Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
Titus Kaphar: Pode a Arte emendar 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?
ao Museu de História Natural
is I take my kids to the museum.
é levar os meus filhos ao museu.
to the Natural History Museum.
ao Museu de História Natural.
Sabian and Dabith.
Sabian e Dabith.
entrance of the museum,
of Teddy Roosevelt out there.
de Teddy Roosevelt no exterior.
with one hand on the horse,
com uma mão no cavalo,
but it kind of feels like it.
mas até parece.
is a Native American walking.
caminha um nativo americano.
is an African-American walking.
caminha um afro-americano.
de nove anos, diz:
to try to explain that,
para tentar explicar isso,
I try to do with them anyways.
que tento fazer com eles.
would have never really asked.
eu nunca teria feito.
o que ele estava a dizer era:
of such an amazing institution."
de uma instituição tão fantástica?"
to amend our public sculptures,
as nossas esculturas públicas,
when I was born.
quando eu nasci.
with his own things
is because of a woman.
foi por causa de uma mulher.
fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,
fantástica, linda, inteligente,
about your future."
"I'm thinking about my future now."
"Agora, estou a pensar no meu futuro."
ela foi ainda mais espantosa.
to the junior college
até à Faculdade Júnior
to what I was registering to.
em que é que me estava a inscrever.
de História da Arte,
about art history.
when I went into that class.
quando assisti às aulas.
na minha carreira académica,
and say, "Who's that?"
e perguntava: "Quem é?"
Clearly that is Van Gogh.
É claramente Van Gogh.
que não fui um bom aluno, ok?
I wasn't a great student. OK?
(A avaliação vai de 0 a 4)
that I was able to learn things visually
de aprender visualmente,
de outra forma,
this became my tactic
essa tornou-se a minha tática
As coisas estavam a correr bem.
Things were going well.
de História da Arte.
these art history classes.
que não esquecerei, nunca esquecerei.
I will not forget, I will never forget.
com resumos de História da Arte.
art history classes.
survey art history classes,
de História da Arte com resumos,
the entire history of art
toda a História da Arte
and Jackson Pollock
e Jackson Pollock
but they try anyway.
de qualquer modo.
was about a 14-page section
estava uma secção de 14 páginas
of black people in painting
na pintura
let's just put it that way.
vamos dizer assim.
the other classes that I had,
to go over that particular chapter,
abordarmos esse mesmo capítulo,
to go through it."
para o abordar."
hold on, professor, professor.
espere, Professora, Professora.
important chapter to me.
muito importante para mim.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
desculpe, desculpe,
de entender.
that this is significant.
que isto é importante.
peço imensa desculpa.
because we need to talk."
porque precisamos de falar."
na hora de atendimento.
out of her office.
"Não a posso forçar a ensinar
"I can't force her to teach anything."
if I wanted to understand this history,
que se queria perceber esta história,
of those folks who had to walk,
dos que eram obrigados a ir a pé,
to have to figure that out myself.
por mim mesmo.
and looking at images like this.
para imagens como esta.
some slight differences in the painting.
no quadro.
that I had been absorbing
que tinha estado a absorver
that painting is a language.
que a pintura é uma linguagem.
in the composition here.
nesta composição.
este colar de ouro.
this gold necklace here.
sobre o estatuto económico
about the economic status
of the compositional structure,
da estrutura compositiva,
da composição,
que eles têm bastante dinheiro.
that they have quite a bit of money.
this other character here.
personagem.
in research on these kinds of paintings,
na pesquisa deste tipo de pinturas,
in this painting --
neste quadro
than I can about this character here,
as suas esperanças,
just put inside of this paint
colocar nesta tinta
com o passar do tempo.
eventualmente,
têm de ir a pé?
of sculptures at museums?
deste tipo de esculturas nos museus?
deste tipo de pinturas
of these kinds of paintings
na sociedade,
este tipo de representações deles mesmos?"
of themselves all the time?
fotográficas antigas,
you actually had to focus. Right?
tínhamos de focar a lente?
um pouco para a esquerda
a little to the right,
para a direita,
in the background would come out.
ao fundo definiam-se.
as lutas do nosso passado
the struggles of our past
and the advances of our present.
e os avanços do nosso presente.
com uma borracha, apagando as coisas.
and getting rid of stuff.
do it in the same way
a Constituição Americana funciona.
a law in the American Constitution,
uma lei na Constituição Americana,
mas isto é onde estamos agora."
but this is where we are right now."
a compreender um pouco
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