甫寸－dr.libo的博客

坦桑尼亚汀噶汀噶艺术的小故事A Tingatinga story of TANZANIA

The story from 《What’s Happening in Dar es Salaam》

by Bhavna Pandya-Barratt  I have tried to translate to Chinese.

这个故事来自一本当地的free copy的杂志，作者是Bhavna，我尝试着把它翻译成中文

A recent Tingatinga painting sold for $600 on an online art website. I know what you are thinking, in fact, most of us, Tanzanians are doomed for thinking what you are thinking, and it is indeed exactly, what I was thinking too. $600 for Tingatinga! Are they mad? The simple answer my friends, is no, they are not.

最近有一副汀噶汀噶的油漆画在网上以600美金成交。我知道你是怎么想的，实际上，我们作为坦桑尼亚人，大部分听说这件事会很吃惊，包括我也是，但是这是确实发生的事情。600美金就买一幅tinga油漆画，他们疯了吗？非常简单的回答我的朋友们，不！他们没有疯。

We may not value the art our doorsteps but tourists and expats surely do, some people have not even visited Tanzania, yet are aware of our arts and crafts. The majority of us reading this, will not own Tingatinga (Thankfully I do) and some of us won’t even know what a Tingatinga is, so I think it’s time for lesson in Tingatinga history…

我们可能不是很珍惜在家门口的艺术，但是旅游者和外来的人都非常喜欢。有的人从来没有访问过坦桑尼亚，也没有关注过我们的艺术和手工艺。读到这里，我们中的大部分也不曾拥有汀噶汀噶，（谢天谢地，我有）并且，很多坦桑人也不准备了解什么是汀噶汀噶，所以，我觉得是时候了，应该介绍一下汀噶汀噶的历史了。

Once there was a man called Edward S. Tingatinga. During the 1960s, he established an art from that became associated with Tanzania.

曾经有一个人叫做爱德华·汀噶汀噶。在上个世纪60年代，他在坦桑尼亚创立并发展了这门艺术。

Today, “Tingatinga” is the Tanzania term for this form of art, known most intimately in Tanzania, Kenya, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland etc. Over the years, knowledge about Tingatinga has spread to other parts of Africa and Europe, as well as to other English-speaking parts of the world. In the past, Tingatinga art could be sold on its name alone, but increasingly other works of art are being presented as “Tingatinga” as well.

You can see here is Tingatinga in China. -访问中国的坦桑尼亚画家The Painter visited China——David Hezekia Mzuguno

这是汀噶汀噶的儿子以及原始流派的作品（The son of Edward Tingatinga）

今天，汀噶汀噶已经是坦桑尼亚的艺术名片之一。很多国家都知道这门艺术，包括坦桑尼亚，肯尼亚，挪威，瑞典，芬兰，丹麦，日本，瑞士等（实际上还有我们中国，请关注汀噶汀噶中国形象大使-甫寸，以及汀噶汀噶画家大卫·姆祖古诺的中国游记，在文章的最后面的链接）关于汀噶汀噶的知识逐渐传播到了非洲，欧洲，还传播到了世界上其他的英语国家。汀噶汀噶艺术以他的名字独立风靡世界，甚至其他的非洲工艺品都开始跟着汀噶汀噶沾光。

Boiled down to its core, Tingatinga art can be defined as painting on Masonite using bicycle paint. Market limitations have prevented artists from working in larger formats. In addition, the choice of design in Tingatinga and other types of African art has often been adapted to the purchaser’s expectations of what should be included in an African painting. Bicycle paint is a good medium to work in when making clear, vibrant colored paintings that contain sharp contrasts. Since the paint does not dry very fast, it requires that the artist first paint the background, letting the paint dry before working on the foreground design.

归根到底汀噶汀噶的艺术核心是使用一种用来粉刷自行车的油漆画在特殊的布上。交易中的画有多种多样的风格板式。补充一下，汀噶汀噶艺术精选的设计非常适合购买它的人的胃口，他们希望得到一张非洲的油漆画。自行车油漆是非常好一个介质材料，她有丰富多彩的颜色，有非常明显的色彩对比。画也非常快的容易干。根据买主的要求，先画上背景，在下一步开始画之前，会让画干下来。

This technique of letting the background dry, as well as the thick consistency of bicycle paint, is what make Tingatinga paintings so easy to interpret, since they display contours and clearly separated color surfaces. This media also means that today Tingatinga designs cover a verily of media such as wooden trays, plates, cups, glasses, seats, spire tires and bicycle parts. You should go watch them paint, it’s absolutely fascinating.

这是让画的背景干下来的技巧。最好是让这些油漆比较粘稠，这样可以让汀噶汀噶更好的表达内涵，可以清楚显示轮廓并且区分不同的颜色。一些装饰物也可以和汀噶汀噶一起表达当前真实的流行趋势，例如木盘子，碟子，杯子，玻璃杯，座椅，螺旋的饰物，自行车零件。你应该去看看他们作画时的情景，绝对是一件非常美妙的事情。

Tingatinga’s successors developed the decorative vein of Tingatinga painting, while the artist himself painted “the big five” and other motifs that were not at all based on the decorative art style. “The big five” was and is a central theme of art and handicrafts from southern and eastern Africa, symbolizing the typical, large animals on the continent: elephant, lion, giraffe, hippopotamus and soul of African tourist art. Although Tingatinga did not invent “the big five” but it is subject in almost every genre of African art.

汀噶汀噶的继承者进一步发展了汀噶汀噶的艺术分支，从他们自己画了“五大主题”以及其他的不是以修饰为基础的主题设计开始。五大主题从过去到现在都是一个重要的设计，这是来自非洲东南部的创意。代表了非洲大陆的五种典型的绘画流派：大象，狮子，长颈鹿，河马，和非洲旅行艺术之魂，尽管这五大主题不是汀噶汀噶首创发明的，但是，这是几乎所有非洲艺术流派的主题。

Tingatinga like any art has its influences. Many Tingatinga paintings illustrate both the origins of and meeting between east and west in eastern Africa.

汀噶汀噶像其他的艺术一样有着自己的内涵和感召力。在东非很多汀噶汀噶的画家都在试图找到东西非之间的共同点并让他们结合起来。

The development assistance policies of the Scandinavian countries have, generally speaking, both invited and provided the economic prerequisites for cultural endeavors, to a larger degree than aid to Africa from other countries. Tingatinga artists have been supported by the purchase of individual works and whole collections, as well as through the printing and sales of postcards.

斯堪的那维亚人的国家认为，发展汀噶汀噶的策略方针在于努力的宣传，有必要得到经济的支持来发展汀噶汀噶的艺术修养，更大程度的让别的国家来支持非洲的艺术。汀噶汀噶的艺术家支持整体收集购买，同时最好能通过印刷和发售明信片来扩大宣传。

Entrepreneurial African artists have, together with Scandinavian artists and cultural works from development assistance organizations, tried to find those sorts of products, which the market will accept. The myth that neither colonial culture nor post-colonial development assistance operations can influence “free” Africans is a philosophical problem, which cannot be refuted enough. The most reasonable conclusion one can reach about Tingatinga art is not describe the meeting between Scandinavians and Tingatinga and his colleagues as historic and as having influences on both Western and African cultures.

非洲企业艺术家组织和斯堪的那维亚人艺术家一起在援助下一起努力，让一部分汀噶汀噶的成果进入市场，并得到承认。这个神话既不是集体的文化，也不是来自别国的援助，这是自由非洲的一个哲学问题，汀噶汀噶是不能够被拒绝的。最合理的结果，就是汀噶汀噶艺术并不是斯堪的那维亚人的，也不是汀噶汀噶本人和他同事的，而是对整个非洲文化的影响。

Among Edward Tingatinga’s successors, his half brother Simon Mpata should be mentioned. In the beginning of his career, he mentioned tourist-friendly landscape motifs such as “Kilimanjaro” with its snow-capped peak, landscapes with exotic animals, etc.

在这其中，爱德华·汀噶汀噶就是开拓继承者，他的同父异母的兄弟西蒙·姆帕塔谈及此事。在这段经历的开始，他谈到了友好的旅行者告诉他们的风景的主题，例如乞力马加罗山以及她被雪覆盖的山峰，是一副包括动物在内的美景。

Masonite boards painted with bicycle paint can still be found in well-stocked “curio shops”, at the Slipway, at the Tingatinga cooperative on Haile Selaisse Road just behind Club Maisha, as well as in solidarity shops located throughout Western Europe and many international websites. The export of Tingatinga paintings from Tanzania to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and other tourist centers, seems to be lively and gaining Tanzania a very prosperous reputation in the art world.

现在，在很多地方你都能看到这种油漆画，例如slipway，汀噶汀噶的协会团体，在Maisha俱乐部后面的Haile Selaisse大街，到处都有汀噶汀噶的身影。同时汀噶汀噶还遍及西欧的街头以及网络。汀噶汀噶的专家从坦桑尼亚到肯尼亚首都内罗毕，以及其他的国家和地区，给世界带去了非常繁荣的非洲文化景象，让承载东非艺术文化的汀噶汀噶带给世界艺术的气息。

Indeed the Tingatinga is so popular in the Western world that it’s being digitizes into a cartoon.

现在汀噶汀噶已经风靡西方世界，开始出现了相关的卡通画。

I am hoping that you will now go out and get yourself a Tingatinga; they are going to be invaluable assets in the future, and if you are not into investments and the like, just buy one to add some colour onto your walls. If you still don’t fancy a Tingatinga yourself, make sure you promote this beautiful art among your peers and be proud to say that you’re from the Tinga country.

我希望你能有机会去买一张自己的汀噶汀噶，将来，汀噶汀噶将会成为无价之宝，不要刻意的去作为投资什么的，仅仅是为了让你的墙壁增添一些靓丽的颜色。如果你仍然不想拥有一副汀噶汀噶，那么，你也可以关注一下这门艺术，并且自豪的说，你来自汀噶汀噶的国度。

Have a Tinga day.

祝福你拥有一个汀噶汀噶之日。（甫寸带你欣赏汀噶汀噶-80张精彩图片点击进入click here to see the Tingatinga pictures ）