8
BUT IS
IT ART?!
Vocabulary in context
Reading
AN APPETITE FOR ART I
Artists The visual arts The performing arts 1 speaking
58 Listen and check your
speaking Look at the photo above. Describe what you can see. Look at the title of the text. What do you think it is going to be about?
4
1
answers.
Artists can be as inspired by food as top chefs. Take Anne Griffiths . Most of us just add milk to cornflakes and eat them. Not Anne. She looks at each cornflake carefully to choose special examples. She has produced a unique work of art called ‘Taxonomy of the cornflake’ – 84 cornflakes all organised inside a frame. Anne said she had decided to use cornflakes because she had wanted to question how we see the typical things that are always around us. She wants to know: does the way that we display something change our attitude to it? An art collector was very impressed by the work when he saw it at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and bought it for £900. Anne used eleven different brands of cornflakes. She said: ‘If you look at them, they are amazing shapes. There are so many variations and every single one is unique. Once something is put in a display cabinet and pinned precisely with a number, then people become interested.’ She told the press that she didn’t usually eat cornflakes for breakfast. She prefers marmalade on toast. If you think making art out of cornflakes is bananas, wait until you see what artist Stephan Brusche uses. His works are drawings on … bananas! They’re also a type of sculpture as he often cuts some of the skin off the fruit. Stephan, who is from the Netherlands, has over 117,000 followers on Instagram ® . He started by just drawing a little happy face on a banana. He went on to experiment more and more, gradually producing some very complex designs. He said he liked the 3D effect he could get, and also the bright colour of the banana contrasting with the black or blue pen. He liked the feel and texture of bananas, too. He said he could walk through the supermarket and see a particular banana and just get inspired by the shape. One problem with banana art is that when you make a mistake you can’t just erase it and do it again. Another is that bananas won’t last forever so you have to work quite fast, and the works will go bad in the end. But Stephan told an interviewer that that didn’t bother him. The important thing for him is the photo of the banana art when it’s finished. In 2016, a wealthy businessman bought a photo of a potato … for one million euros! It was taken by world-famous Irish photographer Kevin Abosch . Kevin didn’t become famous for making art out of food. He’s well-known for the photographic portraits he takes of famous people. These are easy to identify because they usually have a black background. He used the same technique in 2010 for `Potato #345’. One day a German businessman saw the photo in Kevin’s studio, loved it and offered to buy it. Kevin said the photo was very special for him and he wouldn’t take less than a million euros for it. So that was the price they agreed. There are two other versions of the photo, one which Kevin still has and another in a museum in Serbia. Kevin’s studio commented: `He has photographed many potatoes. This is one of his favourites.’
Look at these words.
5
speaking
Check that you understand these words. Use a
Do we use the words to talk about the world of theatre, the world of music, or both? Use a dictionary if necessary. audience • cast • composition • concert • lighting • lyrics • main character • musical • orchestra • performance • play • plot • scene • stage • tune 59 The performing arts
2 Read the text. Were your predictions correct?
dictionary if necessary.
60 Choose the best answer. 1 Anne Griffiths works with cornflakes because … a when she adds milk to them she is inspired. b she wanted to do an artistic experiment with everyday objects. c she had found a lot of special ones and needed to do something with them. 2 Anne thinks people become interested in seeing the b the way the cornflakes are organised is unusual. c cornflakes are a popular and unique type of food. 3 Stephan Brusche … a had always wanted to work with bananas. b immediately enjoyed making complicated works out of bananas. c thinks bananas have a variety of qualities that make them good to work with. 4 Because bananas go brown when they get older, Stephan … a has to use a different art form to preserve his work. b cannot make any mistakes. cornflakes in her work of art because … a they always find cornflakes beautiful.
3
actor • artist • choreographer • composer • conductor • dancer • (fashion) designer • (film/theatre) director • drummer • guitarist • musician • painter • performer • photographer • pianist • sculptor • singer • singer-songwriter 56 Artists
speaking Work with a partner. Try to think of famous people for at least ten of the words in 1. Share your ideas with the class.
2
Use it … don’t lose it!
3 Complete the text with the correct form of these words.
speaking Discuss these questions. Give details. 1 How often do you go to art galleries or exhibitions? 2 Which artists or types of paintings do you like? 3 How often do you go to the theatre? 4 Which musicals have you seen? Which plays have you seen or read? 5 How often do you go to concerts? Which type of concerts do you prefer? 6 Who are your favourite
6
abstract painting • art gallery • collection • exhibition • landscape • masterpiece • (self-)portrait • sculpture • sketch • still life 57 The visual arts
Lorem ipsum
Culture exchange The National Gallery, London The National Gallery in London is one of the most important (a) in the world. It’s in Trafalgar Square and is the home of a big permanent (b) of European art from the 13 th to the 20 th centuries. There are many (c) there, for example some of the best works by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Talking of Da Vinci, there is also an important pencil drawing by the artist, an unfinished (d) which he used as preparation for a later painting. In the permanent collection there are all sorts of works. You can see (e) such as The Hay Wain by John Constable, a painting of the English countryside. There is the famous (f) Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, a simple picture of yellow flowers in a yellow vase. Another great painting is a (g) by Rembrandt, a picture he painted of himself when he was 34. However, the National Gallery has few 3D works or (h) . At the National Gallery there are also temporary (i) showing the works of a particular artist or group of artists. For example, in 2019, they showed some works by a modern American artist called Sean Scully, who usually paints ( j) , for example lines and stripes of different colours.
c feels frustrated because his works disappear. 5 Kevin Abosch’s photo was so expensive because … a it was totally unique. b Kevin himself really liked the photo. c Kevin needed exactly one million euros. 4 What do the underlined words in the text mean? Guess and then check in your dictionary. Critical thinkers 5 Are the works of art in the text serious? What makes you say that?
musicians, singers or singer-songwriters?
Reach higher
page 139
Use ideas in the text and/or other facts, opinions and experiences to justify your opinion. Then share your ideas with a partner.
Reach higher
page 139
96
Unit 8
Unit 8
97
Made with FlippingBook Publishing Software