Paul Gauguin
保罗·高更
Paul Gauguin lived for just 54 years but he packed（充满） his brief life with activity.
保罗·高更逝世时年仅54岁，但他短暂的一生却非常丰富。
The French painter spent his early childhood in Peru before returning to France.
在回到法国之前，这位法国画家的童年是在秘鲁度过的。
As an adult, he continued to travel a lot. Most famously, he spent much of the last decade of his life in Tahiti, an island in southern Pacific Ocean.
成年后，他到处旅行。最为人熟知的是，他人生最后几年是在南太平洋的塔希提岛度过的。
Indeed, Gauguin is best known for his colorful paintings of Tahitians and their culture.
的确，高更最为人所知的是他丰富多彩的塔希提画和塔希提文化。
The restlessness（焦躁不安） of this great painter has been normal among modern artists since the middle of the 19th century.
自19世纪中期以来，这位伟大的画家的焦躁不安在现代艺术家中是很正常的。
They're never satisfied for long with a certain style or way of life. Once something becomes conventional（常规的）, it's turned down.
他们永远不会只满足于一种风格和一种人生方式。一旦某种事物变得常规，他们就会排斥。
The artistic culture that Gauguin developed from was that of Impressionism（印象派）.
高更由此发展起来的艺术文化属于印象派。
Painters like Claude Monet had wanted to paint how they saw the world, not how their teachers taught them it should be seen.
像克劳德·莫奈这样的画家也想通过绘画表达他们看待世界的方式，而不是老师教他们看待世界的方式。
Gauguin, and similar artists like his friend Vincent van Gogh, moved even further away from "respectable" art than the Impressionists.
高更和与他类似的画家比如他的朋友文森特·梵高，都远不如其他印象派画家受人尊敬。
For them, it was not simply a matter of seeing the world differently, but feeling and thinking about it differently, too.
对他们而言，绘画不仅仅是从不同角度看待世界这么简单，还包括从不同角度感受世界，思考世界。
Gauguin saw, felt and thought differently from most members of European society.
在看待、感受和思考的方式上，高更与欧洲社会的大部分人都不同。
He thought that European culture was too fancy and not spontaneous（自发的）.
他认为欧洲文化太花哨，不自然。
This is why he turned to the traditions of other parts of the world, like Africa, and, eventually, Tahiti.
这也就是他寻求世界其他地方传统的原因，如非洲，以及最后居住的塔希提岛。
Artists like Gauguin used the word "primitive（原始）" for these cultures, but not as a negative term.
用 “原始” 这个词形容保罗这样的艺术家，并没有贬义。
For him, Europe, in becoming modern, industrial and scientific, seemed less natural than other parts of the world.
对他而言，欧洲很现代化，商业氛围浓厚，科技发达，但比其他地方少了自然的气息。
In truth, Gauguin's paintings may be unconventional but they are certainly not "primitive".
事实上，高更的画作虽然颇具争议，但绝非粗劣。
They are the work of a painter with great awareness of what he was doing.
高更深知自己在做什么。
It was this awareness that made him such an important painter for those that came after, in the 20th century.
正因如此，他才成为了二十世纪的一位重要画家。
When we look closely at the works of Gauguin we begin to understand Pablo Picasso, and especially Henri Matisse, a little better.
如果我们对高更的作品观察得够仔细，就能看懂巴勃罗·毕加索的画作，也能更懂亨利·马蒂斯的作品。
网友评论