Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
Titus Kaphar: A arte consegue corrigir a história?
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?
Americano de História Natural
is I take my kids to the museum.
meus filhos ao museu.
Americano de História Natural.
to the Natural History Museum.
Sabian and Dabith.
Sabian e Dabith.
entrance of the museum,
of Teddy Roosevelt out there.
do Teddy Roosevelt.
with one hand on the horse,
com uma mão no cavalo,
but it kind of feels like it.
mas era o que parecia.
is a Native American walking.
há um nativo dos EUA andando.
is an African-American walking.
tem um afro-americano andando.
to try to explain that,
para tentar explicar,
I try to do with them anyways.
já tento fazer isso com eles.
would have never really asked.
pensaria em fazer.
o que ele queria dizer era:
of such an amazing institution."
dessa instituição tão incrível?"
to amend our public sculptures,
as nossas esculturas públicas
when I was born.
with his own things
próprias dificuldades
is because of a woman.
que quis estudar arte.
fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,
fantástica, linda e inteligente,
e não está pensando no seu futuro".
about your future."
de um colégio de ensino superior,
"I'm thinking about my future now."
"Estou pensando no futuro agora".
to the junior college
de ensino superior
to what I was registering to.
em que aulas me matriculava.
de história da arte,
about art history.
when I went into that class.
quando cheguei na aula.
na minha carreira acadêmica,
and say, "Who's that?"
perguntando: "Quem é esse?"
Clearly that is Van Gogh.
Claramente é Van Gogh.
I wasn't a great student. OK?
estudante no ensino médio, beleza?
um 8,0 foi extraordinário,
that I was able to learn things visually
entender visualmente as coisas
this became my tactic
Things were going well.
as coisas iam bem...
these art history classes.
de história da arte.
últimas aulas de história da arte.
I will not forget, I will never forget.
art history classes.
survey art history classes,
aulões de história da arte,
the entire history of art
toda a história da arte
and Jackson Pollock
de caverna e Jackson Pollock
but they try anyway.
mas eles tentam.
was about a 14-page section
tinha uma seção de 14 páginas
of black people in painting
de pessoas negras na pintura
let's just put it that way.
que a curadoria era horrível.
the other classes that I had,
to go over that particular chapter,
aquele capítulo específico,
to go through it."
hold on, professor, professor.
important chapter to me.
é muito importante para mim.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
that this is significant.
que isso é relevante.
Desculpa de novo.
because we need to talk."
Pois precisamos".
out of her office.
"Não posso forçá-la a ensinar nada".
"I can't force her to teach anything."
if I wanted to understand this history,
que, se quisesse entender aquela história,
of those folks who had to walk,
pessoas que tinham que andar,
to have to figure that out myself.
and looking at images like this.
pinturas como essa.
some slight differences in the painting.
diferenças no quadro.
that I had been absorbing
that painting is a language.
que a pintura é uma linguagem.
in the composition here.
alta da composição.
this gold necklace here.
este colar dourado.
about the economic status
sobre o poder econômico
of the compositional structure,
que eles têm bastante dinheiro.
that they have quite a bit of money.
this other character here.
in research on these kinds of paintings,
ao pesquisar esses tipos de quadros,
in this painting --
than I can about this character here,
do que sobre esse personagem aqui,
just put inside of this paint
colocar no quadro
of sculptures at museums?
de escultura nos museus?
of these kinds of paintings
sociedades mais vulneráveis,
of themselves all the time?
deles mesmos o tempo todo?
you actually had to focus. Right?
tínhamos que realmente focar?
a little to the right,
in the background would come out.
no fundo surgiriam.
the struggles of our past
de nosso passado,
and the advances of our present.
e os avanços de nosso presente.
se só apagarmos e nos livrarmos de coisas.
and getting rid of stuff.
do it in the same way
a law in the American Constitution,
alguma lei na Constituição.
but this is where we are right now."
understand a little bit
a entender um pouco mais
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