In the museum

- Do you like this painting, Peter?

• Yes, I do. And you?

• I can see there only sports of green, brown, white and blue colours.

• No, doubt. You are standing too close to the picture.

• Really. So what?

• It’s an oil-painting, a landscape and you have to look at it a certain distance.

• Oh, yes. You are right. Well, it’s a meadow with white, yellow and blue flowers.

• And now look at this cityscape. Do you recognize this building?

• Let me have a better look at it. It’s the building of the museum!

• Yes, you are right. What kinds of painting do you like best?

• I flower piece. And you?

• I like landscapes and seascapes. Do you know that there are some seascapes of Aivazovski in our museum?

• Are there?

• Follow me I^’ll show you.

Exercise 12. Translate the text in a written form using a dictionary:

The Treasury of Art

Of course, I saw the Hermitage, the great museum which Catherine the Great started with her private collection, and which today is one of the prized possessions of Russia. Really, it belongs to the culture of the world. To visit the Hermitage, as I did , two hours one day and two hours another day, is to sense what you miss. Here is a place to spend cherished hours, a few each day, to absorb the splendours – two of the world^’s 14 Da Vincis, a sculpture by Michelangelo, numerous Titians, the largest collection of Rembrandts anywhere. There are Spanish art, French art, Dutch art, German art; treasures of Peter the Great, trophies of Russian victories at war.

In America, art museums in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco – any of the large cities – have examples of some of the old masters. Perhaps, if the treasures of these museums were grouped together, they might approach the munificence of the Hermitage. But the riches of the Hermitage would dwarf any one of them. My strongest feeling as I left Leningrad was that I hadn’t done the Hermitage justice.

(from J.A.Livingston, American journalist)

Exercise 13. Read the text. Be sure you know there words:

angle – кут complementary colours – доповнюючий колір

treatment – ставлення response – відповідь

recognition – признання twist – зкрючити

urgent – злободенний aftermath – насл1док

to be responsible for – відповідати to scream – кричати

profound – глибокий image – образ

cautious [ ] – обачний creature [ ] – створіння

representative – представник to appear [ ] – з^’явитись

To explore – досліджувати inspiration – натхнення

fabric – тканина gloomy – похмурий

Freud [ ] – ім^’я художника Moore [ ] – ім^’я художника

Text

Masterpieces by English artists are kept in the world’s best museums, but rich collections of painting are also exhibited in the museums of London, such as the National Gallery, the Courtauld Institute Galleries, the British Museum, and the Tate Gallery.

The Tate Gallery was opened in 1897 and came into being as the result of growing recognition of an urgent need for a national gallery of British art Administratively the Tate became a department of the National Gallery. Officially it was called the National Gallery of British Art, or the Tate, after Sir Henry Tate, a collector of British art and the founder of the Gallery. His company exists today as “Tate and Lyle” and continues to support the Gallery.

The Tate Gallery is responsible for collecting British art from about 1550, and international modern art, especially the collection of 20^th-century British painters and sculptors such as Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and others.

The early years of the 20^th century saw dramatic changes in Western art. Perhaps the most profound of these changes came with the development of Cubism. It’s a 20^th century art style, the invention of Picasso and Georges Braque, in which the subject matter is represented by geometric shapes. The Cubists looked at things from all angles. They often made a part stand for a whole. Cubism opened up a huge range of possibilities for the treatment of reality in art.

Another movement in painting (1905 –1908) was Fauvism, whose distinctive feature was pure and bright colours. It was the invention of Matisse. Both the Cubism and Fauvism influenced British artists, thought they were very cautions about them. One of the most typical British representatives of this time was Sir Matthew Smith who drew a painting “Nude, Fitzroy Street Ｎ 1” (1916). The title comes from the location of Smith^,s studio in Fitzroy Street in London. It was well-know as a bohemian and artist’s quarter at that time. The composition is based on two colours, green and red. They are complementary colours, because they complete each other and look stranger together than in any other combination.

Then, between 1920 and the 1930s, Western art was influenced by two major movements: Surrealism and Abstractionism. The most typical representative of Abstractionism in Britain was Ben Nicholson. The most typical artists of Surrealism were Salvador Dali and Mark Chagall, but not British painters.

The dominant figure of European painting was the British painter Francis Bacon known for his richly coloured paintings with twisted human and animal shapes. Bacon compares his humans to animals, or even to sides of meat. Their faces often contain a silently screaming mouth. Looking at his paintings we get a feeling that humans are isolated and alone. His picture “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion”¹³ was painted at the end of the Second World War. He showed in a dramatic and original way the Christian image of the crucifixion of Christ. The creatures are part animal, part human with a screaming mouth of the hyena-like creature. In this way he expressed the horror of contemporary events.

Pop Art appeared in Britain and America about the year 1960. It was called so because it took inspiration from popular urban culture: comics, advertising, etc. Pop was the reaction against the gloomy post-war art. British Pop artists were fascinated by American consumer culture. At the same time Britain and America saw the development of abstract painting. One of the famous artists of this movement is David Hockney. He is famous for his series-paintings of pools and people around them.

In the last two decades art has generally become more pluralistic. Artists explore a wide range of materials and themes, for example Lucian Freud who created a series of life-size nude studies as well as small pieces.

Many young artists try to find their own methods of making art. They use photography, sometimes combinations with other materials, such as fabrics and metal.

Exercise 14. Answer the questions:

1. What do you know about the Tate Gallery?

2. What are the most famous British painters and sculptors?

3. What is Cubism?

4. What is Fauvism?

5. What can you say about Surrealism and Abstractionism?

6. Who was the dominant figure of European painting after the Second World War?

7. What is Pop Art? Why is it called so?

8. What is typical of Lucian Freud?

9. How do young British artists try to express themselves nowadays?

Exercise 15. Fill in the table using the information from the text. Do it in writing in your copy-books:

Art style	The time of appearance	Invention by	British representatives	Characteristic features	Pictures

Exercise 16. Retell the text according to the plan:

1. London art museums.

2. Tate Gallery.

3. British painters and sculptors represented in this Gallery.

4. Art styles of the 20^th century which influenced Western Art:

a). Cubism; b). Fauvism; c). Surrealism;

d). Abstractionism; e). Pop-art;

5. Post-war British art and its peculiarities.

6. Young British artists.

Exercise 17. Be ready to speak on the local art museum named after Shovkunenko according to the plan :

1. Formation of the museum.

2. The building the museum is in at present.

3. The number of rooms exposition is arranged in.

4. The kinds of painting represented in the museum.

5. Painters whose pictures can be seen in the museum.

6. Exhibitions and shows arranged at the museum.

7. Your first visit to the museum.

8. Your favorite painters and pictures.