Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
Titus Kaphar: Módosíthatja a művészet a történelmet?
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?
a Természettudományi Múzeumban?
is I take my kids to the museum.
to the Natural History Museum.
Múzeumba vittem el őket.
Sabian and Dabith.
Sabiannal és Dabith-tal.
entrance of the museum,
főbejáratán,
of Teddy Roosevelt out there.
Teddy Roseveltről.
with one hand on the horse,
egyik keze a lovon,
but it kind of feels like it.
de olyan érzést nyújt.
is a Native American walking.
egy amerikai őslakos gyalogosan.
is an African-American walking.
egy afroamerikai gyalogosan.
hogy ezt elmagyarázhassam,
to try to explain that,
I try to do with them anyways.
amit alapból próbálok velük csinálni.
would have never really asked.
valószínűleg sosem tettem volna fel.
of such an amazing institution."
elé kiállítva."
to amend our public sculptures,
kijavítsuk a köztéri szobrainkat,
múzeumokba jártam.
when I was born.
amikor megszülettem.
with his own things
is because of a woman.
a művészetekbe, egy nő.
fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,
fantasztikus, gyönyörű, okos nő,
"Túl fiatal vagy,
about your future."
"I'm thinking about my future now."
"Most már gondolok a jövőmre."
to the junior college
a főiskolára,
to what I was registering to.
hogy mikre is regisztrálok.
kötöttem ki,
about art history.
a művészettörténetről.
when I went into that class.
amikor bementem az órára.
and say, "Who's that?"
és megkérdezi, "Ki ez?"
Clearly that is Van Gogh.
nyilván ez Van Gogh.
I wasn't a great student. OK?
nem voltam jó tanuló. Oké?
nagy dolog volt,
that I was able to learn things visually
vizuálisan megtanulni olyan dolgokat,
this became my tactic
ez lett a taktikám,
a párkapcsolatban. Jól mentek a dolgok.
Things were going well.
these art history classes.
járni fogok a művészettörténetre.
I will not forget, I will never forget.
sose felejtem el.
művészettörténet óráknak.
art history classes.
művészettörténet órája,
survey art history classes,
the entire history of art
művészettörténetet,
and Jackson Pollock
és Jackson Pollock
but they try anyway.
de ők azért próbálkoznak.
was about a 14-page section
volt egy körülbelül 14 oldalas válogatás
of black people in painting
látható feketéket,
let's just put it that way.
mondjuk úgy.
the other classes that I had,
amit elvégeztem,
to go over that particular chapter,
fejezetet kellene átvennünk,
to go through it."
hold on, professor, professor.
professzor, professzor.
important chapter to me.
fejezet a számomra.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
that this is significant.
hogy ez fontos.
because we need to talk."
mert beszélnünk kellene."
out of her office.
"I can't force her to teach anything."
"Nem erőltethetem rá, hogy mit tanítson."
if I wanted to understand this history,
ha meg akarom érteni ezt a történetet,
of those folks who had to walk,
a srácoknak, akiknek gyalogolni kellett,
to have to figure that out myself.
ezeket magamnak kitalálnom.
and looking at images like this.
és az ott látott képek alapján.
some slight differences in the painting.
néhány apró különbség a festményen.
that I had been absorbing
amit magamba szívtam,
that painting is a language.
hogy a festészet egy nyelv.
in the composition here.
ebben a kompozícióban.
this gold necklace here.
ezt az aranyláncot itt.
about the economic status
az emberek
of the compositional structure,
that they have quite a bit of money.
hogy elég sok pénzük van.
this other character here.
in research on these kinds of paintings,
festmények kutatása során
in this painting --
than I can about this character here,
mint erről a karakterről itt,
just put inside of this paint
hogy a festményre kenek,
a tekintetüket egy kissé,
of sculptures at museums?
a szobrok a múzeumokban?
of these kinds of paintings
ezek a festmények azokra,
a társadalmunkban,
of themselves all the time?
önmagukat folyamatosan?
you actually had to focus. Right?
tényleg rá kellett fókuszálni. Igaz?
a little to the right,
in the background would come out.
a háttérben jobban látszanának.
the struggles of our past
and the advances of our present.
és előrehaladását.
egy radírt és kitörlünk dolgokat.
and getting rid of stuff.
do it in the same way
a law in the American Constitution,
az amerikai Alkotmány törvényét,
but this is where we are right now."
de ez az ahol most vagyunk."
understand a little bit
egy kicsit megérteni,
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