In 1907, Georges Braque (1882-1963) visited Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) studio to see his new work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which was notorious at the time (see Bilingual Arts on Oct. 26 for photo). The two artists immediately built up a rapport and worked closely together until 1914, experimenting with new artistic styles.
The inconsistent perspective, disjointed body shapes, and the reference to traditional African masks in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon preluded Cubism. The works of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), shown at retrospective exhibitions in 1903 and 1907, further indicated a set of visual methodologies, leading to the birth of Cubism. As Picasso put it, Cezanne was “the father of us all.”
Cezanne’s lesson to “treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone” was taken by the Cubists as a formula for reinterpreting what they saw in daily life. Subject matter included objects, landscapes, people and musical instruments, which the Cubists turned into geometric shapes and other variations on the theme, resulting in ambiguous and abstract appearances.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
Cezanne’s influence can be seen more clearly in early Cubism. Comparing Braque’s Houses at L’Estaque (1908, photo 1) and Cezanne’s Houses in Provence: The Riaux Valley near L’Estaque (photo 2), we can see that Cezanne’s houses on the hill are depicted with simple cubes and shadows, just enough to communicate the sense of volume. In contrast, the hill and houses in Braque’s hands are minimalist and more cubic, like flattened cartons filling up the picture. The tree on the left was depicted with Cezannian cylinders.
The intial reception of Braque’s Houses at L’Estaque was negative: art critic Louis Vauxcelles called Braque a daring man who despises form, “reducing everything, places and figures and houses, to geometric schemas, to cubes.” This was where Cubism got its name from.
Cezanne is said to be the bridge connecting the 19th century’s Impressionism and the 20th century’s new line of artistic inquiry. Mill on the River (c. 1906, photo 3) demonstrates typical impressionist short, thick strokes of paint to create a highly blended finish. A similar technique can be seen in the greens in Braque’s The Castle in La Roche Guyon (1909, photo 4), yet the uneven and jumbled houses on the hill demonstrate the repetitiveness and variation of cubes, hinting at the more sophisticated Cubist compositions to come.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
一九○七年,喬治‧布拉克(一八八二~一九六三)造訪帕布羅‧畢卡索(一八八一~一九七三)的工作室參觀畢卡索當時惡名昭彰的新作《亞維儂的姑娘》(圖片請參見十月二十六日的「雙語藝術」),兩人一見如故,開啟了此後至一九一四年間對新風格的共同實驗。
《亞維儂的姑娘》所觸碰的畫面切割、不連貫的身體形狀,以及原始非洲面具,成為立體派的前奏。而一九○三及○七年的保羅‧塞尚(一八三九~一九○六)回顧展,更明確指出一套視覺方法學,催生了立體派,畢卡索即說道:「塞尚是我們所有人的父親」。
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
塞尚將自然形式簡化∕歸納為「圓柱體、球體和圓錐體」,立體派藝術家們便據此程式將週遭重新改造──物品、風景、人物、樂器等人們習以為常的事物,轉換為幾何形狀及其變奏,其面貌曖昧而抽象。
早期的立體派作品中,更可以看到這種從塞尚汲取的養份。比較布拉克的《埃斯塔克的房屋》(一九○八年)(圖一),以及塞尚的《普羅旺斯的房屋:埃斯塔克近郊之希奧谷》(一八八三年)(圖二),我們可以看到塞尚作品中山丘上的房舍,是以簡略的光影塑造出來的方塊體積來處理;而到了布拉克手中,山丘與房屋變得更簡略、更抽象、更方塊,像壓扁的紙盒填滿整個畫面。而布拉克畫幅左方的樹木,便是以塞尚所說的圓柱體構成。
布拉克的《埃斯塔克的房屋》最初即招致批評,藝評家路易‧沃克塞爾說布拉克膽大妄為、對形式不屑一顧,「把風景、人物和房子等一切都簡化成幾何圖形與方塊(cubes)」,立體派(Cubism)之名便是由此而來。
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
塞尚被認為是連接十九世紀印象派與二十世紀現代藝術的樞紐,《河畔的磨坊》(約一九○六年)(圖三)即可見印象派特有的以小面積色塊建構出的畫面整體。布拉克《拉侯舍吉永城堡》(一九○九年)(圖四)中的綠色樹木,也是筆觸重複堆疊而成,錯落的房屋呈現了立體方塊造型的重複與變奏,預示了立體派後來更複雜的構圖。
(台北時報林俐凱)
Taiwanese cuisine boasts a rich culture of thick soups, with various options available at street vendors or high-end restaurants. In English, this style of dish is typically called “thick soup.” Western cuisine typically uses flour, cream, or mashed vegetables to create a creamy consistency, while in Taiwan, thick soups are made by simply incorporating food starch into the soup and creating a smooth and silky texture. Tutuo fish in thick soup is such a soup with fried tutuo fish chunks, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and wood ears. 台灣羹品飲食文化豐富,無論是巷口小店或是高檔餐廳,都有提供羹料理。羹在英文稱作「濃湯」,西式濃湯是以麵粉、鮮奶油、蔬菜泥等達到濃稠的口感,台灣的羹湯用太白粉即能做出濃稠絲滑的湯頭。土魠魚羹就是在勾芡的羹湯中加入炸土魠魚塊、香菇、竹筍、木耳等食材的料理。 boast (v.) 擁有(令人驕傲的事物) consistency (n.) 濃稠度 chunk (n.) 厚塊,大塊 wood ear (n. ph.) 木耳 The star of this
Huge stretches of coral reef around the world are turning a ghostly white this year amid record warm ocean temperatures. On April 15, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the world’s fourth mass global bleaching event is underway — with serious consequences for marine life and for the people and economies that rely on reefs. WHAT ARE CORALS? Corals are invertebrates that live in colonies. Their calcium carbonate secretions form hard and protective scaffolding that serves as a home to many colorful species of single-celled algae. The two organisms have evolved over millennia to work together, with corals providing shelter to algae,
A: So who were Hollywood’s highest-paid stars of 2023? B: No. 5 to No. 2 were: Matt Damon with US$43 million, Ryan Gosling with US$43 million, Tom Cruise with US$45 million, and Margot Robbie with US$59 million. A: Didn’t Tom Cruise top the list? B: Nope, Adam Sandler was No.1, having made US$73 million, which is about NT$2.34 billion. A: Wow, maybe I should change my career to acting. A: 好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜前幾名是誰? B: 第5到2名是︰麥特戴蒙、4300萬美元,雷恩葛斯林、4300萬美元,湯姆克魯斯、4500萬美元,瑪格羅比、5900萬美元。 A: 冠軍竟然不是阿湯哥? B: 是亞當山德勒、片酬7300萬美元,大約23.4億台幣! A: 天啊或許我也該轉行當演員啦。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
A symbol of purity and cleanliness, the color white is the standard color for coats worn by doctors. While this has been the case for well over 100 years, it hasn’t always been so. In fact, before the late 19th century, doctors wore formal black attire, which was similar to that worn by clergymen. Black was chosen for practical reasons—it hid stains from medical procedures and presented a sense of seriousness. The major reason for the color change of the doctor’s coat was to distinguish qualified, professional doctors from those with little or no medical training. Since medical science