雅思阅读真题题源-人文1.6 A Persistent Myth

A Persistent Myth 永远的神话
Genius has a way of calling attention to itself. But then that’s only natural, considering its rarity and the dramatic manner in which it often manifests itself.
天才总是能够引人注目。

但是意识到天才自身的稀有性以及本身通常表现出的戏剧性的行为举止，这很自然了。

We do not, however, always recognize it for what it is and frequently prefer to dismiss its more startling and extreme manifestations as heresy or antisocial behavior~or even as a touch of madness. One of our most persistent cultural myths, in fact, states that artistic genius generally remains unrecognized until well after those who possess it have departed this earth.
然而，我们却并不是总能看到问题的实质，我们通常更喜欢对天才极端的令人惊讶的所作所为不肩一顾，把它们视为异端和有悖社会的行为，甚至看做是疯狂之举。

事实上，我们大部分文化中就存在这样一成不变的神话：艺术家们的天赋总是要等到他们去世之后才能被人们认可。

Like most myths, this one contains both truth and fiction. It stems partly from the 19th century's highly romanticized perceptions of the artist as a wonderfully free but tragically misunderstood individual. And partly from the facts of the careers of such artists as van Gogh and Gauguin.
像大多数神话一样，其中包含真实和虚构成分。

从19世纪起，对于艺术家的极为浪漫的看法就是：他们是非常自由但被公众悲剧性地误解了的个体。

这个看法在某些方面源自于一些艺术家如梵高和高更的艺术生涯。

Van Gogh’s life story, in itself, gives considerable credibility to this myth. And there are several other important painters and sculptors whose worth remained largely or totally unacknowledged during their lifetimes. Even so, this notion of alienated genius remains largely unfounded—especially in this century, which devotes so much of its energies to ferreting out every hint of genius, no matter how novel its point of origin, or strange or unusual its form.
梵髙的人生经历本身大大增加了这个神i舌的可信度。

还有其他一些画家和雕刻家们，他们在世时，只有少数人或者根本没有人认识到他们的价值。

即使是这样，这些得不到公众理解的天才们仍然全身心地投人创作，特别是在这个世纪，发挥出他们的毎一点才能，无论在公众看来他们的创作出发点是多么的新奇，形式是多么的怪异和非比寻常。

We may not fully understand or like what our geniuses produce, but we do at least acknowledge its importance. If anything, we tend to be awed by genius and forgiving of its shortcomings. Picasso's slightest doodle's, for instance, are highly sought after mainly because of his reputation. And the same, I suspect, applies to the lesser aspects of what Einstein, Stravinsky, and Joyce produced.
我们可能无法完全理解或喜爱天才们的作品，但是我们至少要认可他们的重要性。

我们往往会敬畏这些天才，原谅他们的小瑕疵。

例如，很多人因为毕加索的名气而高价收藏毕加索的小幅涂鸦。

而且同时，我怀疑，对于爱因斯坦、斯特拉文斯基和乔伊斯在他们不是那么擅长领域内的作品，类似的情况也会发生。

We are so eager to uncover artistic genius that we increasingly acclaim its presence on the basis of intention rather than accomplishment. If an artist begins to move into miclmrted territory, we too often assume that genius is the motivation. (It may very well be, but then it could also be ambition to succeed through novelty, an inability to cope with existing styles, or merely an urge to
try something different.)
我们是如此热切的去发现这些艺术天才，以至干我们越来越多地因为他们想要尝试的目标而不是因为他们的成就而喝彩。

如果一位艺术家想要转向一个未知的领域发展，我们通常就会这样想：他的天赋就是他前进的动力(当然也很有可能
是这样，然而也可能是他想通过创新而成功的野心在作祟，又或者是由于对目前的这种艺术形式感到无力应付，更有可能只是想要尝试一下新的东西)。

We also are so enamored of the notion that artistic importance derives primarily from doing something first that we tend to overlook the fact that it also derives from doing something best. There are at least a dozen largely unknown but excellent artists of superb quality in this country, and at least that
many quite famous raw beginners whose main asset is the novel t v of their approach to art.
我们也是如此地迷信这种说法：艺术的重要性主要源自于首先做某件事情，而忽视了它往往也来自于将某件事情做到最好。

在这个国家里有着至少一打寂寂无名但是素质极高的优秀艺术家们，和至少那么多非常有名的初入门者，他们的主要资本就是他们新颖的艺术手法。

The frantic scramble for fame, or at least for notoriety, continues to accelerate, producing an increasing assault upon our sensil)ilities that makes considered artistic judgment difficult. Art too often is absorbed as uncritically as the air we breathe, and is forced to make way for what is even newer and more insistent before it has a chance to be ftilly assimilated.
对名望或者至少声名远播的疯狂追逐争夺，疯狂增长，越来越频繁地攻击了我们的鉴赏力，这使我们很难做出深思熟虑的艺术评价。

我们频繁地不加鉴别地接受艺术，就像我们呼吸空气一样自然。

这就迫使艺术在它有机会被完全理解前不断地寻找更新颖、更加显著的出路。

It’s all very confusing, especially since there is so much talent on view today.A great deal of the art in our galleries is accomplished and professional. And yet, oddly enough, genius has never been in shorter supply. For the first time in my memory, the so-called visual arts cannot claim one single living artist of genius.
这所有的一切都让人迷惑不解，特别在有如此多人才的今天。

画廊里大批的艺术作品都是手法娴熟的专业之作。

但是，非常奇怪的是，天才从没有像今天这样稀缺。

在我记忆中是第一次，所谓的视觉艺术领域里，没有一个活着的人能被称为是天才艺术家。

In genius’s place, we have great energy, imagination, and discipline. Artists of all stylistic persuasions are producing remarkably high-quality work, and a few are fashioning some of the best art of the century. Major talents are producing major work, but, good as it is, such art lacks that overwhelming sense of wholeness, brilliance, and audacity that liaracterizrs the work of genius.
作为一个天才，他有无穷的精力，无限的想像力和严格的自律。

各个艺术派系的艺术家们创作出了惊人的高质量的作品，它们中的一些正开创着本世纪最好的艺术。

而大部分的有才之人创作出了大部分的作品，虽然也很优秀，但这种艺术却缺少了摄人心魄的整体感觉.卓越的才华和贯穿天才杰作始末的大胆的创新。

No one in recent years has tried as hard as Julian Schnabel, for instance, to push talent into the realm of genius. That he has so far failed is not altogether his fault. He is, after all, heir to a peculiarly “macho” tradition in American art that equates bigness, power, and bluntness with importance, and that has led several of our major artists astray. And yet, there is a kind of nobility in their effort to create significant art that sets such artists apart. They at least have a vision of what they think art should be, and refuse to compromise merely because they lack the genius of a Picasso or Michelangelo.
比如说，近些年来，再没有人像朱利安•施纳贝尔一样如此努力地把有才能的人推向天才的殿堂。

他目前的失败并不能完全归咎于其自身。

毕竟，他只是继承了美国艺术中特有的“大男子”传统，这种传统视髙大、强壮和直率同等重要。

这种传统导致了很多重要艺术家误入歧途。

但是，在某种程度上他们的努力可以说是崇高的，因为他们创作了大量的艺术作品，从而使这些艺术家与众不同。

他们至少对艺术应该是什么样的有自己的想法，并且拒绝因他们没有毕加索或者米开朗琪罗的天赋而做出丝毫的让步。

But, if we lack genius at this moment, the late 19th and early 20th centuries certainly did not. From Manet, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Rodin, van Gogh, and Seurat to Picasso, Brancusi, Matisse, and the early de Chirico, that period was as rich as any in the production of artists of genius. And, of them all, none topped Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec for the sheer brilliance of his gifts.Like Picasso，Lautrec was a child prodigy, and，again like Picasso, he was a brilliant painter before he was 20. There is a small oil sketch of a rnan saddling a horse painted at the age of 15 that would do credit to Gericault at the height of his powers, and an oil portrait of his mother executed four years later that is a work of youthful genius if ever there was one.
但是，如果我们目前缺少天才的话，19世纪后期和20世纪早期肯定不缺。

从马奈、莫内、德加、塞尚、罗丹、梵高和秀拉到毕加索、布兰诺西、马蒂斯和早期的德•基里科，那个时代和其他的任何时代一样都盛产艺术天才。

而在这些人
当中，没有人能够掩盖亨利•德•图卢兹-洛特雷克那卓越杰出的天赋。

Lautrec stands out as one of the world s greatest draftsmen, a virtuoso performer with crayon and brush. He drew at high speed, and with the freedom and precision of a champion figure skater. His hand skimmed the paper, darting in and out to emphasize a form or accent a detail, leaving behind stunning linear patterns as evidence of what he had seen and felt.
洛特雷克是世界上最伟大的画家、色粉画和画笔的鉴赏家。

他画速很快，有着花样滑冰冠军般的精确和灵活自如。

他的手在画纸上游走，在需要强调形式和突出细节的地方突然快速移动，留给人们让人眩晕的美妙线条来证明他的所见所感。

But it is in his lithographs that I believe his genius most clearly manifested itself. Lautrec, quite simply, altered the course of printmaking by making it more lively, informal, colorful, and decorative. His influence in this area was decisive and permanent, and opened the way for much of the printmaking we have today
但是，我觉得在他的石版画中，他的艺术天赋才真正发挥得淋漓尽致。

洛特雷克使石版画成为更加生动、不拘一格、多姿多彩和具有观赏价值的形式，从而轻而易举地改变了石版画的发展过程。

他对版画创作领域的影响是决定性的和持久的，为我们今天大多数的版画创作开辟了先河。