Give an account of your own visit to a picture gallery.

13. Communication Work:

a) Get your fellow-student to give you information about his/ her favourite museum. Try to get as many details as you can.

b) You are a novice teacher getting ready to take your charges to the Tretyakov Gallery/the Russian Museum/the Hermitage. Ask for advice and suggestions from an expert.

c) Persuade your partner to agree with your opinion that life is made much more colourful if you regularly visit art exhibitions.

d) One of you has recently returned from England. The other is questioning him/her on the impressions of the National Gallery/ the Tate Gallery.

e) Tfre great value of visiting a museum and studying works of art first-hand is that one becomes aware of the qualitative differ­ence between original art and photographic reproductions. Work in pairs and enlarge on this statement.

 

14. Read the following dialogues. The expressions in bold type show the WAYS ENGLISH PEOPLE EXPRESS LIKES AND DISLIKES. Note them down. Be ready to act out the dialogues in class:

— Isn't that lovely?

— What a dull picture! Why, there's no colour in it.

— That a dull picture! Why, it's beautiful, it's perfect, if it had

any more colour it would be wrong.

— But I don't think so. Each to our own opinion, dear Simon.

—... Forgive me, darling. To lose my temper because you didn't like that picture, how childish!

— Yes, you were funny; I have never seen you like that before, quite a baby, Simon. If I really thought you liked that thing, Simon, I'd begin to wonder at your taste.

— But I did like it. I haven't seen a picture for years I have liked so much.

They paused before the prizewinner.

— I think that one's got something. For once I believe that I'd agree with the judges.

— I hate it like hell.

— What don't you like about it?

— Everything. To me it's just phoney. No pilot in his senses would be flying as low as that with thermo-nuclear bombs going off all around.

— It's got good composition and good colouring.

— Oh, sure. But the subject's phoney.

15. Discussing and evaluating things often involves stating your preference. Here are some ways of expressing likes and dislikes. Notice that you need to be very polite when criticizing things in English — even speaking to someone you know quite well.

Expressing likes

I like... very much indeed.

I (really) enjoy...

I've always liked/loved...

There's nothing I like/enjoy more than...

I'm (really) very fond of...

... is (really) terrific/great, etc.

It's too lovely for words.

Expressing dislikes

(I'm afraid) I don't like...

I've never liked..., I'm afraid.

... is not one of my favourite...

I (really) hate...

I think... is pretty awful/really unpleasant.

I'm not (really) very keen on...

... is ghastly/rubbish.

I can't say... appeals to me very much.

I must say I'm not too fond of...

16. Work in pairs, a) Find out each other's feelings about these subjects. Use the clichés of likes and dislikes:

1. An art book for a birthday present. 2. Snapshots from a family album. 3. Pupils' drawings for the school exhibition. 4. Your grand­ma's picture postcards. 5. A guided tour of a museum. 6. Land­scape painting. 7. Impressionism. 8. Genre painting. 9. Animals in art. 10. Still life.

b) Report your partner's opinion to the students in another group.

17. Read the following text. Find in it arguments for including popular arts in the art curriculum and against it. Copy them out into two columns (I — "for", II — "against"):

A new issue in aesthetic education today has to do with the choice of art examples to use in the classroom, specifically, wheth­er they should be restricted to recognized works of fine art or al­lowed to include such art forms as posters, album covers, bill­boards, and particularly cinema and television.

Since the popular arts are a reflection and product of popular culture, exploring the popular culture should be a valid method of inquiry. Popular arts are already a part of the children's lives and they enable the teacher to "start where the kids are". Further, they facilitate the responses the children are already having with their preferred art forms rather than imposing adult middle class stan­dards on them. We know also that art which students encounter in schools — the official or high art embodied in the official curricu­lum — stands in an adversary relation to the media of popular en­tertainment. A critical analysis of the forms reflected in popular art is imperative if we want to elicit meaningful dialogue about art.

Not all writers in art education have taken a positive position in regard to the popular arts. An opinion exists that fine art objects are the only objects with the power to impart a markedly aesthetic aspect to human experience. Certain scholars "refuse to cheapen art's magnificent and supreme excellence by comparing it to com­ic strips and other essentially vulgar commodities", claiming that popular culture was the result of the public's inability to appreciate high art. Even those who recognize popular arts as art forms sug­gest that the schools should go beyond them, because "serious art" makes more demands on the viewer.

Some art educators argue that concepts of fine art and popular art are relative and that the distinction between the two is slight if not illusory. What we see in art museums and art galleries includes a lot of different things from all over the world, from cultures and periods of time in which the concept of art, as we know it, did not exist. In their original contexts, such objects often served a variety of functions, such as magical, ritualistic, narrative, or utilitarian but almost never aesthetic.

It is well known that many of the things we regard so highly to­day, such as Gothic cathedrals, El Grecos, Rembrandts, Goyas or Cezannes, were ignored or scorned at different periods of time. Many things we ignore or scorn today, such as the work of the French or Royal Academies in the 19th century, were at one time highly regarded. A work's reputation can be affected precipitously by the accident of reattribution. A highly regarded Rembrandt, subsequently discovered to be not by Rembrandt drops in value immediately. The same thing can happen in reverse. Finally, there are cases in which objects have lost not only their monetary and in­trinsic value, but also their status as art objects because they are fakes

 

18. Discuss the text in pairs. One partner will take the optimistic view and in­sist that popular arts should be included in the art curriculum. The other will de­fend the opposite point of view.

Consider the following

For:

1. The differences between popular and fine art are often matters of classification.

2. Popular art facilitates the aesthetic experience and therefore is appropriate for study in the field of art education.

3.The content of the popular arts is of relevance to the students and, through art criticism, can lead to a more penetrating analysis of these and other art forms.

4.The popular arts allow students to talk about emotionally meaningful experiences.

5.They can aid the student's understanding of his culture as well as the cultures of other peoples.

6.Once the teacher is able to establish a trusting relationship and a rapport with his students, the students might be more responsive to the forms of art which the teacher wishes to introduce.

 

Against:

1. Fine arts in each epoch supplied the models from which the rules and principles were derived.

2. Fine arts are more noble, more worthy than all the other opportunities available for visual aesthetic experience around us.

3.Tastes should be developed through images of high artistic culture, whereas works of popular culture as a rule meet consumer's tastes.

4.Excellent, or fine art is better than poor art for providing students with a strong personal and cultural awareness.

5.A lot of popular art is debased and meretricious.

6.We have no right to "condemn" students to the easily comprehensible forms of popular art. Any student can develop an appreciation of the fine arts.

7.The habit of looking at good pictures is in itself a means by which taste can be formed.

 

Role-Playing.

The Thing They Need

Situation: A group of students from a teacher training insti­tute now on school practice and their instructor are discussing what sort of social event to organize for the pupils of form 9 "A". In the course of the discussion opinions differ. You must decide whose arguments sound more convincing.

Characters:

1. Anna K., aged 23, is fond of pictorial art and suggests visiting the town's art gallery where the works of M.Vrubel are on display at present ("Pan", "The Swan Princess", "Seated Demon" among them). The harmonious combination of the fantastic and the real, the gorgeous colour schemes are sure to appeal to the pupils of form 9 "A". What they want is something noble and worthy, an up­lifting experience.

2. Victor M., aged 25, does not share Ann's enthusiasm for clas­sical art. He has nothing against it personally but thinks that teen­agers need a different kind of artistic experience, something that they can possibly share in. He wants to take the pupils to a pop concert to be held in the near future not far from the school. Ac­cording to him young people prefer pop to the classical arts. It is closer to their own experience of life, and provides an emotional outlet and release. Picture galleries are for elderly spinsters with nothing to do.

3. Katherine L., aged 51, resents Victor's outburst and tells of her own school days: they used to visit the Tretyakov Gallery every week and studied the art of the famous Russian painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. A professional artist showed them round the Gallery. It was all thanks to this very artist that she fell in love with classical art. She remembers as if it were yesterday the joy of listen­ing to his lively descriptions of the subtleties of the composition and colour combinations. It is unacceptable to her that the young­er generation should be allowed to remain indifferent to such a wealth of classical heritage.

4. Marina K., aged 24, listened with pleasure to the views of her supervisor K. L. and couldn't agree more. She suggests invit­ing a specialist from the Museum of Fine Arts to give a lecture on the history of English painting. She had been present at the lecture on the French impressionists and loved every minute of it. The slides were a dream. "English painters" might be great fun too. She knows the telephone number and offers to do it herself.

5. Alexandra T., aged 23, is rather sceptical about Marina's project. Experience tends to show that pupils from 9 "A" make a point of not participating in any of the schools activities, they are unlikely to be attracted to something so sophisticated and dry as a lecture on art, slides or no slides. She puts forward the idea of a film, perhaps even about a painter, but not on any account a lecture.

6. Helen B., aged 23, admits she is no great art specialist her­self, nevertheless she believes in handing down one's cultural her­itage from one generation to the next. Why not take the pupils on an excursion to Abramtsevo, the former estate of the famous art- patron Mamontov, where Korovin and Vrubel worked on stage decorations and Valentin Serov painted his famous "Girl with Peaches". Even if the pupils fail to appreciate the works of art, a day in the open air is sure to do them a world of good.

7. Lucy B., aged 24, does not care for fine arts and is not ashamed to admit it. 9 "A" has worked hard all year. How can one expect them at the end of term to continue taking an active inter­est in serious, heavy subjects such as classical art. What they need now is diversion, relaxation, a chance to unwind. Why not orga­nize a picnic, perhaps on bicycles. She knows some fine woods not too far away where they could escape from the bustle of the city and play volleyball, badminton or whatever.

Group Discussion.

Topic 1. Is the appreciation of pictures a special faculty which only a few can possess?

Talking points:

1. The excellency of style is not on the surface, but lies deep. It is the florid style which strikes at once. There is no need to be ashamed of one's apparent dullness.

2. The habit of looking at good pictures is in itself a means by which taste can be formed and the scope of one's enjoyment wid­ened and developed.

3. The acquisition of good taste is a matter of time. Painting in

this respect does not differ from other arts (poetry, music).

*

Topic 2. A great painting enriches our experience of life, just as a great poem does or a great musical composition

Talking points:

1. The more we look at it the more it reveals and this is not necessarily because of the amount of detail and incident it con­tains.

2. Great painters make us see and think a great deal more than the objects before us, they teach us to look at a scene through their eyes, with something of their own imagination.

The masterpieces of painting, like the masterpieces of mus­ic and poetry transform experience; they are an inexhaustible source of beauty which derives from the originality of the artist's outlook, his capacity for combining form and colour into a har­monious unity.

Topic 3. "Aesthetic effects" make art especially engaging and illuminating

Talking points:

1. Mood: Often works of art project powerful moods, the moods of people or animals, or even the moods of landscapes, buildings. The viewer who misses this paradoxical capturing of character in mere paint loses much of the value that art offers.

2. Motion: This includes not only renderings of objects in mo­tion — the horse race, a hunting scene but also qualities of motion in a metaphorical sense. Novice viewers see the energy of depicted action in a Delacroix but not the equal energy in the brush strokes of a Van Gogh, or the upyearning of the elongated figures in an El Greco.

3. Symptoms and reinforcers: These are tactics that intensify an effect without really having anything to do with the effect. For in­stance, an artist might arrange the light in a painting so that shad­ows fall upon the face of a sad person; a bright background might intensify a figure's sadness by contrast, or a dark one intensify it by concordance.

Unit Six

SPEECH PATTERNS

1. You tricked that blockhead out of them.

George always managed to trick Tom out of some money. At the market I was cheated out of three roubles.

2. I am not to be trifled with.

I am not to be shouted at. He is not to be interfered with. She is not to be laughed at.

3. Lady (giving way to her temper).

Never give way to your despair. She gave way to her tears. Don't give way to panic.

Who are you that you should presume to speak to me in that coarse way?

4. Who are you that you should shout at me? Who is she that we should wait for her? Who is he that he should order us about?

5. The moment he takes them, she hurries across to the other side of the room.

The moment he saw Jane, he rushed to her. The moment she turns up, send for me. The moment you need me, I'll come.

6. It will cost you nothing to give it to me.

It cost him a lot of trouble to help us. It required me much effort to move the furniture. It will take you little time to do the job.

7. It has been sent to you out of sheer malice.

I did it out of despair. She acted out of fear. He contradicted her out of sheer spite.

8. Then why not send it to her husband?

Why not go there at once? Why not open the window? Why not tell her the truth?

 

EXERCISES

1. Complete the following sentences using the Speech Patterns:

1. Why did you give Ann the tickets? — She tricked.... 2. It was only when I came home that I noticed that I had been.... 3. Why on earth are you shouting? I'm not.... 4. It's no concern of yours. I'm not.... 5. She was making every effort not.... 6. It was the first time he.... 7. She must have realized she was wrong. She just stuck to her point.... 8. She isn't really interested in my affairs. She asked.... 9. You're in no condition to speak to her now. Why not...? It's a splendid opportunity for us to get together. Why not...?

 

2. Suggest the beginning matching the end using the Speech Patterns:

1.... that you should shout at me? 2.... that he should interfere in my affairs? 3.... I'm free, I'll let you know. 4.... he comes, tell him I'm in the library. 5.... an hour or so to do the job. 6.... about 2,000 roubles.

3. Paraphrase the following using the Speech Patterns:

1. She made me give her the letter saying that she already had your permission to read it. 2. It was the first time he lost his temper with her. 3. She hated crying in public. 4. Why does she think that she can keep everyone waiting? 5. Why does he think that every­one should always stand up for him? 6. As soon as he stirred, the dog growled. 7. As soon as George started playing the banjo, Montmorency began howling. 8. I should never have thought you'd be so long about answering my letter. 9. One must have skill to make a fire in the rain. 10. I did it because I was sorry for her.

11. You needn't stay just to be polite. I'll be perfectly all right alone. 12. Don't you think you should be frank if you want my ad­vice? 13. You can always sell your piano if you don't really need it.

4. Complete the answers:

1. Why do you dislike Jim so much? — He's dishonest. He can easily.... 2. Are you still angry with her? — I am. She.... 3. What did she answer I wonder? —. She didn't.... 4. Did the girl cry when she fell? — She didn't.... 5. Shall we go and help him? — No, he said he was not.... 6. I'm at my wits' end what to do. — Oh, come, don't.... 7. Do you think he'll take the news calmly? — Oh, no, he's sure.... 8. Why didn't you tell Janet that you disapproved of her decision? — How could I? Who do you think I...? 9. Who are we waiting for now? — Jane. She.... 10. I'm afraid I shan't manage to drop in on her. — But you live next door to her. It.... 11. Shall I wait for you? — If you will. It'll.... 12. Why won't you come? She invited you, didn't she? — She did, but it was only....