Seeing Art as Escape From Prison Life
The news that Richard W. Matt, a convicted murderer who was killed by the police in late June after escaping from prison in New York, spent most of his time behind bars painting portraits and bartering them for preferential treatment, has come as a surprise to many.
因謀殺罪在監服刑的理查．W．麥特6月底從紐約監獄逃逸，後遭警方擊斃。當麥特服刑期間花很多時間畫肖畫像，用來換取各種優待的消息傳出時，許多人甚感訝異。
But to those who have spent years in the prisons system, such a trade is a deeply ingrained ritual of incarcerated life. It is practiced informally or as part of established programs by a wide range of prisoners, many of them, like Mr. Matt, with profoundly violent pasts and little art experience.
然而對那些在監獄體系待過多年的人來說，這種交易只是囚牢生涯的一項老規矩。它是一種非正式做法，或是形形色色犯人既有計畫的一部分，其中許多人和麥特一樣，有重大的暴力歷史，卻幾乎毫無藝術經歷。
Mr. Matt and other inmate had eluded a manhunt for weeks after drilling their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York. People who had known him there say he painted to keep himself occupied and to obtain favors from guards and prisoners.
麥特和另一名受刑人從紐約柯林頓懲教設施鑽出一條路逃獄後，曾躲避追捕數周。監獄裡認識他的人說，他作畫好讓自己有事可忙，並且從獄警或受刑人那裡獲取好處。
John Mulligan served two and a half years in the prison with Mr. Matt and after his release had Mr. Matt send him paintings and drawings, which he hopes to sell. Mr. Mulligan added that painting “was a way for him not to be preoccupied with his thoughts all the time – it was an escape.”
約翰．穆利根曾和麥特一起服刑兩年半，出獄後，他要麥特將畫作和素描寄給他，希望能將它們變現。穆利根說，作畫「是讓他可以不一直沉溺於胡思亂思的一種方式，它是一種逃避」。
Mr. Matt’s paintings tended toward what experts on prison art described as a popular genre: photo-based portraits of celebrities, political figures and fellow inmates’ loved ones.
麥特的畫作貼近監獄藝術專家所說的一種受歡迎的類型：以照片為主繪成肖像畫，主題人物包括名流、政治人物或其他受刑人的摯愛。
A guard at the Clinton prison, Gene Palmer, told investigators that he smuggled in a screwdriver and pliers and did other favors for Mr. Matt in exchange for a dozen paintings. Mr. Palmer also told investigators that he helped Mr. Matt mail one of the paintings, of the television character Tony Soprano, to a woman who sold it on eBay for $2,000.
柯林頓監獄獄警基恩．帕默告訴調查人員，他偷偷為麥特運進螺絲起子和鉗子，還給了他其他恩惠，跟他交換了12幅畫。帕默還說，他幫麥特郵寄電視劇人物托尼．索普拉諾的一幅畫給一名女性，她在電子海灣拍得2000美元。
Art by particularly notorious convicts – Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy – has always found an avid, sometimes macabre, collector base. The market for inmate art typically ranges from small galleries and exhibitions to eBay and other websites.
一些惡名昭彰至極的罪犯如查爾斯．曼森，約翰．韋恩．蓋西的藝術作品，始終都能找到狂熱、有時令人毛骨悚然的收藏家。受刑人藝術作品的典型市場包括小畫廊、展場和電子海灣等網站。
Phyllis Kornfeld, who has taught art classes in prisons for about 30 years, said the majority of inmates making art have limited access to materials and instruction and simply paint, draw and sculpt to pass the time and as a form of expression.
在監獄教藝術課近30年的菲莉絲．柯恩費德說，從事藝術創造的受刑人多數只能獲得有限的材料和指導，他們只是不停地畫、不停地描、不停地雕塑，好打發時間，它同時是一種表達方式。
“It’s very rarely about profit making,” said Ms. Kornfeld, author of “Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America.”
《監獄願景：美國監獄藝術》作者柯恩費德說：「它很少跟牟利有關。」
Anthony Papa, who was serving 15 years to life in the Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, when a fellow inmate taught him how to paint, said that art was “a very powerful rehabilitating tool, not only for the prisoner but for the institution.” Mr. Papa has gone on to have some success as a painter since his release, selling works for more than $1,000.
被判無期徒刑，服滿15年才可能假釋出獄的安東尼．帕巴，在紐約州奧西寧星星監獄服刑時，1名囚友教他繪畫。他說，藝術是「一個非常強大的修復工具，不僅對受刑人，對監獄也是。」出獄後，帕巴在當畫家上稍有成就，作品售價上千美元。
Andrew Edlin, who owns the Outsider Art Fair, said that if Mr. Matt’s work became more valuable to collectors, it would have little to do with the quality of the art.
「局外人藝墟」老板安德魯．艾林說，麥特的作品若在收藏家眼中變得更值錢，應與作品質素無關。
“Their reasons would be purely mercenary,” he said. “I think, to me, this is sort of a pop-oddity culture story rather than an art world story.”
他說：「他們的理由應該純粹是牟利。我想，對我而言，這是個關乎普普怪人文化的故事，不是藝術世界的故事。」
（王麗娟譯）
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