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Culture
文艺版块
Back Story
幕后故事
Picasso's stain
毕加索的污点
A new take on whether great art and monstrous artists can be separated.
关于能否分开看待伟大艺术和丑恶艺术家的新观点。
Look closely at "Woman with a Yellow Necklace", a painting by Pablo Picasso of 1946.
仔细看看巴勃罗·毕加索1946年的画作《戴黄色项链的女人》。
The woman is Francoise Gilot, his partner at the time.
画中这名女子是弗朗索瓦·吉洛特，是毕加索当时的伴侣。
Notice, in particular, what appears to be a Marilyn-esque beauty spot on the figure's left cheek.
请特别注意看，人物的左脸颊上似乎有一个玛丽莲·梦露风格的美人痣。
That mark is said to represent a cigarette burn, seared onto the sitter's face during a row with the artist.
据说，这个痣代表香烟灼伤的痕迹，是画中的人有一次与艺术家发生争吵时烫在她脸上的。
In his astonishing range and invention, Picasso--who died 50 years ago, on April 8th 1973--was among the 20th century's greatest artists.
毕加索在50年前于1973年4月8日逝世，因其令人惊叹的作品丰富性和创造力，他堪称20世纪最伟大的艺术家之一。
He was also an abusive goat, with a nauseating fondness for much younger women (40 years younger in Ms Gilot's case).
但他也是施虐成性的色狼，令人作呕地喜爱比他年轻许多的女性(吉洛特女士比他小40岁)。
"Once they were bled dry," his granddaughter Marina wrote of his women, "he would dispose of them."
"一旦她们被吸干了血，" 毕加索的孙女玛丽娜在谈到他的女人们时写道，"他就会把她们丢掉。"
Two went on to kill themselves.
其中两人最后自杀了。
In "Monsters", her new book, Claire Dederer identifies Picasso as an archetypal modern genius: an artist whose vices have been seen as excusable by-products of his vatic talent.
在克莱尔·戴德勒的新书《怪兽》中，戴德勒认为毕加索是一个典型的现代天才：这位艺术家的恶行被视为其超凡才华的副产品，因而得到原谅。
Only men, she notes, are ever granted this licentious dispensation.
戴德勒指出，只有男性才会被授予这种放荡行为的豁免权。
Her book asks how she and readers today should feel about luminaries who "did or said something awful, and made something great".
她的书提问道：现今的她和读者应该如何看待那些"言行恶劣，又有伟大成就"的杰出人物。
Even those who try to duck this problem can't.
即使是那些试图回避这个问题的人也做不到这一点。
Even for listeners bent on separating art and artist, "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number", a hip-hop track, will be tarnished by knowing its provenance.
即使对于一心想把艺术和艺术家分开看待的听众来说，只要知道嘻哈音乐《年龄不过是数字》的出处，这首歌就蒙上了一层耻辱。
(It was written by R. Kelly, a convicted sex abuser, and sung by Aaliyah, who became his "wife" at 15.)
(它由已定罪的性虐待者R. 凯利创作，由15岁时成为他"妻子"的阿莉亚演唱。)
Conversely, even those repulsed by Wagner's anti-Semitism may find themselves stirred by "Ride of the Valkyries".
反过来，即使是那些厌恶瓦格纳的反犹太主义的人，也可能发现自己听到《女武神的骑行》时激动不已。
Often publishers, film bosses and other gatekeepers tackle this quandary on punters' behalves.
通常出版商、电影老板和其他守门人会代替观众解决这个难题。
The trouble, for most people, is where to draw the line, or rather several.
对大多数人来说，问题是在哪里划清那条界限，或者更确切地说，是好几条界限。
The variables involved are all slippery and subjective.
所涉及的变量都很难捉摸且主观。
One is the gravity of the artists' sins, a judgment liable to change over time.
其一是艺术家所犯罪过的严重性，对严重性的判断可能会随着时间的推移而改变。
The same goes for views on their stature. Time itself is a factor.
对他们地位的看法也是如此。时间本身就是一个因素。
Today's scandals will one day be ancient history; long-gone victims can be less compelling than living, weeping ones.
今天的丑闻有朝一日将成为古老的历史，早已逝去的受害者可能没有活生生的、哭泣的受害者那么触动人心。
Abjuring masterpieces by dead artists--such as Picasso--can seem a punishment of yourself rather than of them.
发誓抛弃毕加索等已故艺术家的杰作更像是惩罚自己，而不是惩罚他们。
Ms Dederer fantasises about a calculator that could weigh "the heinousness of the crime versus the greatness of the art".
戴德勒幻想有一种计算器，可以衡量比较"罪行的严重性和艺术的伟大程度"。
In reality, she says, the dilemma is inevitable--and insoluble.
她说，在现实中，这种两难局面是不可避免的，也是无法解决的。
Rewatching "Chinatown", she cannot but remember the gruesome sex offence committed by its director, Roman Polanski.
重温《唐人街》时，她不禁想起了导演罗曼·波兰斯基犯下的可怕性侵罪行。
A disgraced biography, in her apt metaphor, is a stain that cannot be washed away.
用她恰如其分的比喻来说，名誉扫地的生平是不能洗去的污点。
And in this social-media-saturated age--when "everything is everyone's business"--there is a lot of biography about.
在这个社交媒体饱和的时代 -- "每件事都是自己的事" --网上有各种生平事件。
At the same time, you cannot switch off the love you feel for art made by reprobates.
与此同时，你不能切断你对堕落者创作的艺术的热爱。
Your leg still jiggles to "I Want You Back", despite what you know about Michael Jackson's proclivities.
尽管你知道迈克尔·杰克逊的不良癖好，但你听到"我想要你回来"时还是会开始抖腿。
For all the disputed allegations against Woody Allen--and his marriage to his ex-partner's daughter--"Annie Hall" is still funny.
尽管伍迪·艾伦受到了有争议的指控--以及他与前伴侣的女儿结婚--但《安妮·霍尔》仍然很有趣。
No one is entirely a monster, Ms Dederer says by way of mitigation, both for stained virtuosos and angst-ridden fans.
没有人完完全全是怪兽，戴德勒以一种缓和的方式表示，这对有污点的艺术家和焦虑不安的粉丝来说都是一种安慰。
There is a bit of monstrosity in everyone, she adds, especially artists, for whom bloody-minded selfishness is useful.
她补充说，每个人都有一点兽性，特别是艺术家，故意与人为敌的自私对他们来说是有用的。
But her main argument for reconciling yourself to the art/artist question is that it is the wrong one to ask.
但她调和艺术/艺术家问题的主要观点是，这个问题问得不对。
What difference does it really make, she writes, if you deprive a wicked genius of your cash or attention?
她写道，如果你不给一个邪恶天才花钱、不关注他，这真的能带来什么改变吗？
Her case is couched in anti-capitalism; she thinks celebrity is generated and monetised by the system, which, like the house in a casino, wins whatever you choose to consume.
她的论据是反资本主义的，她认为名人是由制度产生并货币化的，就像赌场里的房子，不论你选择消费什么，他都是赢家。
You can doubt that reasoning but buy her conclusion: that renouncing Picasso, say, "is essentially meaningless as an ethical gesture".
你可以怀疑她的推理，但接受她的结论：比如，声明放弃毕加索，"作为一种道德姿态，这在本质上是没有意义的"。
Art is important. Calling out abusers is valid and important too.
艺术很重要。揪出施虐者也是合理且重要的。
But in the end, Ms Dederer argues, dust-ups over cancellations are a kind of shadow boxing.
但戴德勒认为，归根结底，关于取消文化的争论就像和假想敌打拳。
The key fights are over broader issues in society, or over private relationships and behaviour.
争执的关键是社会中更广泛的问题，或者私人关系和行为。
"The way you consume art doesn't make you a bad person, or a good one," she counsels. "You'll have to find some other way to accomplish that."
"你消费艺术的方式不会让你成为坏人，也不会让你成为好人。"她建议道，"你必须找到其他方法来实现这一点。"
In the narrow realm of culture, this is consoling: "You are off the hook."
在文化的狭窄领域，这是一种安慰："你逃脱了困境。"
Many shows and events will mark the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death.
许多展览和活动将纪念毕加索逝世50周年。
Attend one, and you will encounter his revelatory vision--and, indivisibly, his misogyny, which courses through his sexualised contortions of female bodies.
去参加一个活动吧，你会看到他具有启发性的想象力--以及与他不可分割的厌女症，这贯穿于他对女性身体的性别化扭曲之中。
And, like it or not, if you come across "Woman with a Yellow Necklace", you will see the cigarette burn.
而且，不管你喜不喜欢，如果你遇到《戴黄色项链的女人》，你会看到香烟烫伤的疤痕。
