2011年12月26日 星期一

吳翰書

有時候,一席話可以勝讀多年書。吳翰書老師就是這樣,他在汽車上的一席話(「流動的饗宴」)給我很深刻的印象,正像荀子說的「贈人以言」,遠比千金還貴重。

大概在1974年,我們一起搭乘台汽客運,從東海下去台中。

吳翰書老師當時可能上東海的建築系演講或找朋友,而我有許多這方面的朋友,所以一上車就可以聊得深入。

你可以了解他的「正直不阿」和急切的個性。

他當時一直推薦塞尚,認為現代藝術必須從他講起。(他說他「用畫在思考」;「一切都在邀請我們,去找回作品那兒幾乎無形的印跡,找回沉思者那片無聲的世界,因為它已經被道出,所以從此可以被觸及。」--2010年補,取自《梅洛-龐蒂傳》Merleau-Ponty: sar vie, son oeuvre by A. Robinet)後來的20年,我有機會參觀歐美日的許多藝術館,每回看到塞尚的畫,就會特別用心。「20世紀……更能關注我稱之為『無限親近,幾乎當下』的經驗。在繪畫上亦是如此。塞尚比起他之前任何畫家來,更深入地探索我們對外物的感覺是怎麼跟我們的精神圖像相結合,產生我們對事物的認知的…….他是有意識地通過新的繪畫技巧。去揭示我們對感性世界的知覺是怎麼形成的。」(J. F. Billeter《莊子四講》宋剛譯,北京;中華,2009,頁127。)

我對馬蒂斯的作品和生平下過一番功夫,了解他曾花費不少錢買幅塞尚的作品,朝夕相處、觀摩數年。法國導演Robert Bresson 對塞尚的藍之印象特別深刻,參考他的《電影書寫札記》(譚家雄等譯,北京:三聯,2001,頁51)。

我那時候買過一本企鵝版的《D. H. Lawrence文選》,不過沒緣讀作者寫的《我的繪畫導論》,數十年過去之後,我在台大圖書館讀到1997年日本再製的 《Lawrence 畫冊》(昔日是限印本,只賣預約訂購者),後許是字體很美觀、容易讀,我才讀到Lawrence 說的,塞尚畫的蘋果,至少可以說是空前的,讓我們這些每天看過它們的人覺得很慚愧(我在英國住過,那兒的蘋果數還很多,還可能出幾個牛頓………)。

吳老師對於我們的前途還有很獨特的見解,他認為不應該去上班,應該去許多民間的大師處去拜師,搶救即將消逝的絕學,因為他們一過世,就成絕響。這點,我沒做成,因為畢竟我不是藝術家。

許多年之後,我參考了:「現代藝壇包青天:教授美術史的藝評家吳翰書」《聯合文學》(1990年6月號,頁99-100),覺得這兩頁的圖文,大大補充了我上述的說法。

他的畫像之一,為紫藤蘆茶藝館主人周渝先生所收藏,曾在清華大學藝術中心展過;《聯合文學》上有《台視文化 家庭月刊》所提供的讀書會照片,相當傳神。據說他昔日曾多次在紫藤蘆講過八大山人,放論過「什麼是真假鄉土畫作」等等。

2011年12月22日 星期四

William T. Sherman 將軍

這位將軍有點意思


威廉·特庫姆塞·舍曼(英語:William Tecumseh Sherman,又譯謝爾曼,1820年2月8日-1891年2月14日)是美國南北戰爭中的北部聯邦軍將領,以火燒亞特蘭大和著名的向大海進軍戰略而聞名於世,與尤裏西斯.格蘭特將軍制定「東西戰線協同作戰」計畫。


ON THIS DAY

On Dec. 22, 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."




English
  • Born: 8 February 1820
  • Birthplace: Lancaster, Ohio
  • Died: 14 February 1891
  • Best Known As: Union general who said, "War is hell."

William Tecumseh Sherman is the U.S. Civil War general who famously said, "war is hell" -- and proved it with a destructive campaign through the South that burned the cities of Atlanta, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina. A graduate of the military academy at West Point (1840), Sherman served without distinction during the Mexican War and, as a young lieutenant, was sent by President James Polk to report on California's gold rush (1847). Sherman left the military in 1853 and tried unsuccessfully to build a career in banking in California and law in Kansas before becoming the superintendent of the Louisiana Military Seminary (the forerunner of Louisiana State University). After the South seceded, he returned to the army in 1861 as a colonel and went on to participate in some of the Civil War's biggest campaigns, including Bull Run, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga.

In the spring of 1864 Sherman, who commanded the Union armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee and the Ohio, began a spectacular drive against the armies of General Joseph E. Johnston that ended with the Union occupation of Atlanta. Sherman ordered the city evacuated and razed, part of his strategy to economically cripple and psychologically intimidate the rebels. After the Atlanta campaign he began his "March to the Sea," a property-destroying drive that began in November and ended with the occupation of Savannah on 21 December (his "Christmas present" to President Lincoln). Sherman then marched up through the Carolinas and received Johnston's surrender in North Carolina on 26 April 1865, just after Robert E. Lee surrendered to U. S. Grant at Appomattox (9 April). After the war Sherman served as the commander-in-chief of the army from 1869 to 1884, during which time he applied his ferocity to the Indian Wars in the West. His policy of expanding warfare beyond the battlefield and into the civilian infrastructure, called "total warfare" and "scorched earth" strategies, has led to him being known as one of the fathers of modern warfare. He is considered by some to be one of the Civil War's greatest heroes, but residents of the American southeast, especially Georgia, pretty much still hate him.

Sherman was named Tecumseh after the Shawnee chieftain; as a boy Sherman was raised by family friends, who had him baptized as William... Sherman was a prolific writer and published a two-volume memoir in 1875... Unwilling to be drafted to run for president, Sherman is known for saying, "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve."

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