迈尔斯·戴维斯 Miles Davis｜将音乐创作在画布上 Painting is Music That You See
The "Prince of Darkness" and restless spirit Miles Davis brought about the birth of a new culture that spans an insurmountable influence over music, literature, and art to this day. The legendary jazz trumpeter dedicated five decades of his life to the stylistic developments of jazz while creating some of the most compelling and mind-blowing music in the 20th century. Unfortunately, during his career he would take on a hiatus from his musical activities due to his struggle with drug addiction following a fatal car accident.
黑暗的王子，躁动的灵魂，这些都是用来描述迈尔斯·戴维斯的词汇，他带来了一种新文化的诞生，跨越了音乐，文学和艺术，产生了至今不可逾越的影响力。这位传奇的爵士乐小号手将他生命中的五十年都投入到爵士乐的风格发展中，同时创造了一些20世纪最引人注目和令人振奋的音乐。他在音乐生涯中曾经经历过毒瘾的折磨，而后又不幸遭遇了一场致命的车祸，将他的音乐生涯中断于此。
Davis was an avid sketcher and painter from early on, but he would turn a new leaf after his musical hiatus, taking on painting as a key part of his creative expression. In fact, it became his new obsession, continuously creating works when he wasn’t jamming with his trumpet, painting whenever he could.
戴维斯早期热衷于素描和绘画，他在自己的音乐生涯中断后重新拾起画笔，开始将绘画作为创作表达自己的一把钥匙。这使他重新痴迷于一件事物，当他不再演奏小号之后，便不断地开始绘画创作。
“ Painting is like therapy for me, and keeps my mind occupied with something positive when I’m not playing music.”
“绘画对我来说就像一种疗法，当我不再演奏音乐时，绘画将我的心中填满积极的情绪。”
- Miles Davis 迈尔斯·戴维斯
About the Artist
关于艺术家
Miles Davis
迈尔斯·戴维斯
African American artist Miles Davis is one of the most renowned jazz musicians of the 20th century who pushed the genre of jazz music into new territories. From the age of 12, Davis had a significant passion for music, earning his first personal trumpet at the age of 13. While his parents had planned for him to play the violin, he would create his own path which would lead him to go to New York to pursue music at the age of 18. Throughout his career, he would go on to collaborate with the likes of jazz legends such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock.
美国非裔艺术家迈尔斯·戴维斯是20世纪最著名的爵士乐音乐家之一，他将爵士乐的流派推向了一个新的领域。12岁起，戴维斯就对音乐有着极大的热情，13岁时他得到了人生中的第一把小号。他的父母本计划让他拉小提琴，但他自己选择了自己的人生路，18岁时去纽约追寻音乐梦。职业生涯中他曾与查理·帕克（Charlie Parker），迪兹·吉莱斯皮（Dizzy Gillespie）和赫比·汉考克（Herbie Hancock）等爵士传奇人物合作。
Ezz-thetic by Miles Davis
Josephine Baker by Miles Davis
As a painter Davis created over 100 works that incorporated his free spirit, showcasing a mixture of influences such as Basquiat, Picasso, Ettore Sottsass, Kandinsky, and William de Kooning. His works would explore the human form while incorporating a distinct style of vibrant colors and geometric shapes. Davis would pass away in 1991 from a combination of respiratory failure, stroke, and symptoms of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California.
而作为画家的身份，戴维斯创作了100多幅作品，融入了他自由的灵魂，作品中展现出巴斯奎特（Basquiat）、毕加索（Picasso）、埃托尔·索特萨斯（Ettore Sottsass）、康定斯基（Kandinsky）和威廉·德库宁（William de Kooning）等多位大师的影响。他的作品大多在探索人类形态，同时融合鲜明的色彩与几何形状的独特风格。戴维斯于1991年在加州圣莫尼卡因呼吸衰竭、中风和肺炎去世。
“He said music is a painting you can hear and a painting is music that you can see.”
“他曾说过音乐是可以被听见的绘画，而绘画是可以被看见的音乐。”
– Robert Irving III, former musical director of Miles Davis’s band
罗伯特·欧文三世（迈尔斯·戴维斯乐队的前音乐总监）
Star People (1980) by Miles Davis
In the 80s Miles Davis would debut his art through his hit album, Star People. The work is an exploration of his musical expression from his past while also alluding to the beat and rhythm of Africans as portrayed by the three abstract figures. While he did garner a lot of attention for this piece, he would not be able to reach the threshold of the inner art circles. Wanting to learn more, he would take on painting lessons from Jo Gelbard, a woman living in the same building who would eventually become his last companion in life. Gelbard remarks that Davis’s painting process was unlike the way he played his trumpet or sketched. His sounds were delicate, his sketches were minimal, but his brush was overflowing and muddied from the constant barrage of his eagerness to paint. She would frequently collaborate with him, guiding him to cement his artistic style, while constantly evolving together and building a dialogue through art.
80年代，迈尔斯·戴维斯的艺术通过他的热门专辑《Star People》初次出现在观众面前。这张作品是对他过去音乐形式的探索，他用三个抽象人物描绘了非洲音乐的节拍和节奏。虽然他因这张作品赢得了很多关注，但始终未撼动核心艺术圈。他想要学习提升，于是跟着一个住在同一栋楼里的女人，乔·吉尔巴德（Jo Gelbard）学习绘画，这个女人后来成了他的终身伴侣。吉尔巴德曾经描述，戴维斯的绘画过程不同于他吹小号或素描时的方式，他的音乐很细腻，素描也很简约，但他的画笔因为对绘画的渴望而在画布上不断涂刷，变得复杂而浑浊。她会经常与戴维斯一起合作，引导他建立起自己的艺术风格，同时他们一起进步，通过艺术建立对话。
Earth Groove (1988) by Miles Davis and Jo Gelbard
Paris Knight (1991) by Miles Davis and Jo Gelbard
Miles Davis implants his experiences throughout his life and career in many of his artworks, using them as a part of his artistic diary, especially focusing on his mood. In Earth Groove (1988), Davis marks a better life after his divorce from his third wife. The painting was a reference to his new studio filled with vibrant colors and playful shapes as well as his newfound passion for art and love. At the same time, he willfully attempts to confuse the viewer by signing each corner, leaving them to determine how the artwork is viewed. Another work, Paris Knight (1991) which was painted after he was knighted by the French government, also records his state of mind at the time. It is an array of geometric figures bursting out from the darkness with fluid lines and intense colors. Jo Gelbard describes it as a rekindling of Davis’s past, his memories, passions, and his fantasies.
迈尔斯·戴维斯把自己的经历植入一生中的许多作品里，并将其作为自己艺术日记的一部分，尤其是对自己心情的关注。在作品 《Earth Groove（地球的沟壑）》（1988）中，戴维斯将自己与第三任妻子的离婚看作生活在变积极的状态。这幅画参考了他的新工作室，那里充满了鲜艳的色彩和有趣的形状，以及他对艺术和爱情的新发现。同时，他在作品的每个角落都署上名字，试图以此来迷惑观者，让他们决定观看艺术品的角度。另一幅作品《Paris Knight（巴黎骑士）》（1991）也记录了他当时的心境，这幅作品是在他被法国政府封为爵士之后创作的。这幅作品中从黑暗里迸发出的那些几何图形线条流畅，色彩浓烈。乔·吉尔巴德把它描述为戴维斯那些重新燃起的过去、回忆、激情和幻想。
Untitled (1991) by Miles Davis and Jo Gelbard
Miles Davis was without a doubt a prolific painter and artist that only stopped painting until he was dead. Despite his inner demons, Miles Davis still remains to this day loved and revered all around the world. Perhaps knowing an impending demise, he dedicated his last years of life to fulfill as much as he could with the painting titled, Untitled (1991), the last painting to be created by Miles Davis a few days before his death on September 28th, 1991.
迈尔斯·戴维斯无疑是一位多产的画家和艺术家，他一直创作到生命的最后一刻。尽管内心曾经有过黑暗，但他至今仍然受到全世界的尊敬和爱戴。或许是感知到死亡的即将来临，他将自己生命的最后几年献给了这幅名为《无题》（1991）的画作，这是迈尔斯·戴维斯在1991年9月28日去世前几天创作的最后一幅作品。
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Translation 翻译 Rona Xia
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