(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Andy Warhol, one of the most influential people in American modern art. Warhol was best known for his bright colored images of famous people and food cans. Through both his art and lifestyle he explored the nature of fame, popular culture, and the media. His artistic influence and unusual personality redefined the modern art world.
Andy Warhol was not always famous around the world. He was born in nineteen twenty-eight in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Their last name was Warhola, which Andy later shortened to Warhol. As a child Andy spent a great deal of time sick in bed. While he was recovering, he would draw pictures. When his father died, he left enough money for Andy to attend art school. Andy Warhol attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he studied pictorial design. Pictorial design is the art of creating images and drawings. Often these drawings are used in the production of advertisements and magazines.
In nineteen forty-nine Warhol moved to New York City to work as a commercial artist. He drew pictures for magazines and advertisements. He became very successful. During the nineteen fifties Warhol drew images for many important magazines such as "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar." He also became very well known for a series of ads he made for shoes. Warhol used his experience in commercial art as an entry into fine art. He began his painting career as part of the Pop Art movement. This movement was at its strongest during the nineteen sixties. Pop Art was defined by images of material goods and popular culture. Pop artists rejected the serious nature of the art world. To do this, these artists painted or printed everyday images of things that usually are not considered art. These images included photographs from magazines, drink advertisements and drawings from popular comic strips.
Some critics say that Pop Art was a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. Artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement took themselves very seriously. They did not approve of popular culture. They thought artists should not be concerned with such unimportant parts of culture. Pop artists, however, celebrated popular culture in all of its forms. They approved of using mass media and mass production as an influence in their art. Pop Art also reflected the rise in wealth and the importance of owning things that America experienced in the nineteen fifties. One art critic defined Pop art as popular, low-cost, young, mass-produced and sexy. One of Warhol's first exhibits was in nineteen sixty-two. He created thirty-two paintings of red and white soup cans. These paintings shook the art world. The soup cans looked like the soup produced by one of America's most popular food companies, Campbell's. Every painting looked the same except for the words written on the can that described the different kinds of soup.
Warhol used a very smooth painting method so the artwork almost did not look hand-made. The paintings looked like they came out of the same factory that made the soup cans. No one had ever seen art like this. Warhol also made paintings using images such as Coca Cola bottles, dollar symbols, and popular cleaning products. He took the most everyday objects and turned them into fine art. Warhol soon started making silk-screen prints. This method of reproduction permitted the artist to make many images very quickly. He would often repeat the same picture many times in one artwork. He liked the idea of mass produced art. He once said that he thought everyone should think alike and be like a machine. In fact, the place where he created his art was called The Factory. He had many assistants who helped him produce his art.
Warhol explored many other subjects. For example, he made a series of paintings on death and disaster. These works showed images of car accidents and executions. He also made pictures of famous people such as the actress Marilyn Monroe and the singer Elvis Presley. Warhol was very interested in fame. He celebrated famous people and they celebrated him. Andy Warhol once said something about fame that became very popular and is still repeated today. He said that in the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes. Warhol certainly enjoyed being well known. He created a very unusual public personality. He would wear strange wigs on his head made of white hair. He would go out every night to parties and other social gatherings where there were beautiful and important people. He would talk to reporters in a very shy manner. Often he would provide unclear answers to their questions. Here is a recording of Andy Warhol being asked about his art. It is from a nineteen ninety-one documentary film about Warhol's life.
Andy Warhol was much more than just a painter. He was also a film maker, publisher, and manager of a rock band. For example, he produced several low budget art films in the early nineteen sixties. One was called "Empire". It showed a filmed image of the Empire State Building in New York City. The film was eight hours long. In the movie "Sleep" Warhol recorded a friend sleeping. The film lasts six hours. When asked about the uneventful nature of these films, Warhol answered that he liked boring or uninteresting things. In the middle nineteen sixties Warhol also managed a rock band called The Velvet Underground. He helped produce one of their records and designed the cover of the album. Another of Warhol's projects was the creation of "Interview" magazine. This magazine covered many kinds of American popular culture. Andy Warhol was able to interview the kinds of people he liked best, famous people. A colorful drawing of a famous person was on the cover of every issue of the magazine. The image was drawn in the style of Warhol's paintings.
In nineteen sixty-eight Andy Warhol was shot by a woman who had been in one of his films. Valerie Solanas was angry with Warhol for not making a movie based on a play she wrote. The bullet from the gun hit several of Warhol's organs and almost killed him. The media's reaction to this event made him even more famous. Even though he worked on many other projects, Andy Warhol always kept producing artwork. In the nineteen seventies he made millions of dollars painting people's portraits. Wealthy people all over the world paid a great deal of money to have him paint their picture. In the nineteen eighties Warhol worked with several younger artists. They included Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Warhol also wrote several books and created two cable television programs.
Warhol's art would have surely continued in many new directions. But he died as a result of problems after a minor operation in nineteen eighty-seven. He was fifty-eight years old. At his death, Warhol's total estimated worth was more than one hundred million dollars. Most of this money helped create the Andy Warhol Foundation which helps support the visual arts. In nineteen ninety-four the Andy Warhol Museum opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This museum is in a large industrial building. As you walk up the seven floors of the museum, you can see more than five hundred works of art by Warhol. The museum has pieces from every period of his career.
On the fifth floor there is a special exhibit called Silver Clouds. This room is based on an art gallery show that Warhol designed in nineteen sixty-six. The room is filled with many silver colored balloons that are square shaped. The balloons contain helium and oxygen so that they float around with the air currents. Warhol's idea was to create a joyful and magical room in which the artwork moved around the visitors. Andy Warhol helped change the way the world defined modern art. His colorful Pop Art images and unusual personality made him one of the most famous and important people in American art and culture.
重点解析
1.lifestyle 生活方式
They enjoyed an income and lifestyle that many people would envy.
他们享有很多人会羡慕的收入和生活方式。
2.immigrant 移民
Immigrant tales have always been popular themes in fiction
移民故事一直是小说中常见的主题。
3.recover 恢复健康
He is recovering from a knee injury.
他的膝伤正在痊愈。
4.advertisement 广告
Miss Parrish recently placed an advertisement in the local newspaper.
帕里什小姐最近在本埠报纸上登了一则广告。
5.a series of 一系列的
The students have put forward a series of questions.
学生们提出了一系列问题。
6.approve of 赞成
Her parents did not approve of her decision
父母不赞成她的决定。
参考译文
我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。我是芭芭拉·克莱恩。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们将讲述美国现代艺术史上最具影响力的人之一安迪·沃霍尔的故事。沃霍尔以其色彩明亮艳丽的名人画像和食品罐头最为知名。他通过艺术和生活方式探索名誉、流行文化和媒体的本质。他的艺术影响和不一样的性格重新定义了现代艺术世界。安迪·沃霍尔并非一直全球知名。他于1928年出生于宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡。他的父母都是来自捷克斯洛伐克的移民。他们的姓氏是沃霍尔拉，之后安迪将其简至沃霍尔。童年的安迪大部分时间都是卧病在床。养病时，他会画画。在父亲去世时，他给安迪留下了足够的钱让他上艺术学校。
安迪·沃霍尔在卡耐基理工学院学习图案设计。图案设计是创造图像和图画的艺术。这些画作常被用于广告和杂志上。1949年，沃霍尔搬到纽约成为了一名商业广告艺术家。他为杂志和广告画画。他变得非常成功。上世纪50年代，沃霍尔为很多重要杂志，如《Vogue》以及《Harper's Bazaar》画图。他还以他画的一系列鞋子广告而知名。沃霍尔利用自己在商业广告方面的经验跻身美术界。他开始了自己的绘画事业并将其作为波普艺术运动的一部分。该运动在上世纪60年代期间最为风靡。波普艺术由有形材和流行文化图画所定义。波普艺术家们拒绝艺术世界的严肃本质。为了做到这一点，这些艺术家绘画或印刷一些被认为不属于艺术事物的图像。这些图像包括杂志上的照片、饮料广告以及流行流行连环画上的图画。
一些评论家表示波普艺术是对抽象表现主义的一种反应。抽象表现主义运动的艺术家们把自己看得很重要。他们不支持流行文化。他们认为艺术家不应该关注文化的这种琐碎部分。但波普艺术家们欢迎各种形式的流行文化。他们支持使用大众传播媒体和大批量生产，并将其作为对他们艺术的影响。波普艺术也反映了美国在上世纪50年代所经历的财富以及所有物重要性的增加。一名艺术评论家用流行、低成本、年轻、大量生产和性感来定义波普艺术。沃霍尔的首批展览之一是在1962年。他创造了32幅红白汤罐头系列画作。这些画震惊了艺术界。汤罐头看起来像是美国最著名食品公司之一金宝生产的产品。每幅画看起来都一样，除了罐头上写的字，它们描述了汤的不同种类。沃霍尔使用了一种非常流畅的绘画方法，因此这些艺术品看起来根本不像是手工绘制。这些画看起来像是出自同一家制造汤罐头的工厂。没人看见过这样的艺术。
沃霍尔还使用可口可乐瓶、美元符号和流行的清洁产品作画。他采用日常用品并将它们变成精工艺术。很快沃霍尔便开始制作绢印版画。这种复制方法可以让艺术家迅速制作很多图像。他经常在一幅作品中多次重复同一张画。他喜欢大量生产艺术的想法。他曾说他认为每个人都应该以同种方式思考，就像一台机器一样。事实上，他创作艺术的地方被称为“工厂”。他有很多助手帮助他生产他的艺术。沃霍尔探索了很多其他主题。例如，他制作了一些列关于死亡和灾难的画。这些画作展现了车祸和死刑的画面。他还画了很多名人，比如女演员玛丽莲·梦露和歌手埃维斯·普里斯利。
沃霍尔对名誉非常感兴趣。他赞赏名人，他们也赞赏他。安迪·沃霍尔曾经谈及名望，他说的这句话成了名言，至今仍被反复使用。他说在未来社会，15分钟内，每一个人都能获得成功。当然沃霍尔很享受出名。他有一种非常不同的外显人格。他的头上顶着白色毛发制作的怪异假发。他每晚都去公园和其他汇集美人和重要人士的社交聚会。他会害羞地和记者交谈。通常对记者的提问，他都给出模糊的回答。安迪·沃霍尔不仅仅是一名画家，他还是一名电影制作人、出版商和摇滚乐队经纪人。例如，他在上世纪60年代早期创作了几部小成本艺术电影。其中一部是《帝国大厦》。其中展现的是纽约帝国大厦的影象，该电影时长8小时。在电影《沉睡》中，沃霍尔记录了一位朋友的睡眠，这部电影长6个小时。当被问及这些电影本质平淡时，他回答，他喜欢无聊或是无趣的东西。
上世纪60年代中期，沃霍尔还管理了一家名为地下丝绒乐队的摇滚乐队。他帮助创作了乐队的一首歌并设计了该专辑的封面。沃霍尔的另一个项目是《访谈》杂志的创立。该杂志涵盖多种美国流行文化。安迪·沃霍尔可以访谈那些他最喜欢的著名的人士。杂志每期封面都是一位名人的彩色画像，以沃霍尔的绘画风格绘制。1968年，安迪·沃霍尔被一位女性枪击，这位女士曾参与过他的一部电影。瓦莱丽·索拉纳斯很生气沃霍尔没有基于她的剧本拍摄电影。子弹击中了沃霍尔的几个器官，几乎致命。媒体对此次事件的反应让他更加出名。
即便他还从事其他项目工作，但安迪·沃霍尔一直在创作。上世纪70年代，他靠着画人物肖像赚了百万美元。世界上的有钱人花大价钱让他为自己作画。上世纪80年代，沃霍尔和几个年轻的艺术家合作。其中包括让·米切尔·巴斯奎特和凯斯·哈林。沃霍尔还写了几本书并制作了两档有线电视节目。沃霍尔的艺术以多种新的方向继续着。但1987年，由于一次小手术后的问题，他去世了。当时他58岁。在他去世后，他的总资产估值超过了一亿美元。大部分资金被用于成立了安迪·沃霍尔基金会，帮助支持视觉艺术。
1994年，安迪·沃霍尔博物馆在宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡开幕。这个博物馆是一个大型工业建筑物。当你走进这个博物馆的七楼，你可以看到五百多件沃霍尔的作品。这个博物馆收藏了他事业各个时期的作品。在五楼有一个特别展览区—《银云》。这个房间是基于沃霍尔于1966年设计的一次艺术展。房间中有很多方形的银色气球。这些气球里边是氦和氧气，因此它们可以随气流漂浮。沃霍尔的想法是创造一个欢乐想象力的房间，艺术作品在游客周围移动。安迪·沃霍尔帮助改变了世界定义现代艺术的方式。彩色的波普艺术图画和不同寻常的个性让他成为美国艺术和文化中最著名重要的人物之一。
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