'她的時代到了'：蒙德里安的成功是否歸功於一位住在康沃爾灣的跨性別女同性戀藝術家？
'Her time has come': did Mondrian owe his success to a cross-dressing lesbian artist who lived in a Cornish cove?
難度：進階
來源：The Guardian
In 1972, the prestigious Kunstmuseum in the Hague bought three paintings by a little known British artist called Marlow Moss. The gallery initially positioned Moss's works as examples of artists influenced by Piet Mondrian, the famous Dutch painter acclaimed for his black grids lit with bold blues and brash yellows. Yet today, the museum has reversed this positioning, with Moss's works now front and centre, while a similar piece by Mondrian is hidden behind a pillar.
1972 年，海牙著名的 Kunstmuseum 購買了英國藝術家 Marlow Moss 的三幅畫作，這位藝術家鮮為人知。畫廊最初將 Moss 的作品定位為受 Piet Mondrian 影響的藝術家例子，Mondrian 是著名的荷蘭畫家，以其帶有大膽藍色和鮮明黃色的黑色網格而聞名。然而今天，博物館已經扭轉了這一定位，Moss 的作品現在位於前面和中心，而 Mondrian 的類似作品則隱藏在柱子後面。
Why the volte-face? Because it is now widely recognised in the art world that it was as much Moss who influenced Mondrian as the other way round, at least when it came to the double or parallel lines he started using in the 1930s to add tension to his harmonious abstract paintings. Seven decades after her death in Cornwall at the age of 69, Moss is enjoying a major revival and reappraisal.
為什麼會有這種轉變？因為現在藝術界廣泛認為，Moss 對 Mondrian 的影響與 Mondrian 對 Moss 的影響一樣多，至少在他從 1930 年代開始使用的雙線或平行線方面，這些線條為他和諧的抽象畫增添了張力。在她於康沃爾去世 69 歲七十年後，Moss 正在享受重大的復興和重新評價。
Moss was born in London in 1889, initially named Marjorie Jewel Moss. Drawn initially to dance and music, she went on to study art before moving to Cornwall, where she cut her hair short and changed her name to the gender-neutral Marlow. In the late 1920s, Moss moved to Paris, where she became part of the avant garde scene and a member of the Abstraction-Creation group, which favoured abstraction over figurative work or surrealism.
Moss 於 1889 年出生於倫敦，最初名為 Marjorie Jewel Moss。她最初被舞蹈和音樂所吸引，後來學習藝術，然後搬到康沃爾，在那裡她剪短了頭髮，並將名字改為中性的 Marlow。1920 年代後期，Moss 搬到巴黎，成為前衛藝術界的一員，並加入了 Abstraction-Creation 團體，該團體偏愛抽象而非具象作品或超現實主義。
Mondrian was impressed by Moss's experimentation with the ingredients of neoplasticism, particularly how she used materials other than paint, such as cork and wood, and her use of the double line, which allowed for more dynamic compositions. When Mondrian saw Moss was deploying the double line in a new way, his interest was aroused and he wrote to ask what she meant by it. When she told him she regarded the single-line grid he'd been using for over a decade as a conclusion and restriction to a composition, he replied saying he couldn't quite follow what she meant.
Mondrian 對 Moss 在新造型主義要素方面的實驗印象深刻，特別是她如何使用油漆以外的材料（如軟木和木材），以及她對雙線的使用，這使得構圖更加動態。當 Mondrian 看到 Moss 以新方式使用雙線時，他的興趣被激發，他寫信詢問她的意思。當她告訴他，她認為他使用了十多年的單線網格是構圖的結論和限制時，他回答說他不完全理解她的意思。
However, Mondrian would go on to become famous for the double line. The curator believes its use evolved from exchanges between the two, rather than as something Mondrian created that was then borrowed by Moss, as earlier art historians believed. Many museums now put Moss to the front in the originality debate, but there's a new approach moving away from the 'Who did it first?' narrative, focusing instead on the interchange of knowledge.
然而，Mondrian 後來因雙線而聞名。策展人認為，它的使用是從兩人之間的交流演變而來的，而不是像早期藝術史學家所認為的那樣，是 Mondrian 創造然後被 Moss 借用的東西。現在許多博物館將 Moss 放在原創性辯論的前面，但有一種新方法正在遠離'誰先做的？'的敘述，轉而關注知識的交流。
Moss's situation was compounded by the destruction of much of her work when a house in Normandy where she had lived was bombed in 1944. The discovery of a suitcase full of sketches has prompted the current exhibition, revealing her thought process through mathematical calculations to plan her geometric paintings, which is very different from Mondrian's more intuitive approach. The current focus on Moss is reframing art history, moving away from the story of singular men and geniuses who toiled alone, toward a richer understanding of artistic collaboration and influence.
Moss 的情況因她大部分作品的毀壞而更加複雜，1944 年她在諾曼底居住的房子被炸燬。一個裝滿素描的手提箱的發現促成了當前的展覽，透過數學計算揭示了她規劃幾何畫作的思維過程，這與 Mondrian 更直觀的方法非常不同。目前對 Moss 的關注正在重新構建藝術史，從單一男性和獨自工作的天才的故事，轉向對藝術合作和影響的更豐富理解。
重點詞彙
- volte-face (n.)：徹底轉變，180度大轉彎
- reappraisal (n.)：重新評價，重新評估
- avant garde (n.)：前衛，先鋒
- neoplasticism (n.)：新造型主義
- deploy (v.)：運用，部署
- interchange (n.)：交流，交換
- compound (v.)：使惡化，使複雜化
- intuitive (adj.)：直觀的，直覺的
- reframe (v.)：重新構建，重新表述
- toil (v.)：辛苦工作，勞作
- unsung (adj.)：未被讚頌的
- pioneer (n.)：先驅
- abstract art (n.phr.)：抽象藝術
- overshadow (v.)：使黯然失色
- reclusive (adj.)：隱居的
- bohemian (adj.)：波西米亞式的，不拘一格的
- recognition (n.)：認可
- retrospective (n.)：回顧展
- long overdue (adj.phr.)：早該發生的