Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective @ Tate Modern

2月10日から始まった、テート・モダンの新しい展覧会「Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective」。アルメニア人のアーシル・ゴーキー（1904 – 1948）は、マーク・ロスコやジャクソン・ポロック、ウィレム・デ・クーニング等と並ぶ、20世紀アメリカで最もパワフルな画家の一人で、抽象表現主義の形成に重要な役割を果たした。ゴーキーは、トルコによるアルメニア人虐殺を逃れて、1915年に母と3人姉妹と故郷を脱出。1920年に、徴兵を避けて先に移住していた父親を頼って、アメリカにやってきた。その2年前の1919年に、避難先のロシア領地で、母親を飢えのために亡くしている。本名はVostanik Manoog Adoyan（ヴォスダニック・マヌーク・アドヤン）だが、ロシア人作家のMaxim Gorky（マクシム・ゴーリキー）にちなんで「ゴーキー」と改名した。彼の初期の静物画作品には、ポール・セザンヌやピカソ等の影響が垣間見えるが、1920年代後半から1930年代にかけてキュビズムに傾倒。そして1940年代にはシュルレアリスムに移行、抽象表現主義の先達として、ポロックやデ・クーニング、その他若手画家に大きな影響を与えた。しかし、私生活では癌との戦いや交通事故等災難が続き、1948年、自殺によってその人生を終えた。

The new exhibition of Tate Modern, “Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective” started on February 10. Armenian-born Arshile Gorky (c.1904 – 1948) was one of the most powerful American painters of the twentieth century, along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and was an influential figure in the formation of Abstract Expressionism. Gorky fleed his home town with his mother and his three sisters during Armenian Genocide by Turkey in 1915, and arrived to the US in 1920 to reunite with his father, who emigrated to America to avoid the draft earlier. In the meantime he lost his mother of starvation in 1919 in the Russian-controlled territory where he sought refuge. Gorky, born Vostanik Manoog Adoyan, adopted his new name with reference to the Russian writer Maxim Gorky. His early still-lives show the influence of Paul Cézanne, Picasso and others, but he experimented with cubism in the late 1920s and early 1930s, eventually moving to surrealism in 1940s, which led him to precede the Abstract Expressionism for Pollock, de Kooning and other younger painters. However, his career was cut short by a series of personal misfortunes such as a fight against cancer and a traffic accident – his despair pushed him to commit suicide in 1948.

彼の画風は、試行錯誤の過程で、その時々で変わっていったけれど、その暖かみを感じさせる深い色合いと有機的で柔らかい線は一貫している。そして、苦労に満ちた人生経験故か、彼の作品は、どれも一抹の寂しさを感じさせる。故郷のアルメニアの思い出や望郷の念をテーマとした作品も多い。私が一番好きなのは、彼の代表作の一つである、8歳の頃に母親と撮った写真を元に描かれた「The Artist and His Mother」2作。少年の頃に亡くした母への想いが痛いほど伝わってくる、とても優しくて切ない絵だ。彼は長年にわたって、何度もこの絵に手直しを加えたと言う。1940年代に田舎に移り住み、やっと過去の苦しみから解き放たれ、自由な線や明るい色を使った生き生きした作品を作り出し、画家としての才能とキャリアが花開こうとしていた矢先に、数々の不幸に見舞われ、自らの命を絶ってしまった。彼がもう少し長生きしていたら、その後どんな絵を描いていただろう。

Although his style changed over the years, trying out different approaches, his warm and deep colors and soft flowing lines are consistent throughout. Also his works give me a feeling of little sadness, probably because of his difficult life. He also often dealt with his memory of his native Armenia in his early to mid works. My favorite work is two versions of The Artist and His Mother, based on a photo of him and his mother taken when he was 8 years old. The paintings show his deep affection for his late mother and his childhood memory, and it is really touching. He worked and reworked the painting over many years. He began to work in the countryside in early 1940s and his artworks started to look more liberated from his painful memories, using free and flowing lines and vibrant and cheerful colors. Sadly it didn’t last long – he ended his career and life, just about the time when he took off to flourish his career as a pioneer in Abstract Expressionism. I wonder, if he had lived longer, how his future works would have been.

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Severe Cold Weather and Traffic Chaos in UK

最近のロンドンは寒い。気温は毎日0度前後。それでも週末は晴れたから良かったけれど、今日は午後に大雪が降り、ロンドンの街並みも雪に覆われた。利用していたバスが、事故か何かの影響でその先が通行止めになったからと途中で止まってしまい、残りは歩いて帰るはめに。4駅程だったけれど、ベチャベチャの雪の上を30分強歩くのは辛い。それに、そこかしこに悪ガキが隠れていて、ぼーっとしていると、雪の玉がどこからか飛んでくる。

イギリスだけでなく、今はヨーロッパ中が大寒波に見舞われており、交通機関は大混乱。クリスマス帰省・旅行客の足に支障をきたしている。チューブ（地下鉄）や鉄道、航空便は遅延・欠航が相次ぎ、路面凍結や雪で交通事故も多数報告されている（BBC News）。先ほどのニュースでは、ルートン空港が悪天候のため閉鎖されたという。フランス・ベルギーとイギリスを結ぶユーロスターは、今日でもう3日間運休しており、100,000人もの乗客が足止めを食らっている。19日には英仏海峡トンネルで、ユーロスターいわく「fulffy French snow（フランスでのふわふわした雪）」が原因の故障で、列車5台が立ち往生。何台かの客は救出されたそうだが、2,000人以上が数時間から最長16時間もの間、車内に閉じ込められた。以下のビデオは車内で15時間を過ごした怒れる家族。ユーロスター側から何の説明もなく、乗組員のフランス人は英語が喋れず（喋らず？）。その間飲み物も食べ物もなし。トイレは2つだけで、水が流れないので、排泄物が8cm以上も溜まっていたそう。電気もつかず、暗闇の中夜を過ごしたそう。ひどい話だ。

ユーロスターは明日から部分的に復旧する予定だそうだが、この運休中の予約客を優先、その後は老人やどうしても利用が必要な人を優先に割り当てていくので、明日以降の予約客は本当に必要な場合以外は利用しないよう、忠告している（下は、新聞に掲載された、ユーロスターからのお知らせ）。この1件でユーロスター、そしてイギリス人のフランス人に対する評判もガタ落ちしてしまった。

It’s been freezing cold in London recently. The temperature is around 0°. It was OK on weekend as it was sunny as well, but today there was heavy snow in the afternoon, covering the city in white. The bus I took suddenly stopped and didn’t travel further, due to the accident or something ahead and it was forced to wait. Though it was only 4 stops away from home and 30 minutes walk, it was hard to walk on the slippery wet and melted snow, going through a thread of random snowball attacks by obnoxious kids hiding behind walls or in a park in front of my apartment.

Not only UK but Europe is suffering with severe winter weather and traffic chaos, which affects tens of thousands of people who travel during the holiday season. In the UK, delays and cancellations are reported for many flights, trains, and tube lines, and Luton airport — closed due to snow. On the road, traffic jams have been seen due to the snow and accidents and AA has been busy rescuing people on the road (BBC News). Eurostar, which connects UK and France / Belgium, has suspended all the services for 3 days and has disrupted 100,000 people’s travel plan, after “fulffy French snow” in France created excessive condensation in the channel tunnel between England and France, causing electrics to fail and 5 trains to become stuck on December 19. More than 2,000 people were trapped inside the tunnel – some trains were evacuated, but other passengers were forced to remain on board, for hours up to 16 hours, without food and water supply! Below is the video of a furious family, stuck in the train for 15 hours; they complained that the passengers were treated like animals and with no explanation, no food, water, oxygen, electricity and light, no medics, with only 2 available toilets with no flushing water and 3 inches of excrement (or poo) and urine piled up… They were really mad at French attendants, for being rude and ignorant, and ‘those French even didn’t speak English’ (or acted that they didn’t??).

Eurostar is expected to resume partial service tomorrow on Tuesday, but the priority will be given to the elderly and the vulnerable, and passengers that should have travelled on Friday and Saturday. Eurostar advises to customers holding booking in the next few days from tomorrow is to only travel if it is absolutely necessary (as in the ‘notice’ published on the newspaper). With the incident, the way Eurostar handle of the accident, Eurostar’s reputation has gone down the drain, as well as the British image of French people…

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