Written by Anirudh
October 19, 2017
Edited and translated by Sally Tao
August 5, 2020
This article is reprinted from Learnodo Newtonic.
本文转载自Learnodo Newtonic。
You may notice some yellow highlighted words in the text that may be unfamiliar to you. There are explanations and pronunciation hints for these words at the bottom of the page. Good luck!
你或许留意到了正文中的一些黄色高亮单词,这些单词可能有些难。页面底部有这些单词的释义和发音提示。祝好运!
Early American paintings were primarily portraits, landscapes, and depictions of historical events. The first prominent art movement in the United States was Realism, which originated in France in the 1850s and became important in America by the early 20th century. American Realists depicted contemporary social realities and the lives and everyday activities of ordinary people. The best-known paintings of the movement include Hopper’s Nighthawks and Wyeth’s Christina’s World. Abstract Expressionism was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence. It incorporated a variety of styles and emphasized on conveying strong emotional or expressive content through abstraction. The best-known figure of the movement was Jackson Pollock. Another major American art movement of the 20th century was the Pop Art movement which focused on popular culture. Its most famous works include Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych and Lichtenstein’s Wham! Know more about the contribution of American artists to the art world through there 10 most famous paintings.
早期的美国绘画主要是肖像画、风景画和对历史事件的描述。美国第一个著名的艺术运动是现实主义,它起源于19世纪50年代的法国,到20世纪初在美国变得重要。美国现实主义者描绘了当代的社会现实和普通人的生活和日常活动。该运动最著名的画作包括霍珀的《夜鹰》和惠氏的《克里斯蒂娜的世界》。抽象表现主义是第一个在国际上产生影响的具体的美国运动。它融合了多种风格,强调通过抽象来传达强烈的情感或表达的内容。该运动最著名的人物是杰克逊·波洛克。20世纪另一个主要的美国艺术运动是聚焦于流行文化的波普艺术运动。它最著名的作品包括沃霍尔的《玛丽莲双连诗》和列支敦士登的《Whaam!》通过这里的10幅最著名的画作了解美国艺术家对艺术世界的贡献。
Artist: Andy Warhol
Year: 1962
Marilyn Diptych (1962) – Andy Warhol
Legendary American actress Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962. In the following weeks, Andy Warhol, acclaimed as the Pope of Pop Art, made this masterpiece which contains fifty images of the actress. All the images are based on the same publicity photograph from the 1953 film Niagara. The 25 images on the left side of the work are vividly colored while the 25 on the right are in black and white with an effect of fading. Critics suggest that the contrast is suggestive of the star’s mortality. Marilyn Diptych is an iconic work of the Pop Art movement; the best-known masterpiece of Andy Warhol; and the most famous painting by an American artist. In 2004, it was named the third most influential piece of modern art in a survey of 500 artists, curators, critics, and dealers which was commissioned by the sponsor of the Turner Prize.
美国传奇女演员玛丽莲·梦露于1962年8月去世。在接下来的几周里,被誉为波普艺术教皇的安迪·沃霍尔创作了这幅包含50幅女演员肖像的杰作。所有的照片都是基于1953年电影《尼亚加拉》的宣传照片。作品左边的25张图片色彩鲜明,右边的25张图片是黑白的,有退色的效果。批评者认为,这种对比暗示了这颗恒星的死亡。《玛丽莲双版画》是波普艺术运动的标志性作品;安迪·沃霍尔最著名的杰作;也是美国艺术家最著名的画作。2004年,在特纳奖赞助商委托对500名艺术家、策展人、评论家和交易商进行的一项调查中,它被评为第三位最有影响力的现代艺术作品。
Artist: Edward Hopper
Year: 1942
Nighthawks (1942) – Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper, the most famous American realist, is best known for revealing the solitude of modern life and forcing the viewer to play a more active role in completing the narrative of artworks. His art is marked by a minimum of action with almost no sign of life and mobility; and the use of dramatic means to suggest the psychological states of his subjects. This painting, which portrays people in a downtown diner late at night, was inspired by a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue, the artist’s neighborhood in Manhattan. It has been interpreted as an illustration of the chilling effects of the Second World War and as a portrayal of the isolation of an individual amid the bustle of New York City. The most famous work of Hopper, Nighthawks is one of the most recognizable paintings in American art. It influenced many future American artists and has been widely referenced and parodied in popular culture.
美国最著名的现实主义者爱德华·霍珀以揭示现代生活的孤独,迫使观者在作品的叙事中扮演更加主动的角色而闻名。他的艺术以最少的动作为特征,几乎没有生命和活动的迹象;并运用戏剧手法来暗示人物的心理状态。这幅画描绘的是深夜人们在市中心的一家餐馆用餐,灵感来自于他所在的曼哈顿社区格林威治大道上的一家餐馆。这本书被解读为二战令人寒心的影响的例证,也被解读为一个人在纽约市的喧嚣中被孤立的写照。霍珀最著名的作品《夜鹰》是美国艺术界最知名的画作之一。它影响了许多未来的美国艺术家,并在流行文化中被广泛引用和模仿。
Artist: Andrew Wyeth
Year: 1948
Christina’s World (1948) – Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. His precise realistic views of rural life became icons of American culture and challenged the nature of modern art in the nation, which was primarily abstract. His masterpiece, Christina’s World, is among the most famous American paintings of the middle 20th century. It depicts a woman lying on the field looking at a gray house on the horizon. The woman in the painting is Anna Christina Olson. She was Wyeth’s neighbor in South Cushing, Maine and she suffered from a degenerative muscular disorder that prevented her from walking. Wyeth was inspired to create the masterpiece when he saw her crawling across a field from his window. Though it received little attention on first being displayed, Christina’s World grew in popularity over the years. It is now regarded as an icon of American art and one of the most important works of American realism.
安德鲁·怀斯是20世纪中期美国最著名的艺术家之一。他对乡村生活的精确的现实主义观点成为美国文化的标志,并挑战了美国现代艺术的本质,而现代艺术主要是抽象的。他的代表作《克里斯蒂娜的世界》是20世纪中期美国最著名的画作之一。它描绘了一个女人躺在田野上,看着地平线上的一座灰色的房子。画中的女子是安娜·克里斯蒂娜·奥尔森。她是惠氏在缅因州南库欣的邻居,她患有肌肉退行性疾病,无法行走。当惠氏看到她从他的窗口爬过田野时,他受到启发创作了这幅杰作。尽管第一次展出时并没有引起多少关注,但克里斯蒂娜的《世界》在这些年里越来越受欢迎。它现在被认为是美国艺术的象征和美国现实主义最重要的作品之一。
Artist: John Singer Sargent
Year: 1884
Portrait of Madame X (1884) – John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist residing in Paris at the time he created this painting. He was in his late 20s and trying to make a name for himself. Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau was an American expatriate who married a French banker and was well known in Parisian society for her beauty. After a couple of years of persuasion, the glamorous Mme Gautreau agreed to pose for Sargent. When the portrait was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884, it caused an uproar. It was considered too provocative by some while critics compared its model to a corpse and used words like hideous and atrocious in relation to it. Newspapers published cartoons and satirical poetry mocking both the artist and the model, as Sargent’s attempt to hide her name proved futile. Such was the scandal that Sargent had to leave Paris and move to London. Portrait of Madame X would eventually become one of the most admired and renowned portraits in western art. It is the work for which Sargent is most known.
约翰·辛格·萨金特是一位居住在巴黎的美国艺术家,他创作了这幅画。他快30岁了,正在努力成名。维琪妮·艾米丽·阿维诺·高特劳是一位美国侨民,嫁给了一位法国银行家,因美貌而在巴黎社交界很有名气。经过几年的劝说,迷人的高特劳夫人同意为萨金特当模特。当这幅画像在1884年的巴黎沙龙首次展出时,引起了一阵骚动。有些人认为它太具有挑衅性了,而批评者将其模型比作一具尸体,并使用了像丑陋和残暴这样的词来形容它。报纸刊登了讽刺艺术家和模特的漫画和讽刺诗,萨金特试图隐藏自己的名字被证明是徒劳的。这就是萨金特不得不离开巴黎去伦敦的丑闻。X夫人的肖像最终成为西方艺术中最受尊敬和最著名的肖像之一。这是萨金特最为人所知的工作。
Artist: Grant Wood
Year: 1930
American Gothic (1930) – Grant Wood
The American Gothic House, also known as the Dibble House, is a house in Eldon, Iowa, U.S. The house is designed in the Rural Gothic style. In August 1930, Grant Wood, a painter known for his depictions of rural American Midwest, noticed the Dibble House and sketched it on the back of an envelope. The next day he made a sketch of the house on paperboard after obtaining permission from its residents. He then painted the house along with “the kind of people I fancied should live in that house.” His dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby posed as the gentleman while his sister Nan Wood Graham posed as the lady. The painting was submitted to the 1930 annual exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it won a bronze medal. It was acquired by the museum where it still resides. American Gothic is among the most recognized paintings in 20th-century American art and it has been widely parodied in popular culture.
美国哥特式房屋,又称迪布尔屋,是美国爱荷华州埃尔登的一所房子。房屋设计为乡村哥特式风格。1930年8月,以描绘美国中西部农村而闻名的画家格兰特·伍德注意到了迪布尔的房子,并在一个信封的背面画了素描。第二天,他在征得居民的同意后,在纸板上画了一幅房子的草图。然后他和“我想住在那所房子里的人”一起粉刷了房子。他的牙医拜伦·麦基比医生装扮成这位绅士,他的妹妹南·伍德·格雷厄姆装扮成这位女士。这幅画被提交到1930年芝加哥艺术学院的年度展览,并在那里获得了铜奖。它被博物馆收购,现在仍在那里。《美国哥特》是20世纪美国艺术中最为人所熟知的作品之一,在流行文化中受到了广泛的恶搞。
Alternate Title: Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1
Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Year: 1871
Whistler’s Mother (1871) – James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler, though primarily active in the United Kingdom, was an influential American artist of the late 19th century. He was against sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and believed that true art is “complete in itself” and divorced from such attachments. The subject of this painting is his mother Anna McNeill Whistler. The artwork was originally titled Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 and the artist was annoyed by the insistence of others to view it as a portrait. The painting ultimately became an icon in America for motherhood, affection for parents and family values. In 1934, the U.S. Post office issued a stamp engraved with a stylized image of Whistler’s Mother with the slogan “In Memory and In Honor of the Mothers of America.” Whistler’s Mother has been called a Victorian Mona Lisa and it remains one of the most famous portraits by an American artist.
詹姆斯·麦克尼尔·惠斯勒虽然主要活跃在英国,但却是19世纪晚期一位有影响力的美国艺术家。他反对绘画中多愁善感和道德暗示,认为真正的艺术是“完整的”,脱离了这种依恋。这幅画的主题是他的母亲安娜·麦克尼尔·惠斯勒。这幅作品最初被命名为《灰黑排列》1号,艺术家对其他人坚持将其视为一幅肖像画感到恼火。这幅画最终成为了美国母亲、对父母的爱和家庭价值观的象征。1934年,美国邮局发行了一枚邮票,上面刻着惠斯勒母亲的形象,上面的口号是“纪念和纪念美国的母亲”。惠斯勒的母亲被称为维多利亚时期的蒙娜丽莎,这幅肖像画至今仍是美国艺术家最著名的肖像画之一。
Artist: Andy Warhol
Year: 1962
Campbell’s Soup Can (Tomato, 1962) – Andy Warhol
One of the most famous works of Pop Art, Campbell’s Soup Cans consist of thirty-two canvases, one of each of the 32 varieties offered by the company at the time. It is the work of art that led to Pop Art becoming a major art movement in the U.S. The non-painterly style and the commercial subject of the painting initially caused offense as it affronted the technique and philosophy of Abstract Expressionism, the then dominant style in America. The resulting debates on the merits and ethics of such a painting which lacked the aesthetics and mystical inclination of Abstract Expressionist works created an uproar in the American art world. It made Andy Warhol the leading and the most well-known artist of the Pop Art movement, which went to have a huge influence on the western art world.
金宝汤罐头是波普艺术中最著名的作品之一,它由32幅画布组成,是当时公司提供的32种类型中的每一种。正是这一艺术作品使波普艺术成为美国一场主要的艺术运动。这种非绘画风格和商业主题的绘画最初引起了人们的反感,因为它冒犯了当时在美国占主导地位的抽象表现主义的技术和哲学。这种缺乏美学和抽象表现主义作品的神秘倾向的绘画,其价值和伦理的争论在美国艺术界引起轩然大波。这使得安迪·沃霍尔成为波普艺术运动的领导者和最知名的艺术家,并对西方艺术界产生了巨大的影响。
Artist: Jackson Pollock
Number 5, 1948 – Jackson Pollock
Drip painting is a form of abstract art in which paint is dripped or poured onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. Jackson Pollock, perhaps the best known abstract artist after the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, is the most famous practitioner of drip painting. He was named “Jack the Dripper” by TIME magazine. Created on eight by four feet fiberboard, No. 5, 1948 is the most famous as well as the most expensive painting by Jackson Pollock. In November 2006, it created the world record for the highest price paid for a painting when it was sold to an undisclosed buyer for a price of $140 million. As of July 2017, it ranks ninth on the inflation-adjusted list of the most expensive paintings ever sold. No. 5, 1948 is considered a prime example of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings and an epitome of Abstract Expressionism, one of the most important movements in abstract art.
“滴画”是一种抽象艺术,画家将颜料滴在画布上,而不是仔细涂抹。杰克逊·波洛克或许是继俄罗斯画家瓦西里·康定斯基之后最著名的抽象艺术家,也是最著名的滴画实践者。他被《时代》杂志命名为“滴管杰克”。1948年在8×4英尺的纤维板上创作的第5号作品是杰克逊·波洛克最著名也是最昂贵的画作。2006年11月,它以1.4亿美元的价格卖给了一位不愿透露姓名的买家,创下了画作最高成交价的世界纪录。截至2017年7月,这幅画在经通胀调整后的有史以来售出的最昂贵画作排行榜上排名第九。1948年的第5号作品被认为是杰克逊·波洛克滴画的一个主要例子,也是抽象表现主义的一个缩影,抽象表现主义是抽象艺术最重要的运动之一。
Alternate Title: The Thanksgiving Picture
Artist: Norman Rockwell
Year: 1943
Freedom from Want (1943) – Norman Rockwell
In 1943, Norman Rockwell created four paintings corresponding to the four freedoms mentioned by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his famous 1941 speech. Freedom from Want is the third and most renowned painting of the series. It depicts a multi-generational family gathered around a dinner table for a holiday meal. The grandmother is about to set the turkey down while the grandfather looks on with fondness and is ready to carve it. The people in the picture are friends and family of Rockwell, who were photographed individually and painted into the scene. Freedom from Want became a symbol of “family togetherness, peace, and plenty”. Artistically, it is highly regarded as an example of mastery of the challenges of white-on-white painting. Freedom from Want has become the most famous representation of Thanksgiving in America and it has been adapted and parodied numerous times. However, it is not exclusively associated with Thanksgiving and is also known as I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
1943年,诺曼·洛克威尔创作了四幅画作,与美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福在其著名的1941年演讲中提到的四种自由相对应。《免于匮乏》是该系列的第三幅,也是最著名的一幅。它描绘了一个多代同堂的家庭聚在一起吃节日大餐。祖母正要把火鸡放下来,祖父在一旁看着,正准备切火鸡。照片中的人物是罗克韦尔的朋友和家人,他们分别被拍摄,并被画成场景。免于匮乏的自由成为了“家庭团聚、和平和富裕”的象征。在艺术上,它被高度评价为一个例子,掌握了白色对白色绘画的挑战。在美国,《免于匮乏》已经成为感恩节最著名的代表,并被无数次改编和模仿。然而,它并不只是和感恩节有关,它也被称为“我要回家过圣诞节”。
Artist: Roy Lichtenstein
Year: 1963
Whaam! (1963) – Roy Lichtenstein
Pop Art appreciates popular culture as opposed to elitist culture. It is characterized by bright colors and the use of recognizable imagery from popular cultures like advertisements, celebrities, and comic book characters. Roy Lichtenstein is the most famous American Pop Art artist after Andy Warhol and Whaam! is his most renowned work. The painting is one of several works by the artist which depicts aerial combat. Lichtenstein had a three-year stint in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946 and Whaam! is inspired by an illustration of comic-book illustrator Irv Novick, whom he met during this period. Inspired by images of comic books, the painting shows a fighter plane firing a rocket that hits another plane to blow it up in flames. Whaam! is noted for combining brilliant color and narrative situations. It “documents while it gently parodies the familiar hero images of modern America.”
波普艺术欣赏流行文化,而不是精英文化。它的特点是色彩鲜艳,使用了流行文化中可识别的意象,如广告、名人和漫画人物。Roy Lichtenstein是继Andy Warhol和Whaam!之后最著名的美国波普艺术家。是他最著名的作品。这幅画是这位画家描绘空战的几幅作品之一。列支敦士登从1943年到1946年在美国陆军服役了三年。灵感来自于他在此期间遇到的漫画插画家Irv Novick。这幅画的灵感来自漫画,画中一架战斗机发射火箭击中另一架飞机,使其起火燃烧。《Whaam !》以绚丽的色彩与叙事情境相结合而著称。它“记录了现代美国熟悉的英雄形象,同时又温和地模仿了这些形象。”