Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
تــايتوس كافـار: هـل بإمكان الفن إصلاح الـتاريـخ؟
Titus Kaphar's artworks interact with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to the Natural History Museum?
is I take my kids to the museum.
أخذ أطفالي إلى المتحف.
to the Natural History Museum.
Sabian and Dabith.
entrance of the museum,
of Teddy Roosevelt out there.
with one hand on the horse,
but it kind of feels like it.
is a Native American walking.
يمشي رجل أمريكي الأصل.
is an African-American walking.
to try to explain that,
ومحاولة شرحها
I try to do with them anyways.
would have never really asked.
of such an amazing institution."
to amend our public sculptures,
when I was born.
with his own things
is because of a woman.
أدخلني عالم الفن هـو امرأة.
fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,
about your future."
"I'm thinking about my future now."
"أنا أفكر في مستقبلي الآن."
to the junior college
لـكـلـية المـبـتـدئـيـن بـعـشـوائية
to what I was registering to.
about art history.
when I went into that class.
and say, "Who's that?"
Clearly that is Van Gogh.
واضح أن هذا فان غوخ
I wasn't a great student. OK?
طـالباً بــارعــاً. حسنا؟
كـان معدلي التراكمي 0.65
that I was able to learn things visually
أدركت أنني يمكنني تعلم الأشياء بصريا
this became my tactic
Things were going well.
كانت الأمور جيدة
these art history classes.
I will not forget, I will never forget.
لن أنساها لن أنساها أبدأً.
art history classes.
تاريخ فن الإستقصاء
survey art history classes,
دراسة تاريخ الفن الاستقصائي
the entire history of art
يتضمنه تاريخ الفن
and Jackson Pollock
وجاكسون بولوك
but they try anyway.
was about a 14-page section
كان هناك قسم من أربع عشرة صفحة
of black people in painting
let's just put it that way.
نفكر فيها بهذه الطريقة.
the other classes that I had,
to go over that particular chapter,
ندرس ذاك الفصل،
to go through it."
hold on, professor, professor.
يــا أستاذة، أستاذة.
important chapter to me.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
أنا آسف، أنا آسف
that this is significant.
because we need to talk."
لأننا نحتاج للتحدث."
out of her office.
"I can't force her to teach anything."
"لا يمكنني إجبارها على تدريس كل شيء."
if I wanted to understand this history,
فهم هذا التاريخ،
of those folks who had to walk,
اللذين كان عليهم المشي،
to have to figure that out myself.
عند شرائح العرض
and looking at images like this.
some slight differences in the painting.
في هذه اللوحة.
that I had been absorbing
that painting is a language.
in the composition here.
this gold necklace here.
about the economic status
of the compositional structure,
that they have quite a bit of money.
أن لديهم بعض النقود.
this other character here.
in research on these kinds of paintings,
عن هذا النوع من الرسومات،
in this painting --
than I can about this character here,
ثم ما أستطيع أن أفعل حول هذه الشخصية هنا،
just put inside of this paint
أنا فقط وضعته داخل الرسم
of sculptures at museums?
of these kinds of paintings
of themselves all the time?
عن نفسهم في كل حين؟
you actually had to focus. Right?
أن تركز في التصوير، أليس كذلك؟
a little to the right,
in the background would come out.
الذين بالخلفية سوف يتقدموا للأمام.
the struggles of our past
and the advances of our present.
and getting rid of stuff.
والتقدم للنيل من هذه الأشياء.
do it in the same way
a law in the American Constitution,
بالدستور الأمريكي
but this is where we are right now."
understand a little bit
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Titus Kaphar - ArtistTitus Kaphar's artworks interact with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums.
Why you should listen
As Titus Kaphar says of his work: "I’ve always been fascinated by history: art history, American history, world history, individual history -- how history is written, recorded, distorted, exploited, reimagined and understood. In my work I explore the materiality of reconstructive history. I paint and I sculpt, often borrowing from the historical canon, and then alter the work in some way. I cut, crumple, shroud, shred, stitch, tar, twist, bind, erase, break, tear and turn the paintings and sculptures I create, reconfiguring them into works that nod to hidden narratives and begin to reveal unspoken truths about the nature of history."
Kaphar is founder/CEO of the NXTHVN, a multidisciplinary arts incubator that's being built to train professional artists and to further establish New Haven's growing creative community. His latest works are an investigation into the highest and lowest forms of recording history. From monuments to mug shots, this body of work exhibited at Jack Shainman gallery December-January 2017 seeks to collapse the line of American history to inhabit a fixed point in the present. Historical portraiture, mug shots, and YouTube stills challenge viewers to consider how we document the past, and what we have erased. Rather than explore guilt or innocence, Kaphar engages the narratives of individuals and how we as a society manage and define them over time. As a whole, this exhibition explores the power of rewritten histories to question the presumption of innocence and the mythology of the heroic.
Titus Kaphar | Speaker | TED.com