Unit 4 culture and the arts in human life

Discuss these questions with another student.

· What does each of the images above show?

· Which is the oldest, and which is the most modern? Why do you think so?

· What sort of person created each image?

· Where would you expect to see each image?

· Which of the images you like the most? Which do you like the least? Why?

 

How would you define the word “ART”? Offer your definition, use internet to check your ideas.

How to appreciate art Appreciating art is very easy once you undersand art history. Art started with two-dimensional cave painting. Then came two-dimensional church painting. In the Renaissance, artists got perspective and started painting jugs. The Enlightment brought us well-lit jugs with a side order of fruit. Romantic art depicted the landscape cave dwellers would have seen if they’d looked out, had perspective and understood lighting. Art then becamewhat artists saw inside them, rather than outside. Impressionism was the wold seen through a couple of glasses of “vin rouge”. Expressionism was impressionism after the whole bottle. Vorticism was when the room started spinning, and modern conceptual art is the throwing-up stage.

3. Read the short text on the left and answer the questions below:   · How would you describe the writer’s tone? What does he think of modern art? · Which kinds of art does the text mention? Can you name the time period of these art types? · In your opinion is it necessary to understand the history of art to appreciate it?   4. When did you last visit a gallery? What is favorite work of art? 5. Are you a creative person? Have you ever created anything by yourself?

Complete the word maps with the given vocabulary. Add your more words to each word map.

Novels theatre dance ballet architecture ceramics biographies sculpture drama short stories opera music concerts cinema poetry painting

Things which generally come under the heading of “the art”

Use 8 different words from the exercise above to make complex sentences.

Write off words in bold in the text below.

WHAT IS ART?

This is a big, big question. Here are some basic distinctions you may want to consider.

The fine arts

The fine arts are what most people mean when they just say “art”. These include artistic disciplines such as painting and sculpture. Typically, they are objects created to be “beautiful”.

Arts and crafts

A craft is a similar, related concept and we do use the term arts and crafts. In arts and crafts, objects are created by hand. A good example would be tapestry.

The visual arts

These are the ones we look at and include paintings, drawings and photographs. Does cinema count? For some people, yes.Television?

The plastic arts

These are the ones we can touch. A sculpture and a piece of pottery are examples.

Performance art

This is when you see someone performing and what they do/produce is a piece of art. Theatre can be called a form of performance art, perhaps a better example is juggling. We normally use this term for art that is “different”. There is also a relatively new phenomenon of the street artist.

Pictures

There are many types of pictures. If it is picture of somebody, it is generally a portrait. if it is a picture of a place, it is generally a landscape. While a picture of an object by itself is a still life.

Three genres of picture possibly worth knowing are a watercolour which is painted onto paper, an oil painting which is normally painted onto canvas (a tent like material) and a sketch which is normally a preparatory drawing.

Philosophies of art

Art has changed greatly over the ages. You certainly don’t need to be able to talk about the differences between Renaissance art, Mannerism, the Baroque, the Pre-Raphaelites, Impressionism and Cubism – if you did, you would probably scare your IELTS examiner. It might help to have this much knowledge though:

figurative/representational art: this is where the painting/object looks like something from life

abstract art: this is where you see squares, circles and other shapes and you cannot (immediately) tell what the painting is about

contemporary art: this is the art of now. It’s dangerous to use the word “modern” because “modernism” in art actually happened quite a long time ago (the 1930s was probably its heyday).

WHERE DO YOU SEE ART?

You normally find art in an art gallery. You walk around and admire t he exhibits in an exhibition, while discussing whether the curator has got the lighting right and whether that picture should really be hung next to that one.

Sometimes you might also find art in museums, but that is much less common. For example, the British Museum has artefacts from Britain’s past, while the National Gallery is a collection of art.

WOULD YOU BUY IT?

Art tends to be expensive. A masterpiece by Van Gogh could be said to be priceless – that’s so expensive that no one has the money to afford it. A lot of art forms part of a nation’s heritage and the government protects it from sale abroad.

People and art

Not everyone likes art. People who like to spend a lot of time admiring art are often termed culture vultures (a fairly idiomatic term), while the idiom for people who dislike art is philistines.

There is of course art and art. People who appreciate the more elitist forms of art may be said to have highbrow tastes, while those who prefer the less intellectual art forms may have lowbrow tastes.

WHAT MAKES ART SPECIAL?

Another big question. Some people think that it is important for a work of art to be original or creative. Others would say that what matters is how it appeals to our imagination.

One or two idioms

Perspective shows the depth of a picture – how many dimensions you see. If you have/keep a sense of perspective, then you see a problem/issue for what it is – often meaning that it is not as serious as it seems.

If you describe someone as being no oil painting, be careful. This means that they are ugly.

UNREAL CONDITIONALS

English speakers use two constructions to express unreal condition and its consequence.

 

SECOND CONDITIONAL

Form IF +past simple or past continuous, would +bare infinitive
Use	Example
Impossible, unlikely or hypothetical conditions in the present or future and their results in the present or future	If a had this special hat I would look like an artist.
Giving advice	If I were you, I would think very carefully about your future. If I were a painter, I coulddraw your portrait.

You can also use might or could instead of would, depending on the meaning.

 

Grammar practice

1. Write six sentences based on a given scenario to complete a story that shows a chain of events. Each event has an effect on the next event. Use the verb in the main clause of the one sentence as the verb in the if-clause in the next sentence. Circle the verb in both clauses.

Scenario: Imagine that you have just won a lottery. The grand prize is $1,000,000

a) If I won one million dollars in the lottery, I would buy an art gallery.

b) If I bought ______________________________________________________

c) ___________________________________________________________

d) ___________________________________________________________

e) ___________________________________________________________

f) ___________________________________________________________