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Audio Stop 220

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Against a hilly landscape and on a patch of dirt, five people wearing tattered clothing gather around a bearded man who holds a violin in his lap in this horizontal painting. Most of them have pale skin. Starting from the left is a barefoot young woman holding a blond baby to her chest. She faces our right, and her chestnut-brown hair hides her profile. She wears a black shirt over a calf-length skirt streaked with slate and aquamarine blue. To the right two young boys face us. The boy on the left of that pair wears a loose white shirt tucked into tan-colored pants and an upturned wide-brimmed hat. The boy next to him has short brown hair and is dressed in a black and brown vest and pants over a bone-white shirt. His right arm, to our left, is slung across the shoulders of the blond boy and he looks off to our right with dark, unfocused eyes. The man who holds the violin is to our right of center. He sits on a stone with his body facing our left, but he turns to look at us with dark eyes under heavy brows. He has tan skin, dark gray, curly hair, and a trimmed silvery gray beard. A wrinkle under one eye suggests he may smile slightly at us. He wears a loose brown cloak with a ragged bottom hem, teal-blue stockings, and black shoes. He holds a violin on his lap like a guitar. One hand fingers a chord on the neck of the violin, which comes toward us, and the other hand holds the bow and plucks a string. A sand-colored bag with a strap lies at his feet. Two men stand to our right of the musician. One wears a tall black top hat, a brown cloak, gray pants, and black shoes. His face is loosely and indistinctly painted but he has a beard. Finally, the sixth person is a man who stands along the right side of the painting and is cut off by that edge. He wears a turban, a black polka-dotted scarf, and a long black cloak or coat. One hand clutches the scarf and the other rests on a wooden cane by his side. His chin and long, light-colored beard tuck back against the scarf, and he looks off to our left with dark eyes. There are loosely painted olive and forest-green leaves in the upper left corner. The landscape beyond is painted with indistinct areas of muted green, blue, and brown. Bits of azure-blue sky peek through puffy white and gray clouds overhead. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “ed. Manet 1862.”

Edouard Manet

The Old Musician, 1862

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 89

来自非营利组织米里亚姆的厨房的住房倡导者Jesse Rabinowitz和策展人兼法国绘画负责人Mary Morton探讨Manet不朽画作中的边缘化人物

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讲解员:
法国艺术家爱德华·马奈于1862年创作了这幅画,当时的巴黎正在发生剧变。野心勃勃的城市重建计划带来的结果之一是,这群画中人物所代表的社会边缘群体被赶出市中心,以确保重建计划能够顺利实施。有请法国绘画策展人玛丽·莫顿。

玛丽·莫顿:
重建计划规模巨大。马奈希望通过这幅画发表公共声明。我觉得确切来说是政治和社会声明。他就是想传达这样一个信息,尤其是借中心位置的老乐师之口,直接对观者说:“我们怎么办?”  

杰西·拉比诺维茨:
我们光看马奈选择描绘的群体就能明白,马奈在强调他们的重要性,展现他们的人性,说明他们有权利体面地生活,享有尊严和尊重。  

杰西·拉比诺维茨:
我叫杰西·拉比诺维茨。我在华盛顿特区居住和工作。我在米里亚姆厨房担任倡导与政策高级经理。我们这个机构致力于结束华盛顿特区长期以来的无家可归现象。  

杰西·拉比诺维茨:
在这幅画里,我看到浓浓的孤独感,画中人物渴望连结,特别是乐师和男孩们的表情里都体现出这种感觉。每当我与在特区露宿在外的人们聊天时,他们往往会描述心中的隔绝感与孤独感,因为很少有人会停下来对他们说声“您好”,简短地表达一下关心,把他们当人看。我觉得马奈在提醒我们,作为一个集体我们应该对所有这些邻居负责。马奈希望促使大家注意到那些我们往往选择熟视无睹的群体,让我们与之目光交汇,直视他们的脸。  
 

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