Text-based tasks

Contemporary art into the XXI century

At the beginning of the XXI century Contemporary art in the United States in general continues in several contiguous modes, characterized by the idea of pluralism. The "crisis" in painting and current art criticism today is brought about by pluralism. There is no consensus, nor need there be, as to a representative style of the age. There is an anything goes attitude that prevails; an "everything going on" syndrome; with no firm and clear direction and yet with every lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. Consequently magnificent and important works of art continue to be made in the United States albeit in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments, the marketplace being left to judge merit.

Hard-edge painting, Geometric abstraction, Appropriation, Hyperrealism, Photorealism, Expressionism, Minimalism, Lyrical Abstraction, Pop art, Op art, Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Monochrome painting, Neo-expressionism, Collage, Intermedia painting, Assemblage painting, Digital painting, Postmodern painting, Neo-Dada painting, Shaped canvas painting, environmental mural painting, Graffiti, traditional figure painting, Landscape painting, Portrait painting, are a few continuing and current directions in painting at the beginning of the XXI century.

1) Text-based questions.

1. What is the difference between the arts and the sciences?

2. What are the roots’ meanings of “artificial” and “manufacture”?

3. What was the primary interest of painters back at the turn of the 18th and the 19th centuries?

4. What was the art’s reaction to the industrial revolution?

5. When was the Armory Show?

6. What are the two acclaimed centers of the art world, mentioned in the text?

7. When was the Declaration of Independence signed?

8. How were the painters back in the 18th century educated?

9. What was John Smibert’s and John Wollaston’s influence on American art?

10. What were the names of Peale's sons?

11. Where were the US government officials represented apart from paintings?

12. What else apart from the person was important in painting portraits?

13. What meaningful event in American art history happened 1820?

14. Who was one of the first important African American painters?

15. Why was John James Audubon famous?

16. When did American artists started to protest against traditional forms?

17. Who initiated the Harlem Renaissance?

18. What was the purpose of Roosevelt’s New Deal public arts programs?

19. What does PWAP stand for?

20. What were the art movements that developed during the Great Depression?

21. How can you characterize the American art of the XXI century?

2) What do these figures refer to?

1. 1864-1946

2. 1887

3. 1935

4. 21

5. 15,000

6. 1707-52

7. 1900

8. 1920,

9. 1820

10. 19

11. 1776

12. 1913

3) Explain these words in English.

1. Transcendent - …

2. Conventional - …

3. Artificial - …

4. Frontier - …

5. Icon - …

6. Essentially - …

7. Merchant - …

8. Prosperous - …

9. Tool - …

10. Squalid - …

11. Picturesque - …

12. Rural - …

13. Technique - …

4) Find synonymous verbs to the ones below:

1. To distinguish - …

2. To contribute - …

3. To encompass - …

4. To shape - …

5. To require - …

6. To increase - …

7. To elect - …

8. To adopt - …

9. To comprise - …

10. To relate - …

5) Make a crosswords based on the words from the text.

6) Underline all the irregular verbs in the text and give the three forms of them.

7) Humor. Read, understand, and enjoy the humor =)

Brenda and Terry are going out for the evening. The last thing they do is put their cat out. The taxi arrives, and as the couple walk out of the house, the cat scoots back in. Terry returns inside to chase it out. Brenda, not wanting it known that the house would be empty, explains to the taxi driver, “My husband is just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother.”

Several minutes later, an exhausted Terry arrives and climbs back into the taxi saying, “Sorry it took so long, the stupid idiot was hiding under the bed and I had to poke her with a coat hanger several times before I could get her to come out!”

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23