable hardships, he finally became more widely recognized and got famous. This built my basic understanding of an artist: Do what you love and live what you want, no matter how hard it is.
生為猶太人，對猶太文化的深情使他的大部分作品都以表現猶太生活為主，書里也著重介紹了猶太教對於作為藝術家的他的深遠影響。那麼我對藝術家的另一個理解便是，藝術家心裡都有一個情結。
As a Jew, Chagall had special affection for Jewish folk culture. His works are mainly about Jewish lifestyle. The book also described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist. This gave me a second idea about artists: they always have nostalgia.
同時猶太人的習俗和宗教傳統給了他無限想像的根源，他在書中說，「照我的看法，藝術首先是一種靈魂狀態。靈魂都是聖潔的。靈魂是自由的，他有自己的理智，自己的邏輯。」這樣一來也就不難理解為什麼他在畫里會讓世界漂浮又斑斕。所以，藝術家需要有自由的靈魂和想像。
Meanwhile, Jewish customs and religious tradition endowed him with endless imagination. He wrote in the book 「Art seems to me to be a state of soul more than anything else. Souls are free. They have their own mind and logic.「 Thus, it』s not difficult to understand why in his paintings he made the world float and colorful. Therefore, artists have free souls and imagination.
這本書的中文版有一個副標題，叫《我的畫就是我的記錄》。在家鄉維捷布斯克，在戰場，在歐洲，他對於很多所見都想「我多想把他們都搬到我的畫布上去，將他們藏在那裡。」他也認為「生活亦如畫家的調色板一樣五彩繽紛」。夏加爾也曾因為猶太種族所遭受的痛苦和威脅而畫風大變，因此我想，藝術家應該是一個能用藝術去記錄和表現生活體驗的人群吧。
The Chinese version of this autobiography has a subtitle which is "My Paintings Are My Memories". In his hometown Vitebsk, in the battlefield, in Europe, he had always wanted to paint on his canvas what he saw and keep them there. He thought life is just as colorful as an artist』s palette and he also changed his painting style due to the sufferings and threatens his race went through. So I guess artists are a group of people who are able to record and express their life experience with a certain form of art.
作為畫家，夏加爾在文學修養並不複雜和華麗，在我看來他的自我表達有點原始感，但卻讓人難以忽視其中的真誠。他在書中提到「哪不弄虛作假，哪兒的靈魂就能自己達到那樣的高度。」所以，藝術家的另一個特性是不是就是真實。
As a painter, Chagall』s literary competence is not magnificent. For me his expressions are kind of primal but full of sincerity. He said in the book 「Souls can get to a high level where there』s no tricks.」 So is it another point to be real as an artist?
夏加爾的第一任妻子貝拉，一直被夏加爾當成靈感的來源，最重要的批評家。貝拉的家人曾經嫌棄夏加爾的畫家身份，認為這個職業是沒辦法讓他賺到麵包的，但是貝拉卻能在夏加爾一打開窗戶，就為他帶來碧空，愛情和鮮花，照亮他的藝術道路。他說只有一種顏色能讓生活和藝術有意義，那就是愛的色彩。是不是就是說，藝術家創作不能沒有愛。
Chagall』s first wife, Bella, had always been a source of inspiration and the most important critic for him. Bella』s family looked down upon his career as a painter, thinking this job would never earn him enough bread. But Bella always brought him blue air, love and flowers the moment he opened his bedroom window and lit up his path of art. He said there is a single color that provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. Is that to say artists can』t create without love?
綜上所述，讀完夏加爾自傳，我對藝術和藝術家的理解就是，通過一種喜歡的形式，藉助自由的靈魂和想像，真實地記錄和體現對生活的感受，而這種生活是一種不屈服，不將就，有艱辛卻充滿愛的生活。
To summarize, after reading Chagall』s autobiography, my idea about art and artists is that with free souls and imagination, artists record how they really feel about life with a form of art that they love. And it』s a type of life in which they don』t give in or make do and it might be hard but full of love.
如果這樣理解還算合理，不必成名成家，很多人都可以是藝術家。至於本人，就沒有精通某一形式來讓我充分記錄生活這一條，就已經讓我遠離藝術家行業，倒是喜歡做飯，但是至今還沒學會怎麼樣通過做一道好吃的菜來表達我的憤怒。如果說生活和藝術是一體的，那麼唯一能讓我離藝術這東西近一點的就是認真過我想過的生活，去享受小事，去認真讀一本書，認真記錄一次旅程，認真做一頓飯，認真學習，認真嘗試，努力真實，並且去愛。
If it sounds reasonable, I think many people can be artists without being well-known. As for me, this single fact that I』m not good enough at any artistic form has made me far away from being an artist. Yes I can cook kind of well, but I haven』t yet got the skill to show my anger with a tasty dish. If art really lies in life, the only thing that can bring me closer to being an artist is to live the life that I want and to enjoy its details, to earnestly read a book, record a journey, make a dinner, learn something new, try out ideas, to be real and to love.
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