4. Read the sayings of famous people about art and decide which definition appeals to you most. You may choose several sayings to complete your own definition.

1) Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding. Marc Chagall

2) Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Pablo Picasso

3) Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. John Ruskin

4) Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. Oscar Wilde

5) Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. Stephen King

6) Love art. Of all lies, it is the least untrue. Gustave Flaubert

7) Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy. Pablo Picasso

8) Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

9) The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Aristotle

10) The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his environment. D. Lawrence

11) Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it ‘the Reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist.’ Edgar Allan Poe

5. Read the following dialogue and discuss the after-dialogue questions.

A: In my view, government money shouldn’t be used to support the Arts.

B: I’m afraid I can’t agree. Public support for the Arts is the hallmark of a civilized society where people enjoy freedom of thought and expression.

A: Those are very nice sounding words, but look ... when we visit Art Galleries in other countries, we usually have to pay to go in, but when foreigners come to Britain, they’re subsidized by the British tax-payer. They can enter the National Gallery and the British Museum without paying a penny.

B: I think you’re straying from the main point which is the access of British people to their artistic heritage whether they’re rich or poor. If this also makes Britain more attractive for overseas visitors, so well and good. What’s wrong with creating a few more jobs in the tourist industry? Think of all the money that’s spent in the souvenir shops of these galleries and museums.

A: Well you might as well argue that the government should subsidize all shops. I’m saying that it’s the British tax-payer who pays the bill.

B: You misunderstand me! I’m talking about national institutions, centers of culture which represent the best of Britain’s historical and artistic treasures.

A: That’s highly debatable. Some of the exhibits you see from contemporary artists are no more than tins of baked beans or piles of bricks.

B: I’m afraid you’re just trying to prove a general point by quoting extreme examples. Of course, not every artistic creation will be to everybody’s taste. The Arts can never take new directions without risks. Both the impressionist painters and Picasso took risks.

A: But in the real world, if people want to take risks, they should do so at their own expense. They should either find private sponsors or sympathetic bank managers. Why should other people pay for the exhibition of junk which nobody wants?

B: To come back to the main point, this isn’t only about contemporary experimental art. I’m talking about the appreciation of great masterpieces which have been acknowledged for centuries.

• Discussion questions

1. Do you think that the tax payer should have to support the Arts? For example, why should a football fan have to pay for opera?

2. Does your country have any well-known artists who are famous for cinema, theatre, literature, ballet, opera, classical music or painting?

3. What are your ‘top three’ art forms from the above list? Explain the reasons for your order of preference.

4. In what ways were you encouraged appreciating the Arts at home and at school? What jobs in the Arts world would be suitable for you?

5. Which country would you visit to appreciate the Arts? What would you plan to see?

BLOCK II

Theatre / Cinema / TV / Music