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  3. He has influenced generations of artists but John Baldessari’s own celebrity

He has influenced generations of artists but John Baldessari’s own celebrity

游客2023-08-04  25
问题     He has influenced generations of artists but John Baldessari’s own celebrity came relatively late. A physically imposing 79-year-old, he seemed slightly uncomfortable at a press conference at the Metropolitan Museum, where a travelling retrospective of his work has just opened for its final stop. Asked to distil his art for the many who have not heard of him, he responded cheerfully that it was not the job of an artist to "spoon-feed" viewers but to make them feel intelligent.
    For decades Mr Baldessari has made art that challenges convention. Though his work is heavily conceptual, it is not designed to alienate—and is often very funny. In the wake of abstract expressionism, when painting was all, Mr Baldessari was investigating what it meant to make a painting, what the rules were, and how far he could stretch them. In the 1960s he created a series of works that featured mostly text on canvas, painted by sign professionals. One, in black letters on canvas, reads "PURE BEAUTY". The words sit there like a taunt (嘲弄) , a question, a declaration.
    "I do not believe in screwing the bourgeoisie," Mr Baldessari explained in an interview. The irony in his work is not designed to reveal what is vacant in art, or what is silly about those who buy it. He just wants people to question what they are looking at. He pokes fun at the art establishment, but he lets viewers in on the joke. Art, he says, supplies "spiritual nourishment". Asked if a show at the Met sat uncomfortably with his subversive streak, Mr Baldessari did not miss a beat: "I would be happy to hang in a broom closet at the Met. It’s a huge honour."
    Mr Baldessari attributes some of his experimentation to having grown up in National City, California, a suburb just north of the Mexican border and well beyond the reach of any art scene. He was culturally isolated, but also free from the pressures of rejection. "I was trying to find out what was irreducibly art." His boldest early work was his "Cremation Project" in 1970, when he ceremonially burned nearly all the paintings he had made between 1953 and 1966. "I really think it’s my best piece to date," he wrote of it at the time.
    He supported himself by teaching, mainly at the progressive California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. He earned a reputation for being a revolutionary and generous teacher who inspired students to renounce painting and view art as something that happens in the brain. "Artists are indebted to him," said Maria Prather, who organised the show at the Met. He taught countless people how to make art from the ordinary stuff of life. Now the man himself is finally getting his due. [br] The word "spoon-feed" (Line 4, Para. 1) means________.
选项 A、showing the ideas to people by means of holding a spoon
B、forcing people to accept the ideas
C、providing people with materials to create art
D、cheering up the people seeing the pictures
答案 B
解析 根据题干的信息直接找到spoon-feed所在的句子，即第一段的最后一句。第一段的最后一句表达的是巴尔代萨里的艺术观点，由分句中的but一词可知，spoon-feed viewers和make them。feel intelligent意思相反，后者表示“让他们感觉自己很有悟性”，因此spoon-feed viewers是要把一些观点强加给观众，这与选项B的表达一致，所以本题应该选B。与选项C的内容最接近的一句话是最后一段的倒数第二句，但是“教会了无数的人如何用生活中的普通素材去搞艺术”和“为人们创作艺术提供素材”是不一样的概念，可排除。选项A和D的内容都不符合逻辑，可迅速排除。
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