安迪·迪克森 Andy Dixon | 纸醉金迷 A Hunger for Luxury
“What is money?”
“钱是什么？”
“Why do things cost what they do?”
“为什么那些东西有价值？”
“Why are we drawn to things?”
“我们为什么会被物质所吸引？”
The questions above seem to be out of the scope of the ordinary minds – economists or philosophers are more likely to do research on these topics. Interestingly, however, one particular artist who focuses on valuable objects has been “drawn” towards those types of questions on finding the relationship between value and art.
对普通人来说，上述问题似乎不在思考范围之内——经济学家或哲学家更有可能对此有研究。然而，有趣地是，一位专注于“珍贵物品”的艺术家被这类问题所“吸引”，致力于寻找价值与艺术之间的关系。
“I think money is funny.” That philosopher-like artist who uses bright colors to paint the luxury world – please allow me to call him by this means for now – once said so in an interview. He reveals that his thematic focus on luxury goods stems from the psychology of value.
“我认为钱很可笑。”这位使用鲜艳的色彩描绘奢侈世界的、如同哲人般的艺术家曾在一次采访中如此说道——请允许我暂时以这种方式称呼他。他表示自己对奢侈品的关注源于价值心理学。
Andy Dixon and his painting of Lamborghinis
安迪·迪克森与他画的兰博基尼
Who indeed, is this philosopher-like artist then? Please meet Andy Dixon.
那么这位如同哲人般的艺术家究竟是何许人也？他便是安迪·迪克森。
Andy Dixon was born on 1979 in Vancouver, Canada. A self-taught painter, Dixon turned to fine arts after years as a professional musician. Before taking up the painter’s brush full-time, Dixon once tried his hands at music in Vancouver, singing and playing guitar in various bands, including D.B.S. and the Red-Light Sting.
安迪·迪克森（Andy Dixon）1979年出生于加拿大温哥华。作为一名自学成才的画家，迪克森在拿起画笔之前曾经尝试过在温哥华进行音乐方面的表演，包括唱歌和弹吉他，他曾参加的乐队包括D.B.S.和红灯刺（Red-Light Sting）。
“I think 16-year-old Andy would be bewildered by where I am now,” Dixon says. “It’s a bit like I’m betraying my punk rock roots.” Dixon had no interest in attending art school. “Bringing art, something that I loved so much, into such a stale, blasphemous environment felt like a bad move to me as a kid,” he says. “When I was 30, I had this existential crisis. I realized that I was still trying to figure out how to express myself as a musician, being in a band for two months and going to the next one. And somehow in the background, this fine art thing had taken off.”
“我觉得16岁的自己会对我现在的职业生涯感到困惑。” 迪克森如此说道，“感觉有点像我在背叛朋克摇滚似的。”迪克森对于上艺术学校毫无兴趣。他说：“将我深爱的艺术带入如此陈旧、亵渎的环境，对当时还是个小孩的我来说无法接受，”他回忆道，“30岁那年，我遇到了生存危机。我意识到自己仍想努力表现出自己的音乐家的身份，比如在某个乐队里待了两个月，然后就去了下一个乐队。在某种程度上，这促使了我向着艺术的领域进发。”
Large Still Life (2021) by Andy Dixon. 97 * 119 inches. Copyright from AndyDixon
《静物画·大》
Today, it would be fair to say that Dixon’s art practice revolves around money and its cultural markers, including the silk Versace shirts, Ming vases, and red Lamborghinis that populate his canvases.
今天，可以说迪克森的艺术实践围绕着金钱及其文化标志展开，包括丝绸范思哲（Versace）的衬衫、明花瓶和布满他画布的红色兰博基尼（Lamborghinis）。
“He borrows context from Renaissance art and past masters, reinterpreting and redefining them in the contemporary world,” says gallery manager Rebecca Smith of Beers London, the U.K. gallery that represents him.
“他的作品有不少从文艺复兴时期的艺术和过去的大师那里借鉴的部分，并在当代世界对它们进行了再定义。”代表他的英国画廊伦敦比尔伦敦的画廊经理丽贝卡·史密斯（Rebecca Smith）如此说道。
Venus and Her Bathing Nymphs (2021) by Andy Dixon. 100 * 120 inches. Copyright from AndyDixon
《维纳斯沐浴》
Dixon is hyper-aware of art’s relationship with money. Signifiers of wealth abound in his large acrylic paintings, which take as their subjects’ stately lords, reclining nudes, ornate ballrooms, bathing beauties, and prominent paintings of the motifs. His subject matter is selected based on the public expectations of what an expensive painting should look like. By sampling content verified as valuable by the market, Dixon positions his own work to ask, "What is the value of a painting of a valuable object?"
迪克森对艺术与金钱的关系非常了解。在他的大型丙烯酸画中，存在着很多象征财富的对象，这些绘画以庄严肃穆的地主，卧姿的裸体，华丽的宴会厅，沐浴的美人等为作品主题。迪克森也会根据公众对昂贵画作的期望来选择他的题材。通过选取大众皆认为有价值的内容，迪克森以自己的作品向大众发问：“一幅画着价值连城的物品的画的价值是什么？”
Dixon paints his canvases on the floor, unstretched, filling in their basic outlines with a distinct palette of pastels dominated by vivid teals, bright reds and yellows, and varying shades of pink.
迪克森将画布铺在地板上作画，以鲜明的粉彩填充基本轮廓，这些粉彩以鲜艳的蓝绿色、鲜红色、亮黄色以及各种深浅的粉红色为主。
Vanitas (2021) by Andy Dixon. 45 * 41 inches. Copyright from AndyDixon
《虚空派》
“Color just excites me.” As a child, Dixon watched his two older brothers play Dig Dug, a subterranean-themed video game where the goal was to burrow as deep into the ground as possible. On the screen, depth was illustrated by stripes of color that would change as the player descended. “It was my favorite video game, not because I ever played it, but because I was excited to see what the next set of colors would be,” Dixon recalls.
“颜色使我兴奋。”小时候，迪克森看着他的两个哥哥玩着以地下为主题的电子游戏Dig Dug，游戏目标是尽可能深入地下。在屏幕上，深度由彩色条纹表示，随着玩家的下降，条纹会发生变化。“那是我最喜欢的电子游戏，不是因为我曾经玩过它，而是因为每出新一组颜色时我就会很激动。” Dixon回忆道。
Still Life with Game (2021) by Andy Dixon. 77 * 103 inches. Copyright from AndyDixon
《静物画·游戏》
Dixon's work is full of juxtapositions. He himself considers his style as “playful” – “Playful, colorful and very serious, [but] not taking things too seriously!” Rough lines, bright and pastel colors – that is what this artist chooses as the main tools for his artmaking. His work portrays the world of luxury in order to address the real subject: humans, and their hunger for more.
迪克森的作品充满了对比。他自认为自己的风格是“好玩”——“好玩，色彩丰富，非常认真，但也不是太认真！”粗糙的线条，明亮和柔和的色彩，这便是这位艺术家的创作工具。他的作品描绘出了奢侈品的世界，通过这些来体现真正的主题：人类及其永无止境的欲望。
Andy Dixon’s painting on Versace Blouse. Copyright from AndyDixon
迪克森在范思哲衬衫上的画作
“I think such ideas have been with us since the dawn of modern man. We’ve always wanted the biggest powdered wig, the best Parisian dress, the original Rembrandt, the nicest pool or the Birkin bag with George Condo painting on it……”
“我认为自现代人诞生以来，这种想法就一直伴随着我们：我们一直想要最大的假发，最好看的巴黎服装，原始的伦勃朗，最漂亮的游泳池或上面涂有乔治·康多画作的Birkin包……”
Andy Dixon’s paintings on Louis Vuitton Jeff Koons Bag. 30 * 42 * 22 inches. Copyright from AndyDixon
迪克森在LV包上的画作
And as Dixon stated in a self-made short video: “I’m not naïve to the fact that, as an artist participating and criticizing pop-culture, I’m also a part of pop-culture.”
正如迪克森在一部自制短片中所说的那样：“在参与和评论流行文化时，我深刻意识到，我自己也是流行文化的一部分。”
For more information on the artist, please click here
更多关于艺术家的信息，请点击这里
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