Painting Below Zero

作者:Rosenquist, James/ Dalton, David

页数:370

出版时间:2009-10

价格:396.00元

isbn号码:9780307263421

具体描述

From James Rosenquist, one of our most iconic pop artists—along with Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein—comes this candid and fascinating memoir. Unlike these artists, Rosenquist often works in three-dimensional forms, with highly dramatic shifts in scale and a far more complex palette, including grisaille and Day-Glo colors. A skilled traditional painter, he avoided the stencils and silk screens of Warhol and Lichtenstein. His vast canvases full of brilliant, surreally juxtaposed images would influence both many of his contemporaries and younger generations, as well as revolutionize twentieth-century painting.

Ronsequist writes about growing up in a tight-knit community of Scandinavian farmers in North Dakota and Minnesota in the late 1930s and early 1940s; about his mother, who was not only an amateur painter but, along with his father, a passionate aviator; and about leaving that flat midwestern landscape in 1955 for New York, where he had won a scholarship to the Art Students League. George Grosz, Edwin Dickinson, and Robert Beverly Hale were among his teachers, but his early life was a struggle until he discovered sign painting. He describes days suspended on scaffolding high over Broadway, painting movie or theater billboards, and nights at the Cedar Tavern with Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and the poet LeRoi Jones. His first major studio, on Coenties Slip, was in the thick of the new art world. Among his neighbors were Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin, and Jack Youngerman, and his mentors Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Rosenquist writes about his shows with the dealers Richard Bellamy, Ileana Sonnabend, and Leo Castelli, and about colorful collectors like Robert and Ethel Scull. We learn about the 1971 car crash that left his wife and son in a coma and his own life and work in shambles, his lobbying—along with Rauschenberg—for artists’ rights in Washington D.C., and how he got his work back on track.

With his distinct voice, Roseqnuist writes about the ideas behind some of his major paintings, from the startling revelation that led to his first pop painting, Zone, to his masterpiece, F-III, a stunning critique of war and consumerism, to the cosmic reverie of Star Thief.

This is James Rosenquist’s story in his own words—captivating and unexpected, a unique look inside the contemporary art world in the company of one of its most important painters.

用户评价

这本书的文本密度和情感上的张力，在近期阅读的作品中是罕见的。它不像那些追求流畅性或娱乐性的作品，它更像是邀请你进入一个精心布置的迷宫，每一步都需要精确的测量和谨慎的试探。作者对“沉默”的运用，比任何激烈的对白都更具力量感。那些人物之间长时间的凝视、未说出口的警告，以及场景中突然降临的死寂，都通过精准的文学技法被放大和强调。这些“空白”之处，恰恰是信息和情感最饱和的地方。初读时，可能会因为其跳跃性而感到疲惫，但一旦沉下心来，去体会文字背后的韵律感，就会发现它有一种近乎古典悲剧的美感——在必然的衰败中，闪烁着人性不屈的微光。这本书需要耐心，但它对得起这份投入，因为它提供的不是一个故事，而是一次对特定存在状态的深刻沉浸体验，读完后，你可能会感觉自己以一种全新的、略微受损的方式，重新审视了周围的世界。

阅读体验如同进行一场在浓雾中穿越古老仪式的探险，充满了不确定性和偶然的美感。作者的叙事视角不断地在宏大叙事和微观细节之间跳跃，这种碎裂感非但没有造成混乱，反而构建了一种独特的、后现代主义的美学体验。我印象最深的是其中关于“记忆的不可靠性”的探讨，它通过一个看似简单的物件——一个生锈的怀表——展开了长达数十页的心理侧写，那个怀表承载的重量，远远超出了物理范畴，几乎要将读者一同拉入那泥泞的深渊。这本书的结构本身就是一种艺术品，章节之间的衔接并非依靠情节的顺畅，而是依赖于某种情绪的共振或色彩的呼应，这要求读者必须保持高度的专注力，去捕捉那些潜藏在文字表层下的暗流。很多地方，作者使用了非常规的句法结构，长句的堆砌和句中的插入语频繁出现，这使得阅读过程变成了一种主动的“建构”行为，而非被动的“接收”。这种挑战读者的写作方式，无疑使得最终获得的理解更具个人化和深刻性。

这本书的装帧设计着实让人眼前一亮，那种粗粝的纸张触感，配上深邃的靛蓝色和略带斑驳的银色油墨，仿佛在无声地诉说着一段被冰封的往事。初翻开时，我首先注意到的是作者对于光影的捕捉能力，即使是描述最平淡的场景，也能通过光线的微妙变化，营造出一种令人窒息的紧张感或是不安的静谧。叙事节奏的处理非常高明，它不像传统的线性叙事那样一气呵成，而是像解谜一样，在关键的转折点设置了大量的留白和象征性的意象，迫使读者必须停下来，反刍那些晦涩的对白和突兀的闪回。我特别喜欢作者在描绘人物内心挣扎时所使用的那种近乎冷酷的精确性，没有矫揉造作的抒情，只有赤裸裸的、带着锋利边缘的情感碎片。读到一半时，我几乎是屏住呼吸去阅读那些关于“遗失”和“重构”的章节，它们不仅仅是情节的推进，更像是一次对存在本质的哲学叩问。这本书的语言密度非常高，每一个词语的选择都经过了深思熟虑，初读时或许会感到有些吃力，但一旦适应了这种密集的语感，就会发现其中蕴含的巨大信息量和美学张力。

这本书最令人称道之处，在于它对“环境”这一角色的塑造，简直达到了近乎物化主角的程度。那些被详细描绘的废弃工厂、常年被阴影笼罩的巷道，以及那种刺骨的、似乎能穿透皮肤的寒冷空气，都成为了叙事中不可或缺的一部分，它们似乎拥有自己的意志和秘密。我几乎能闻到纸页上残留的那种潮湿和霉变的气味。故事中的人物行动逻辑，常常不是基于传统的动机论，而是被环境所裹挟、异化，他们的选择更像是自然法则下的必然反应，而非自由意志的体现。这种宿命论的基调，在紧张的对话和几乎静止的动作描写中达到了完美的平衡。特别是当叙事聚焦于主角与某种无形力量的对抗时，作者对感官细节的强调达到了极致，例如对特定声音的重复描写，或者对某一颜色光线的反复聚焦，都像是一种精神上的催眠，让读者深陷其中，难以自拔。

我对这本书的文学野心感到由衷的敬佩，它试图探讨的议题远超出了通俗小说的范畴，更像是一部披着叙事外衣的现象学研究。作者在处理“时间”这一概念时，表现出了惊人的老练，过去、现在和某种预言般的未来，常常在同一段落内交织出现，模糊了界限，使得读者必须时刻警惕，分辨哪些是现实，哪些是幻觉的投射。书中穿插的那些晦涩的引用和文学典故，虽然一开始让人摸不着头脑，但一旦查阅并理解其背景，便会豁然开朗，发现它们是如何精妙地为当代的情境提供了历史的重量感和悲剧的必然性。这本书拒绝给出简单的答案，它更像是一面棱镜，将读者自身的困惑和时代性的焦虑折射得淋漓尽致。结尾的处理尤为大胆和开放，它没有试图去“解决”任何核心冲突，而是将收尾的动作交还给了读者，让余韵在合上书本之后，依然久久不散，持续发酵。