美国国家公共电台 NPR Artist Amy Sherald Discusses Portrait Of Former First Lady Michelle Obama

 

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MICHELLE OBAMA: Let's just start by saying wow again.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

At the National Portrait Gallery in Washington today, the subjects of two new paintings helped with their unveiling.

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BARACK OBAMA: How about that?

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OBAMA: That's pretty sharp.

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SHAPIRO: Barack Obama helped with the unveiling of a painting by a New York-based artist Kehinde Wiley. The former president is depicted¹ leaning forward in a chair against a lush background of thick, green leaves. Michelle Obama is also seated in her portrait, one hand across her lap, the other under her chin. The background is light-blue. She wears a sleeveless white dress with geometric patterns almost like a Mondrian painting with touches of red, yellow and pink. Her face, arms and hair are all in gray like a charcoal² drawing. That's how Amy Sherald paints African-Americans, something that grabbed the first lady's attention before they even met.

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OBAMA: I'd seen her work, and I was blown away by the boldness of her colors and the uniqueness of her subject matter. So I was wondering, who is this woman?

SHAPIRO: Well, she's 44. She lives in Baltimore. And until just a few years ago, she was supporting her art with a side job waiting tables. When I spoke³ with Amy Sherald this afternoon, I asked her about how she started painting the skin tones of her subjects in gray.

AMY SHERALD: After the invention of the camera when black families were finally able to photograph themselves in the ways that they wanted to be represented and I was able to look at those images and see myself in a way that was extricated⁴ from the dominant⁵ historical narrative⁶ - those are things that I thought about. And I think that when I looked around to see what work was being made and what conversations were being had amongst my contemporaries and, as a young artist, being influenced by American realism, I saw that there was a gap that I could fit myself into as a figurative painter. As a black woman and somebody who paints Americans, that narrative of images of us just being us were things that I wanted to see exist, you know, within the museum institutions.

SHAPIRO: You're known for painting people who are not famous, are ordinary, elevating them to the level of extraordinary. What changes when you're painting somebody who is world-famous (laughter), who's anything but ordinary?

SHERALD: Michelle Obama is extraordinary, but she is also the kind of woman that exists in a way that is - she's a hundred percent relatable to all kinds of people, all genders⁷ all around the world. And so she sits symbolically⁸ in the world in a way - in the same way that I want my images to sit. They are just being themselves. And her just being herself, you know, was a profound statement that really engaged all of us because she is just accessible. And I think that she is ideally the same as the sitters that I've had before.

SHAPIRO: I'd like to talk about the dress that she's wearing in this portrait because it's not just a dress. There's some symbolism there. Tell me about it.

SHERALD: Yeah. We looked at several dresses as I worked with her stylists and just trying to figure out what I wanted her to wear because, you know, she's known for a lot of things, and one of them is fashion. So I knew that that was important. I knew I wanted something that was colorful or something that had a bold kind of pattern on it. And I had narrowed it down to two dresses.

But once I saw her in that one, I knew that that was the one that, you know, she needed to be frozen in time in. It has a connection to, you know, the art canon. But then it also speaks to black culture. And it reminded me of the Gee's Bend quilts that women made over the course of their lifetimes and were discovered later on in life. But quilting is a huge part of black culture.

SHAPIRO: Did she give you any parameters⁹ of ways she wanted to be seen or what she hoped this portrait would do?

SHERALD: No. She gave me complete and total creative freedom. So she trusted me to do what I do, basically. So there were no parameters at all.

SHAPIRO: Before we let you go, you've described today as a defining milestone¹⁰ in your life's work. You're still a very young artist. So what happens after this milestone?

SHERALD: You know, I make jokes about going back to school to get another master's degree and, like, going into urban planning or something.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

SHERALD: But I just keep working. I have...

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SHERALD: You know, you can't really top this. But, I mean, I just keep working. I have a lot more to do with my life, and my life is my art. And so I'll just keep painting. But she'll always be the highlight of everything.

SHAPIRO: Well, Amy Sherald, thanks so much for talking to us on this momentous¹¹ day.

SHERALD: Thank you.

SHAPIRO: And tomorrow on Morning Edition - the artist behind President Obama's new portrait. Kehinde Wiley is known for his larger-than-life paintings of African-Americans in powerful, heroic poses and for his bold, colorful backgrounds. He talks with Steve Inskeep about what it was like painting the country's first African-American president. That's tomorrow on Morning Edition from NPR News.

1 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

2 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 extricated   

v.使摆脱困难，脱身( extricate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The meeting seemed to be endless, but I extricated myself by saying I had to catch a plane. 会议好象没完没了，不过我说我得赶飞机，才得以脱身。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She extricated herself from her mingled impulse to deny and guestion. 她约束了自己想否认并追问的不可明状的冲动。 来自辞典例句

5 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

6 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

7 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

8 symbolically   

ad.象征地，象征性地

参考例句：

• By wearing the ring on the third finger of the left hand, a married couple symbolically declares their eternal love for each other. 将婚戒戴在左手的第三只手指上，意味着夫妻双方象征性地宣告他们的爱情天长地久，他们定能白头偕老。
• Symbolically, he coughed to clear his throat. 周经理象征地咳一声无谓的嗽，清清嗓子。

9 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

10 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

11 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。