當Patrick Marasso在畫照片時，他畫的究竟是什麼

來自專欄藝術觀察與訪談26 人贊了文章

也沒說就不談福柯了，定下來的諸多寫作計劃也是一直在進行中的。但隨著這個訂閱號開始變得非常任性與非常私人之後——尤其當我匍匐穿越論文盲審和答辯的鐵絲網與高射炮之後——我果斷決定：將這種隨意性開足到最大馬力，衝破殘體、捅破厚膜。

不管不顧了。想談啥，談啥。

今天想在自己的地兒展出一番別人的作品，是的，如題，藝術家的名字叫Patrick Marasso，不打算進行中文譯名的加註。

又是一個畫照片的藝術家。

生於1968年的加州，這是一個讓寫作者均充滿表達欲的年份。現如今，Patrick Marasso是一名大學的專職教授，教授繪畫 Sierra College, Rocklin, CA。在學生們對他的評語中，我看到了這樣一段話：

Awesome teacher, allows late work even though half of the semester had already passed because he understands art, and students who take it. Allows you not to participate in group critique, so if youre antisocial, you are safe with him.

估計以後我也是這種類型的老師吧。

莫名地，在所知道的幾位「照片畫家」中，我偏偏對他的作品可以談得上「十分喜歡」。詳細來說，拋開Patrick Marasso古早時期的作品之外，2006年迄今的創作都值得細細品味。對下半年將進入畢業後的恆常創作狀態的我來說，尤其如此。

Patrick Marasso的風格目前來說應該算是比較穩定的，所涉獵的主題亦然。最近，和一位朋友聊到「畫照片」這件事——當然，國內的幾位此類畫家裡還免不了談到冷軍——他隨後問我：「『畫照片』這事兒到底和攝影之間的關係是什麼？」

這種宏大的問題若想長篇大論地展開十分容易，且倘若不鴻篇巨製，則顯得水平單薄、可疑。但偏偏我現在對論文體已經到了深惡痛絕的地步，正如某些研究已經徹底成為對帶有學術慣性的議題的執著，主題永遠大過骨肉——而不是一篇小說。議題要求的是準確，而小說要求的，是恰到好處的模糊。前者最終成為了還原論，原先應該披荊帶棘成就的智慧之山輾轉成為索道清晰的遊覽路線或者部落傳說。

從直覺出發，我想說的僅僅是：攝影已經是一種轉述，在轉述的時候再轉述一次，無論藝術家在這個過程里怎樣發揮，到底一定是距離「本真」又遙遠了一回。擬像幾經曲折，來時之路漫漫不清，再追尋線索早已微茫，所下定義時必定是艱辛且自我懷疑的。一千個人眼裡有一千個哈姆雷特，轉述時的氣定神閑與反覆摸索時的焦灼之態，也是可以一應俱全的。

重要的是，畫照片讓人獲得一種強大的安全氛圍，在這裡，智性黏著於形式，圖解與構築瞬時同行。

是為一類傑出的遊戲。

這類的party照充斥了他06年之後的作品集。你永遠會在不經意之間懷疑：

誒，這不是那位電影明星嗎？這不是那位在電影中看上去很怪異的人嗎？那樣讓人難以忘卻的五官……誒，這不是那位政治人物嗎？閃光燈無情又怯懦地打在她的臉上。

打光讓人慾罷不能。

我沒有在加州生活過，所聽到的不過是其他人生活後的點滴感受，這種感受是無效的，因為對個人而言不起作用。

只是他的畫，這些熱騰又冷靜的瞬間，像極了那些經典美劇留給我的印象。電光火石之間，最好的時代已經過去了。

Patrick Marasso自己說：

I am fascinated by the banal snapshot, the familiarity in such images that were derived by an indiscriminate approach to personal documentation. From dinner parties to camping trips, they contain an artless commonality with their clunky compositions, poor lighting, and faded color. In appropriating these uncareful candid shots, I look to bring the casual imagery of the untrained into the context of the gallery, executed with the style and medium of traditional oil painting. Knowledge of the people or places in the source image is unnecessary, I prefer to rid myself of psychological distractions personal connections to the photographs can induce. The shared choice in recording these moments of leisure is one I find a kinship to.

「我對於日常快照這種對個人文檔和熟悉的生活場景不加區分的處理方式非常著迷。從晚餐派對到露營旅行，它們都包含了一種與它們笨重的構圖相稱的非藝術的共性，昏暗的光線，褪去的色調等。對於這些無心但率真的家庭拍攝，我試圖將未經訓練的隨意形象融入藝術的語境中，以傳統油畫為媒介。源圖像中的人物或地點都不重要，這些記錄休閑時刻的共性選擇才是我要表達的關鍵。」

Brenna Chapman評論：

In the paintings of Patrick Marasso, one is pulled in by snapshots of another life. Each work carefully recreates the tiniest detail of square cut old photographs that surely once languished away in attics, moldy cardboard boxes, or albums before being pulled out of obscurity by Marasso. On the surface these paintings seem like little odes to obsession, technically impressive recreations of a forgotten moment. Beneath this technical mastery is a tinge of the painterly, a softening of edges and forms like the fading detail of a memory.

These recreated worlds feel exotically alien and compellingly familiar at the same time. They are artifacts of mid-20th century, suburban Americana, loaded with markers of passé fashion. There are dark wood paneled walls, dubious childhood events, strict gender dichotomies, and stereotypical businessmen letting off steam in an alcoholic, ritualistic release. They feel foreign, yet indelibly authentic in their awkwardness, their earnestness. Even to those who do not come from these nearly fabled cultures, they feel undeniably familiar. Theses cultures are woven into the fabric of American mythos and we easily find archetypes to identify: the life of the party, the sly wit, the alienated, and the inexplicably strange that every family boasts somewhere in story and memory.

There is a sadness here too, of real people and moments forgotten, memories thrown away or lost, out of date traditions to be horrified by and yet nostalgic for. The quality of fading softness on the surface of the painting reminds us of the distance they have travelled from the indelibly human. Few people will be capable of not at least briefly wondering what will happen to their own material histories in the light of these images. We can be both disturbed and hopeful that they could end up here someday, as art, as a conversation forever interrupted, as an exotic foray to be enjoyed for its strangeness and its familiarity.

On some levels these images bring to mind Edward Hopper, only rather than focusing on modern alienation, these look backwards to a time equally enshrined and condemned by contemporary times. These stolen moments become a place of cultural memory and confrontation, of filling the blanks with our own narratives. We want the narrative that is being deliberately denied, and are left cobbling it together from title and visual clues, from history, from lingering ideas of what community was then and is now. We wonder in each image what exactly about this specific photograph caught the artist』s eye, why he chose this moment to be enshrined, conjuring up another absent narrator. This renders these carefully executed paintings incredibly appealing, the viewer always coming back for one more look, one more expedition into a foreign, familiar land.

拿他和霍珀比是沒有意義的，我以為霍珀恰恰不願意畫人，而他，卻恰恰，喜歡畫人。

不畫人，有什麼意思呢。

Victoria Dalkey評論：

First, there』s the guy in the top hat, bathrobe and joke X-ray specs. Then there』s the guy dressed as Baby New Year planting a wet one on a woman who might or might not be his wife. Turns out he』s the same guy and obviously the life of the party.

He』s part of a cast of characters that inhabit Patrick Marasso』s smooth oil paintings of found photographs, up at JayJay, that document cocktail parties, camping trips and family gatherings from decadespast. Many of these are obtained from families of people who have died or people who are downsizing and want to get rid of family albums that are full of forgotten people and pleasures.

Marasso has an eye for the incongruous detail and the unintentionally weird image. The surprised man in 「Misunderstood」 is shot from an unattractive angle and clearly not expecting to be caught on film. The man and boy (father and son? older and younger brothers?) sitting in a Tilt-A-Whirl in 「Excitable Boy」 are a study in alienation. On one level these images may make you think of Diane Arbus photos, but Marasso says he is in no way exploiting or making fun of the people in his paintings.

His images, more silly than cruel, allow the viewer to become a detective, sussing out relationships between people and comparing them to people in their own families or at parties their parents gave.

He uses traditional materials and methods of painting to create his oils, which while based on photos are not really photo-realist images. They are not as crisp or driven as works by Audrey Flack or Richard Estes. Some of his recent images, including the one of the guy in joke glasses, are based on Kodachrome slides rather than film-based snapshots and have a sharper and more intense quality than works like 「Halloween Parade,」 with its washed-out assemblage of little kids dressed up in scary or exotic costumes.

Ranging from awkward to dark-edged images, Marasso documents the sterility of suburbia and the ominous quality of children with war toys in 「New Frontier.」 「All the Young Dudes」 is a shot of a couple holding toothpicks with a green olive in their teeth as they chew their way toward a kiss. 「End of the Party」 catches a departing group with a surprised man and a woman whose face is washed out by a flashbulb; she looks half-dead.

Of his work, Marasso writes, 「I am fascinated by the banal snapshot, the familiarity in such images that were derived by an indiscriminate approach to personal documentation. … They contain an artless commonality with their clunky compositions, poor lighting, and faded color.」

Such snapshots, he noted, may be a thing of the past as digital cameras and smartphones allow shutter bugs to delete their mistakes. He seeks to preserve them and give them a degree of tacky gravitas in his appropriations of vernacular events from decades past.

On view in JayJay』s back gallery is a series of one-of-a-kind plates by 21 artists. They range from S.R. Jones』 「Gran Circ,」 a romantic image of a nude and a white horse against a powder-blue background, to Roger Berry』s 「Stressed Plate,」 a large, misshapen, brushed-steel disk that is luxuriously lovely.

Most of the artists show work that is typical of their styles, among them Michael Stevens』 「Outfox,」 a wooden box with shards of a plate bearing the image of a fox inside; Ken Little』s 「Hippo Plate,」 a yellow plate with a blue-green bronze hippo head atop it; and Dean DeCocker』s 「Diamond Head,」 an aluminum, steel and powder-coat construction typical of his aircraft-inspired, abstract sculptures.

Among other pieces that stand out are Julia Couzens』 witty textile and text-based 「Dream Plate,」 made of wire, tulle, electrical tape, pipe cleaners, thread and felt; Joe Mariscal』s animated ceramic 「Fish Plate」; and Suzanne Adan』s eccentric, black-and-white ceramic 「Doodad,」 a figurative piece that mimics one of her scratchboard works.

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