Bad Art Makes Good | 你的垃圾，他人的无价之宝？

by Li Chen

The Museum of Bad Art dedicates itself to bringing bad art to the world.

糟糕艺术博物馆致力把糟糕艺术带给大众认识。

Most of you have heard of the Lourve and the Museum of Modern Art, but have you ever heard of MOBA? This is the Museum of Bad Art, a one-room gallery situated just outside the men's bathroom in the basement of a local movie theater on the _(1)_ of Boston. Since being established in fall of 1993, MOBA's _(2)_ has been to bring "art too bad to be ignored" to the widest of audiences.

In 1993, Scott Wilson, an antique dealer, _(3)_ a painting that was thrown out in the trash. _(4)_, he just wanted the frame, but after showing it to Jerry Reilly, they decided to keep it. They felt there was something so bad about it that it was good and _(5)_ the word among their friends to keep an eye out for more bad art. Pretty soon, their collection grew, and Wilson and Reilly established MOBA. Their first exhibition was held in Reilly's basement in March of 1994. _(6)_, their museum outgrew the space and was moved to the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre in Dedham Square, Massachusetts in 1995.

Today, MOBA is _(7)_ with a collection of almost 400 pieces of bad art, mostly acquired from sidewalk trash piles or for less than US$6.50 a piece. It has recently expanded to a second gallery in another theater's basement in Somerville. MOBA's curators are dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition, and celebration of bad art no matter _(8)_ bizarre, silly, or puzzling they are. However, they uphold rigorous standards about _(9)_ is accepted into their collection. They only collect pieces that were sincerely made but poorly executed. They don't want anything that is deliberately bad or just plain _(10)_. It just goes to show that one man's trash is truly another man's treasure.

(A) what    (B) spread  (C) boring  (D) how (E) Eventually

(F) outskirts   (G) thriving    (H) mission (I) Initially   (J) came across

　

大多数人都听过罗浮宫和现代艺术博物馆，但你曾听过糟糕艺术博物馆（MOBA）吗？这座单间的画廊座落于波士顿郊区的一间当地电影院中，位置就在地下室的男厕外。1993年秋天成立的糟糕艺术博物馆，其使命就是带领大众认识那些『糟糕到你无法视而不见的艺术品』。

1993 年，一名古董交易商史考特‧威尔森偶然发现一幅被扔在垃圾堆的画作。起初他只是想要那幅画的画框，但把它拿给友人杰瑞‧莱利看之后，他们决定把画留下来。他们觉得这幅画糟糕之处让它反而有可取的地方，并告诉身边友人帮忙留意糟糕的艺术作品。很快地，他们的收藏渐增，于是威尔森和莱利成立了糟糕艺术博物馆。他们首次的展览于 1994 年的 3 月在莱利的地下室举办。最后，他们的博物馆空间不敷使用，于是在 1995 年迁到位于麻州 Dedham 广场的 Dedham 小区戏院地下室。

如今，糟糕艺术博物馆拥有近 4 百件糟糕艺术品馆藏，其中多数是从路边的垃圾堆捡来，或是以一件低于 6.5 块美金所购得。最近还扩展到麻州桑默维尔市一家电影院的地下室开设另一间分馆。不论作品有多古怪、愚蠢或匪夷所思，糟糕艺术博物馆的馆长致力于搜集馆藏、保存作品、举办展览并宣扬糟糕艺术的价值。然而，对于馆藏的要求，他们严格坚持一个原则，就是只收藏那些认真创作但结果奇差的艺术品。他们并不接受刻意糟糕或全然平淡无奇的作品。这一切证明了某个人的垃圾却是别人眼中的宝藏这句话。

答案：  1. (F)  2. (H)  3. (J)  4. (I)  5. (B)  
6. (E)  7. (G)  8. (D)  9. (A)  10. (C)

For Your Information

糟糕艺术博物馆采取逆向思考，收集被别人视为垃圾的艺术品。其中一幅《花中的露西》（Lucy in the Field with Flowers）就是很具代表性的肖像作品之一。画中，穿蓝裙子的老妇人坐在红色的椅子中，置身于开满鲜花的田野上。这幅画描绘的场景本该是充满美感的，但画中的老妇人却冰冷得像块石头，留着短短的白色卷发，眉毛浓重，紧绷着的脸上没有一丝笑容，看上去阴郁又有些可怕。不过，据这幅画原来的拥有者称，这是他祖母特意请人为自己画的，老妇人对画非常满意。大概是画师完全忠于现实，将老妇人真实的样貌和表情原封不动地搬到了画布上。

至于另一幅画《艾琳》（Eileen）曾在 1996 年被盗走，10年之后才找回来。看来这名小偷相当了解糟糕艺术博物馆创办人所表达的理念，即使作品再糟糕，还是有其『经典』的价值。