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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
At some point in their lives, many artists spend time painting themselves - self-portraits that express who they are at a particular moment. Washington's National Portrait Gallery is showing over 70 such works. Edward Hopper, at 21, is moody1 in a charcoal2 turtleneck. Diego Rivera does not disguise his double chin. Jim Dine has no chin, eyes or mouth. He's headless. He just etches his bathrobe. NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg has more.
SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE3: Why are there so many self-portraits?
KIM SAJET: Artists will tell you they're available.
STAMBERG: Kim Sajet is director of the Portrait Gallery.
SAJET: In the middle of the night, when the urge strikes, you've got yourself.
STAMBERG: Or they can't afford a model or they're vain or - curator Brandon Fortune's theory - they're working out technical problems.
BRANDON FORTUNE: But they're also done as a kind of self-reflection, to present a persona to the world that may not be true or authentic4 but is the character that the artist wants to be remembered as.
STAMBERG: Alice Neel's self-portrait, begun when she was 75, is as authentic, as vital, as she was on NPR at age 79.
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ALICE NEEL: I am known primarily for my obsession5 with humanoids. That's true.
STAMBERG: Painting herself, seated in a comfy blue and white striped chair, Neel was ruthless and brave.
FORTUNE: She's entirely6 nude7. Her breasts are sagging8.
STAMBERG: Her belly9 bulges10. Her lips turn down. There's a brush in her right hand, a bright, white rag in the left.
FORTUNE: She said at one point that this portrait was really hard to make. She said, it was so hard that my cheeks got red with the effort.
STAMBERG: No wonder. Alice Neel is taking on the entire history of nude paintings, mostly starting in the 16th century made by men. Historically, the male gaze was loving, lustful11, idealistic.
FORTUNE: And she just flips12 it. She takes control of the gaze. It's her gaze. She takes control of the way that her body is going to be presented.
STAMBERG: An act of truth and audacity13 - so different from the way painter Thomas Hart Benton showed himself in 1924. He was on Martha's Vineyard, crazy about his new wife, Rita, and the movies.
SAJET: Thomas Hart Benton's portrait makes him look out to be some Hollywood, dashing superstar.
STAMBERG: Swashbuckling, black-moustached, muscled and hunky.
FORTUNE: Stripped to the waist...
STAMBERG: Hunky.
FORTUNE: It is definitely an assertion of vigor14, wouldn't you say?
STAMBERG: Indeed - and sexy.
FORTUNE: Very much so.
STAMBERG: The photograph Walker Evans took of himself in 1934 is neither vigorous nor preening15. He was working for the Farm Security Administration, hired to document the Depression's effect on Americans.
FORTUNE: He's, at the end of the day, photographing misery16 and seeing how people are forced to live during this terrible time in our history.
STAMBERG: Walker Evans' eyes hold pain. His face is full of compassion17. He has seen awful things, and making sure we see them, too. There's no way not to see Chuck Close's self-portrait. He has taken 16 big, Polaroid glossies18, each one measuring 20 by 24 inches, and linked them mosaic-like into a huge color image - about 9 by 7 feet huge.
FORTUNE: We are seeing Close's face, bearded, wearing his round glasses, looking straight out at us.
STAMBERG: The work is especially gripping now as Chuck Close's National Gallery exhibit was recently canceled after accusations19 of sexual harassment20, for which he apologized. His self-portrait was done following a personal tragedy. The artist was left paralyzed after a spinal21 artery22 collapse23 in 1988.
FORTUNE: He made this Polaroid the following year. And he's looking for ways to make art that can be done by someone who is a quadriplegic.
STAMBERG: But he's also - I mean, it's so rich with meaning or a way to interpret it is saying, I'm going to surmount24 this. I'm larger than what's happened to me. I'm still here.
FORTUNE: I think you're absolutely right.
STAMBERG: They're all still here in this National Portrait Gallery show on view until mid-August - messages to the future in oil, lithograph25, pencil, charcoal, video - how artists saw themselves, how they wanted us to see them. In Washington, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.
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1 moody | |
adj.心情不稳的,易怒的,喜怒无常的 | |
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2 charcoal | |
n.炭,木炭,生物炭 | |
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3 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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4 authentic | |
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
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5 obsession | |
n.困扰,无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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6 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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7 nude | |
adj.裸体的;n.裸体者,裸体艺术品 | |
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8 sagging | |
下垂[沉,陷],松垂,垂度 | |
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9 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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10 bulges | |
膨胀( bulge的名词复数 ); 鼓起; (身体的)肥胖部位; 暂时的激增 | |
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11 lustful | |
a.贪婪的;渴望的 | |
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12 flips | |
轻弹( flip的第三人称单数 ); 按(开关); 快速翻转; 急挥 | |
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13 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
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14 vigor | |
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
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15 preening | |
v.(鸟)用嘴整理(羽毛)( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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16 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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17 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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18 glossies | |
用亮光纸印刷的杂志( glossy的名词复数 ) | |
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19 accusations | |
n.指责( accusation的名词复数 );指控;控告;(被告发、控告的)罪名 | |
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20 harassment | |
n.骚扰,扰乱,烦恼,烦乱 | |
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21 spinal | |
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;adj.脊骨的,脊髓的 | |
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22 artery | |
n.干线,要道;动脉 | |
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23 collapse | |
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷 | |
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24 surmount | |
vt.克服;置于…顶上 | |
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25 lithograph | |
n.平板印刷,平板画;v.用平版印刷 | |
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