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Exposed! The fine art of Artspeak
Discuss the following questions in small groups. 1 What kind of pictures do you have decorating your house or room? Who are your favourite artists? Why do you like their work? 2 Are there any members of the class who are artistically talented? Is there a great diversity of taste and talent within the class? 3 You are going to read a newspaper article on 'Artspeak'. What do you think this is? 4 Three paintings illustrate the article, which is on the next page. Exchange opinions on the paintings and try to give a title to each work.
1. What is the aim of the course given by William Quinn? 2. What is your opinion of the course? 3. Wnat is your opinion of William Quinn? 4 What is the purpose of the text? Choose from the alternatives below, as many as you think appropriate. - to criticize - to amuse - to make fun of - to inform - to surprise - to mock - to warn - to educate - to shock - to cause discussion
The following four sentences have all been removed from the text. Read it again more carefully and decide where each sentence should go. Work in pairs. a. 'You needn't waste a minute listening to tunes you don't instantly recognize,' it says. b. If so, what do you say when you visit an art gallery? c. In other words, places where the public can hear you. d. 'One should speak of the boldness of the interpretation.'
Exposed! The fine art of Artspeak Or the instant way to be a classic bluffer
ARE you one of those unfortunates who knows little about art and, worse still, hasn't the foggiest idea what you like or why you like it? It's obvious. You look at the pictures and declare sagely: That's very nice or Yes, I like that, or Mmm . . . interesting, Well, sorry, that just isn't good enough.
Which is why William Quinn, a young Irishman from County Mayo, is the new hero of the smart set. He is running a £33 course on how to say intelligent things about works of art in public places. And people are queuing to join his remedial class in art bluffery. Quinn – an increasingly well-known artist who paints giant versions of the computer bar codes on supermarket products – aims to reach the ‘basic but critical vocabulary’ of art. ‘People like to feel sophisticated’, he says. ‘But they can’t unless they know at least something about art.’ ‘If they are at a dinner party and start talking about the Modigliani heads being inspired by the example of Brancusi, other people pay attention.’
Indeed, after a few evenings on Quinn's course, you can be an 'expert' without even seeing works you discuss. And everyone defers to an 'expert'. Just like Liberace - who once revealed that his gift was to play Tchaikovsky by leaving out the boring bits - Quinn's protégés go into New York's social whirl armed with just the interesting snippets they need. For this is the age of art for survival, where people would rather die than have nothing to say about something, so A huge TV advertising campaign is running in America for a series of records of the most tuneful pieces of 100 classical music favourites. Quinn gets very shirty at his students' go-for-it attitude to art consumption. Yet he agrees that his course title – called Meeting People at the Great Museums - does not sound, well enormously deep.
Meanwhile, over in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one student gazes lamely at Pierre Bonnard's The Terrace at Vernon and says: 'I like this one.' 'Insufficient', says Quinn. 'And if you're with a sophisticate, you should add: "The daily intimacies of family life add warmth to Bonnard's art.' See, it’s easy when you get the hang of it! (Daily Mai! 22 February 1987)
1 It is important to be able to speak sensibly about art in New York. 2 William Quinn is one of New York's smart set. 3 William Quinn gives courses on art appreciation. 4 The courses are extremely popular. 5 They produce experts on art who everyone listens to. 6 After doing Quinn's course you can speak with seeming authority about paintings you have never seen. 7 There is a series of records of 100 complete classical music favourites. 8 Quinn gets annoyed by the course participants' superficial attitude to art.
Joan Miro WORK: Harlequin's Carnival • Unintelligent comment: 'Is it the right way up?' • Intelligent comment: 'Miro's work of this period is characterized by humour, a naive awkwardness and violent colours."
Constant WORK: The White Bird • Unintelligent comment: 'Interesting.' • Intelligent comment: 'One cannot really know Constant without taking into account the profound nostalgia in his soul.'
Berenice Howard WORK: Forever • Unintelligent comment: 'That's a white wiggly line.' • Intelligent comment: Its meticulous presentation and execution effects a distancing, a feeling of something beyond touch, not palpable.' RUSSIAN PAINTING (XIX—XX CENTURIES)
The artistic life of the country was then entirely controlled by the Academy of Fine Arts (established in 1754). The Academy had proclaimed that "art must aim at revealing virtue, at immortalizing the deeds of the great men who deserve the nation's gratitude, and at encouraging the heart and mind to emulate them", and historical painting became part of the Academy's curriculum. Unfortunately the themes were invariably drawn from mythological or classical sources, and were therefore devoid of any sense of actuality. "The Rider", The academic outlook was deeply rooted in Brullov, yet, like so many of his contemporaries, he too often responded to the canons of taste created by the Romantic movement, though his training saved him from succumbing to excessive sentimentality, as did many of his contemporaries. "The Rider", by Brullov, 1833, shows the artist at his best, revealing his technical mastery, his fine sense of composition, and his feeling for elegance and grace. The Romantic spirit which pervades the painting enhances its appeal, for it is devoid of the sentimentality which marks so many paintings of this period. Indeed, only two painters, both of them the sons of serfs, were true Romantics who succeeded in imbuing their worlds with the Byronic spirit without ever turning it into a formula. One was Orest Kiprenski (1782—1236). His genius carried him to the Academy and his work is as a result very accomplished, but it is owing to his innate artistic abilities that it is also almost always interesting. Passionate in his approach and endowed with a better sense of colour than most of his contemporaries, his portraits are not only valuable records of the period, but often also true works of art. Vassili Tropinin (1776—1857) was another Romantic to receive his training at the Academy, but he remained throughout his life a leas well-educated man than Kiprenski. This limitation is reflected in his paintings which, though profoundly sincere, and as such important to the historian, have not the same aesthetic value as Kiprenski's works.
1. Brullov's training saved him from... 2. "The Rider" by Brullov reveals... 3. The Romantic spirit which pervaded the painting... 4. The works of Orest Kiprenski und Vassili Tropinin are imbued with... 5. Kiprenski's works are almost always interesting owing to... 6. The Academy of Fine Arts proclaimed that "art must aim at..." 7. The artists were obliged to paint on themes drawn from...
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IV. Answer the following questions: 1. What place does Karl Brullov occupy in Russian art? To what trend does his art belong? 2. What qualities of Brullov's art does "The Rider" reveal? 3. Who was Orest Kiprenski? What is the general impression of his works? 4. How does the work of Tropinin differ in quality from that of Kiprenski? 5. What was the aim of art according to the Academy of Fine Arts? 6. Why did so many well-known painters rebel against the themes set in the classes at the Academy of Fine Arts?
VI. Give a summary of the text.
Date: 2015-01-02; view: 2480
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In New York, discussions about art are the currency of social life. Just like in the Woody Allen films, your worth is measured by your Artspeak.
As one student says: 'This course teaches you how to sound halfway intelligent about art when you're not.'
Warmth
Which of the following statements are true or false, or don't you know?
Karl Brullov (1799—1852) was Russia's first all-round artist, and because of this he will always remain important; even today, when tastes are dominated by the appeal of a very different style, the pictorial qualities in many of his pictures, and especially in his portraits, are clearly evident.