Struggling Youths Get Help From Art Project

Nancy Morning's first challenge last summer was finding the perfect young artists for an innovative new project.

She talked to school counselors, checked general equivalency diploma lists and asked around.

By early this month, she had managed to assemble a dozen apprentices, ages 17 to 23, for the Two-County Turning Point Mural Project, a 20-week public art program that provides art training and practical experience for young people whose lives have fallen far off course.

The participants have varied backgrounds; some have dropped out of school and earned GEDs and others have graduated but need help figuring out what to do next. They receive a stipend for 10 hours of work each week in planning and producing a mural that will stretch along 500 feet of a state-owned retaining wall separating Prince George's and Montgomery counties. Project organizers say they hope the mural's youth-inspired designs and themes will discourage the gang graffiti prevalent on the wall.

West Hyattsville resident Melty Castillo, 17, learned about the program through his job developer while attending a GED class. Mainly interested in graffiti -- on paper he insists -- and painting, Castillo said that using some of the techniques he has learned in the program has been a little different from what he usually does. But the experience has been enjoyable, especially earning the money, he said. Although he likes graffiti, he said he understands what many others think of the unsolicited art form.

I know some people think it's wrong, but they don't see it the same way I do," he said. "I guess I wouldn't like someone to do that on my property, unless it looked good."

The arts project teaches participants about different aspects of art, such as color theory and art styles. It also provides job readiness training during the weekly Tuesday sessions.

Group members brainstormed abstract concepts for the wall, three feet tall at its lowest and 20 feet at its highest, and they expect to focus on choosing a design this week.

"We chose a kaleidoscope motif for the wall, because it's abstract and won't include any text or represent any particular culture," said Carien Quiroga, lead artist for Wheaton-based Arts on the Block. "We wanted to have a tangible inspiration, and a kaleidoscope is more than just about pretty colors; it's a metaphor for change."

Resembling a classroom of students at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the young artists huddled last week around tables with pieces of colored glass, glue and craft tools scattered about, intent on deciding the precise placement of each piece of the mosaic.

Newcomer Carlos Walker, 20, said his artistic techniques of choice are sketching and drawing. He was brimming with ideas for the turning point concept of the mural, ideas inspired in part by his past.

"I think maybe for one side of the wall we should put some bad things and then transition into good ones," he said. "I'm inspired by my background because I had to stop hanging out and getting into fights. I want to be a counselor and help young people, so they don't have to do some of the things that I've done."

Some of the youths said they initially were pessimistic about the outcome, thinking that gang members would just tag over their work. But Morning tried to be encouraging.

"I'm hopeful that it's going to speak volumes, so much so that no one will want to tag over it," she said.

Once the participants have come up with possible mural designs, they plan to present them to the community for feedback. In the meantime, the program is searching for additional participants to help with the actual painting.

A grant has provided financial support so far, and Morning said she hopes to secure additional funding from local businesses to provide supplies and sponsorships for more participants who could benefit from the arts training and positive experience.

Washington Post
Thursday, November 29, 2007

 GED – general equivalency diploma; in the US, a diploma with the same value as a high school diploma, which people who left high school without finishing their education can study for at any age.

2 Job Readiness Training is a series of classes aimed at developing the skills and techniques necessary to conduct an effective job search.

 

1. Look for more information on the subject of graffiti, its history and genres, on modern art critics’ perception of graffiti.
2. The subject of graffiti often brings out strongly polarized reactions from urban dwellers, who either support it as art, or criticize it as vandalism. Study some of the opinions below and say which of them you can agree with and why.

How is it that some people can tolerate thousands of flashy commercials that bombard us on a daily basis and yet are disturbed by graffiti?	Both graffiti and advertising could be considered visual pollution.
Graffiti are cross-cultural phenomena common to every literate society. Graffiti can be understood as concrete manifestations of personal and communal ideologies which are visually striking, insistent, and provocative; as such, they are worthy of the continued attention of art historians, social scientists, and policy makers alike.	I have to look at it from the perspective of whether or not I would want some person spray painting my wall in the middle of the night. What I am trying to say is that most graffiti is infringing on another person’s right to not have their property damaged.
If graffiti wasn’t illegal it most likely would not stand out as much to the public’s eye. I don’t think that if graffiti were legal, it would have as much power as it does now. Graffiti carries the power of rebellion against the events in the world that the artist feels are unfair. By using ill-behavior to create the graffiti it better shows the ill-behavior in the world that the artist is bring to the world’s attention. If it were legal, the message would not be nearly as strong in my opinion.	The kind of graffiti whose sole purpose is cause vandalism and deface public property for the sake of calling attention to oneself is not art in my opinion.

 

Written Exercises

Exercise 1

Translate using your active vocabulary.

1. В ходе визита в Пекин российский президент, вероятно, попытается заручиться поддержкой китайского руководства в связи с напряженной ситуацией на Кавказе. 2. Эта скульптура могла быть создана в последней четверти II века н.э. Гениальность неизвестного автора проявилась в том, как он передал непринужденную позу модели. 3. Должно быть, он полностью погрузился в свои мысли. Он сидел, не обращая внимания ни на громкую музыку, ни на разговоры вокруг. 4. Его поведение в тот вечер казалось странным: он все бросал косые взгляды в нашу сторону, как будто подозревал нас в чем-то. 5. Как это он сумел купить такую дорогую машину? Не может быть, чтобы он так много зарабатывал. – Может быть, он получил наследство. 6. Здание галереи в ужасном состоянии и нуждается в реконструкции. 7. Концерт, должно быть, был великолепен. Организаторы привлекли к участию самых лучших оперных исполнителей страны. 8. Во время каникул дети должны были поехать на экскурсию в Лондон, и они с нетерпением ждали этого события. 9. Мальчик так сильно вырос, что его костюм уже трещит по швам. Боюсь, нам придется покупать новый. Как ты думаешь, сколько это может стоить? 10. Я уверен, что на сохранение культурного наследия нужно выделять больше средств. Если не сделать этого сейчас, наши дети и внуки могут не увидеть многих прекрасных произведений городской архитектуры.

Exercise 2.

Translate using your active vocabulary.

1. Неужели она отказалась от наследства? Что могло заставить ее сделать это? 2. Хороший менеджер должен научиться предвидеть действия конкурентов, тогда он сможет вовремя реагировать на меняющуюся ситуацию. 4. Этот автопортрет – одна из первых работ Дюрера. Ему не могло быть более четырнадцати лет, когда он написал его. 5. Это гениальный архитектор. Спроектированные им здания – часть всемирного культурного наследия. 6. У тебя есть сейчас время, чтобы позировать для портрета? Мне нужно сделать несколько набросков. 7. Зря мы поехали в центр на машине. В преддверии праздника многие улицы закрыты для проезда. 8. Незачем было наносить второй слой краски, одного было бы вполне достаточно. 9. Что это там на мольберте? Это твоя новая картина? Можно мне взглянуть?

Exercise 3

Choose a topic for a composition.

1. The arts must be considered an essential element of education... They are tools for living life reflectively, joyfully and with the ability to shape the future. (Shirley Trusty Corey). 2. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). 3. An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. (Andy Warhol). 4. Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. (Oscar Wilde). 5. Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.

(Jean Cocteau).

 

MODULE 7

UNIT 2

delude (v) – вводить в заблуждение, обманывать

delude smb with empty promises You are deluding yourself if you think things will get better. Don’t be deluded into believing such nonsense.

delusion (n) – заблуждение, иллюзия to be under a delusion – заблуждаться, ошибаться 2. галлюцинация, мания to suffer from delusions of grandeur/of persecution.

related (adj) – 1. связанный crime related to drug abuse; pollution, conservation and other related topics; 2. родственный related species/languages. We are distantly related.

retain (v) – удерживать, сохранять retain one's freedom/independence. He tried to retain his self-control.

space (n) – 1. пространство; место, площадь She sat there motionless, staring into space. They moved the sofa to make space for the piano. There is not enough space in the wardrobe for all my clothes. Their new flat has sufficient living space. 2. расстояние, интервал, промежуток a narrow / wide / small / large space Keep some space between you and the car ahead.

account for (v) – объяснять His illness accounts for his absence.

foreground (n) – передний план (картины); авансцена, самое видное место. The figure in the foreground is the artist’s wife. He talks a great deal, because he likes to keep herself in the foreground.

background (n) – 1. задний план, фон a photograph with trees in the background. The roof of the house stood out against the background of green leaves. He prefers to remain in the background and let his assistant deal with the press. 2. истоки, происхождение, биографические данные. What is his background? – Что он собой представляет? It is important to have a broad educational background. She came from a very privileged background. The students are drawn from very mixed social backgrounds.

furnish (v) – обставлять, меблировать It will cost us a fortune to furnish our new flat.

setting (n) – окружающая обстановка, декорации, художественное оформление The hotel is in a beautiful setting, with high mountains all around. The film has its setting in ancient Rome.

impact (n) – влияние, воздействие The computer has had / made a great impact on modern life.

contemporary (adj) – современный, одновременный, относящийся к одной эпохе Contemporary reports of past events are often more interesting than modern historians’ views of them.

reveal (v) – открывать, разоблачать The curtains opened and revealed a darkened stage. Promise not to reveal my secret.

overvalue (v) – переоценивать, слишком высоко оценивать, придавать слишком большое значение

evidence (n) – основание, улика, свидетельское показание an important piece а evidence. When the police arrived he had already destroyed the evidence of his guilt.

guess (v) – предполагать, гадать, догадываться. You’ll never guess what she told me.

speculate (v) – размышлять, раздумывать, делать предположения We don’t know all the circumstances, so it would be pointless to speculate on what happened.

outline (n) – 1. очертание, контур an outline map of Italy. We could see only the outlines of the roof in the dim light. 2. набросок, эскиз; схема an outline for an essay.

tangible (adj) – осязаемый, ощутимый; реальный The policy hasn’t brought any tangible benefits.

prejudice (n) – предубеждение, предвзятое мнение; предрассудок A judge must be free from prejudice.

device (n) – 1. устройство, приспособление, аппарат, прибор a device for measuring pressure; a labour-saving device 2. способ, средство, приём a stylistic device

sustain (v) – поддерживать, подтверждать, подкреплять A light meal won’t sustain us through the day. He couldn’t sustain his interest in it. She owes her success to sustained work.

impartiality (n) – беспристрастие He has a reputation for political impartiality.

flawless (adj) – безупречный, без изъяна Her English is almost flawless.

pattern (n) – 1. рисунок, узор a checked/flowery/geometric pattern; a dress with a pattern of tiny roses. 2. система, структура; характер, стиль behaviour patterns; the pattern of world-wide economic decline. These sentences all have the same grammatical pattern. The illness is not following its usual pattern. 3. образец, пример, шаблон. The success of the course set a pattern for the training of new employees.

conceal (v) – скрывать, прятать, умалчивать. He concealed his debts from his wife. She tried to conceal how she felt.

complementary (adj) – дополнительный, добавочный.

The Art of Painting
c. 1666-1673
Oil on canvas
130 x 110 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Looking at Pictures.
by Kenneth Clark

I SUPPOSE that the natural feeling of anyone looking at Vermeer's Painter in his Studio for the first time would be pleasure in the daylight which falls on the patient model and passes over the map of Holland on the wall, like an incoming tide over the sand. We enjoy a moment of heightened perception, a simple pleasure of the eye; and Vermeer's early admirers were thus deluded into thinking that he was a simple artist.

Yet from the start all sorts of complicating factors have entered in. Before my eye can reach the peaceful figure in blue, with her yellow book, it has had to leap some curious obstacles, the swag of curtain, the bizarre silhouette of the painter and the objects on the table, foreshortened almost out of recognition. As I gradually become conscious of these details I begin to notice how curiously they are seen and related to one another. Each shape has that clearly defined identity which one sees in the drawings of children. One still sees things in this way when one is half awake and looks with a sleepy eye at the knob of a bed or a lamp, without quite recognizing what it is. Vermeer has retained this early morning innocence of vision and united it with a most delicate perception of tone.

Let’s see what the picture can tell me about Vermeer. This is one of the rooms in which he painted. There seem to have been two, for window panes with two different kinds of leading are to be found in both early and late pictures; and they may have been one above the other, as the light always falls from the left, and has much the same quality. His perfect control of space makes them look big, but if one measures the squares of the floor they turn out to be quite small, which accounts for the objects in his foregrounds coming so close to the eye. Before beginning work on a picture he set the scene, arranging the furniture, looping the curtains, draping chairs and tables and hanging on the main wall a different map (we know four of them) or a painting from his collection. Vermeer perfected his compositions before he sat down to paint them. His father had been an art dealer, and on his father's death Jan took over the business. In consequence he had plenty of works of art with which to furnish his interiors and took a special interest in their presentation. Into this setting so carefully prepared he put a figure. He was happiest with only one, because in this way he could avoid any dramatic tension; but if, for the sake of variety, he introduced other figures he liked one of them to turn his back on us so that the disturbing impact of two glances was invisible.

During the long period of preparation for each work he evidently considered how a scene of everyday life could take on an allegorical significance, and he used to express this in an oblique way by the picture in the background or by some unremarkable detail. But in the Painter in his Studio, the subject itself is the painting of an allegory. The model represents Fame and her figure is going to fill the canvas on his easel. He has begun by painting her wreath of laurels. This very still and silent maiden, who would surely never distort the sweet oval of her face by blowing a trumpet, is an image of Fame which confirms what we know of Vermeer's character. Almost the only contemporary record which is in the least revealing is an entry in the diary of a French gentleman named Balthasar de Monconys in 1663: 'At Delft I saw the painter Vermeer who had none of his works to show me; but we found one at a baker's. He had paid six hundred pounds for it, although it is only one figure and I would have thought it overvalued at six pistoles.' Fame. Already in 1663 Vermeer was famous enough for this well known connoisseur to make a long detour. But he would not show the visitor a picture: for I think it is out of the question that none of his works was available. On the contrary, we have no evidence that his pictures ever left his studio (the one at the baker's was a deposit against the household bills), and in the sales after his death quite early works were included with late ones. His business as an art dealer brought in enough money to support his nine children; and allowed him to go on painting as he liked, undisturbed.

Naturally the painter in the Vienna picture turns his back on us and his fluffed out hair does not even allow us to guess at the shape of his head. We cannot even be sure whether it is Vermeer himself or a model. But what about that costume! Here, for once, he may have given himself away; for this beribboned doublet is remarkably similar to the one worn by a young man on the left of the Dresden Procuress, painted over ten years before. Is it really possible that the grinning youth in this early picture is our immaculate artist?

We may speculate about Vermeer's character: we know him as an eye. Mais quel oeil! For the first, and almost for the last, time in European painting, it is an eye which felt no need to confirm its sensations by touch. The belief that what we touch is more real than what we see is the basis of drawing. A firm outline denotes a tangible concept. Even Caravaggio, in his revolution against academic art, retained the concept of a form enclosed by an outline. Vermeer was far more radical. When an area changed colour or tone he noted the fact without prejudice and without any indication that he knew what the object under scrutiny really was. Such visual innocence is almost unnatural, and one is tempted to look for a mechanical explanation. I think it almost certain that Vermeer used the device known as the camera obscura, by which the coloured image of a scene could be projected on to a white surface. This would account not only for the simplification of tone but also for the way in which highlights are rendered as small globular dots of paint. One finds the same technical trick in the paintings of Canaletto, who is known to have used a camera obscura, and anyone who has focused an old fashioned camera will remember how the sparkle of light appears as little shining globules overlapping the forms from which they are projected.

But although this explains how Vermeer sustained his visual impartiality, it does not explain the qualities for which we value him most. There is, for example, his flawless sense of interval. Every shape is interesting in itself, and also perfectly related to its neighbours, both in space and on the picture plane. To see pattern and depth simultaneously is the problem that exercised Cezanne throughout half his career, and many layers of agitated paint were laid on the canvas before he could achieve it. Vermeer seems to glide through these deep waters like a swan. Whatever struggles took place have been concealed from us. His paint is smooth and his touch is uncommunicative. It is impossible to tell what calculations underlay these beautifully tidy results. Is this the result of measurement or of taste? Perhaps geometry played a part, but in the end the harmony of shapes must flow from the same infinitely delicate sense of relationships as the harmony of colours.

Everything in Vermeer's picture is intimately known and loved. “I should paint my own places best” said Constable, and what he felt about the slimy posts and old rotten planks of the Stour, Vermeer felt about the clean white walls and chequered floors of his beloved house on the market square of Delft. In that setting he painted the things he loved - his wife, his friends, his furniture and favourite pictures. He is the great amateur. He never sold a picture; he painted solely to please himself, and it took two hundred years before posterity, or to be more precise the French critic Thore, noticed that he was in any way different from the successful Dutch genre painters of the period.

But nothing could be less amateurish, in the popular sense of the word, than the Painter in his Studio. It is the largest and most complex of his pictures, and there is material in it to lead the eye into many agreeable explorations. There is the shape of the painter's shoes, the red tip of his mahlstick and the blue leaves which are all of Fame that he has so far recorded; there is the chandelier, which reminds us of that ancestor of visual painting, Van Eyck's Arnolfini, and the mysterious plaster cast of a head (certainly not, as is sometimes said, a mask of Comedy), and finally, like a slice of plum cake at the end of this delicate meal, the thick curtain of tapestry, which he seemed to feel was complementary to the black and white diamonds of his floors. All this is fascinating but it would be meaningless without one indescribable element, the daylight.

We are back where we began, but with the recognition of how much more mysterious this achievement is than we had supposed. Why the tones of ordinary daylight are so seldom rendered in paint it is difficult to say; the fact is that even the most accurate eyes of Vermeer's own day did not achieve it. The reason may be that Vermeer is one of the few great painters whose colour is basically cool. Ordinary daylight is cool, but the number of colourists who have based their harmonies on the blue, grey, white and pale yellow of a window facing north is very small. Piero della Francesca, Borgognone, Braque, Corot in his figures, and, to some extent, Velasquez are the names that come to my mind; and as I think of them I realise that cool colour is not a visual preference, but expresses a complete attitude of mind, for all these painters have something of Vermeer's stillness and detachment. In his studio the blue dress and yellow book of Fame, quietly established before the silvery grey of the map, are as much an assertion of faith as the blood-red tunic of Christ in El Greco's Espolio.

Vocabulary Practice

Exercise 1

Compare illusion and delusion.

An illusion is something which people might reasonably believe to be true, but is in fact false: The sun appears to go round the earth, but it is an illusion.

A delusion is something that is believed to be true (perhaps by only one person) but is obviously false: The patient suffers from the delusion that he is Napoleon.

a) Fill in the blanks with illusion or delusion

1. The real problem with the comedy classes is the ________ that at the end of it you are ready to make money. 2. He seemed to be under the __________ that he would make his fortune within a few years. 3. Many Americans were living beyond their means, in part, because growing home values created an _________ of wealth. 4. The UK has been living under a ________ that it is cutting greenhouse gases, according to two reports. 5. A "Tower of Babel" translation device that gives users the _________ of being bilingual has been developed in the US. 6. Family murders tend to take place when the killer is suffering from a ________ and has moved beyond logic and reason, according to forensic psychologist Leslie Carrick-Smith. 7. Western countries are keen to keep talking to Iran over its nuclear programme, with no _________ of a breakthrough.

b) Translate the following using delude or delusion

1. Полагать, что ядерное оружие усиливает нашу безопасность – опасное заблуждение. 2. Многие курильщики обманываются, думая, что им удастся избежать проблем со здоровьем. 3. Уолтер Фейн не питал иллюзий по поводу чувств Китти: он понимал, что она его не любит. 4. Пусть кажущаяся легкость исполнения не вводит вас в заблуждение – это очень сложный танец.

Exercise 2

Answer the following questions

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of performance-related pay? Can this system be implemented in any industry? 2. What kind of conditions would you call stress-related? 3. Do you think doctors should conceal information related to the patient’s condition in case of a terminal illness?

Exercise 3

Translate using retain

1. Чемпиону мира удалось сохранить свой титул, несмотря на то, что большинство болельщиков поддерживали его соперника. 2. Этот человек пойдет на все, чтобы остаться у власти. 3. На протяжении многих веков этот народ сохраняет свои традиции и культуру. 4. Знаете ли вы, что овощи, приготовленные в микроволновой печи, сохраняют до 90% витамина С? 5. Чтобы удержать клиентов, многие магазины предлагают скидки постоянным покупателям. 6. Джим поскользнулся на мокром полу, но ему удалось сохранить равновесие. 7. Эта ткань хорошо удерживает тепло.

Exercise 4

Note: space used as an uncountable noun describes an undefined area. As a countable noun it means a specified area where you can put something.

Insert articles where necessary

1. She left ____ large space empty at the bottom of the page. 2. The exhibition takes up most of ____ available space in the gallery. 3. I spent forty minutes looking for _____ free parking space. 4. There was just ____ empty space where the book had been. 5. I don’t think he saw me; he was just staring into ____ space. 6. Pilots need permission to fly in ____ air space of a different country.

Exercise 5

Answer the following questions

1. What can you see in the foreground and in the background of the following pictures?

            

 

 

1. What kind of people like to keep themselves in the foreground? Do you know people who prefer to stay in the background?
2. What can make everyday problems fade into the background?
3. What do you think of schools where children of mixed social backgrounds (privileged and disadvantaged) are drawn together?

Exercise 6

a) Fill in the blanks with an appropriate verb from the list that makes a collocation with the word impact

have           assess         lose be concerned enhance      soften         occur

1. An elegant picture frame that would further ________ the impact of the picture. 2. We reviewed the relevant literature in order to _______ the impact of climate change on these lakes. 3. The economic inclinations and decisions of both candidates are likely to______ a far-reaching impact on their election prospects. 4. Many satirical writings _______ their impact over time. 5. Side air bags are intended to ________ an impact to front-seat occupants, particularly around their chests. 6. Impact _________ seconds after the pilot signalled for help. 7. The US President ________ about the impact of high prices on Americans, the White House said on Wednesday.

b) Translate using impact.

1. Основной задачей исследования была оценка воздействия курса лечения на пациентов старше 50 лет. 2. Меры, предложенные правительством, могут иметь далеко идущие последствия для экономики страны. 3. Столкновение произошло, как только гонщики достигли поворота. 4. Некоторые лекарства нельзя принимать одновременно, так как они усиливают эффект друг друга. 5. Это произведение не потеряло свою силу, хотя со времен его создания прошло более века. 6. Многие из нас озабочены негативным воздействием промышленности на окружающую среду.

Exercise 7

Answer the following questions

1. What Russian museums or galleries display contemporary art (that is, art produced since World War II)? Do you take interest in contemporary art? 2. Which of our contemporaries do you think we can be proud of?

Exercise 8

Work in pairs.

1. Есть данные, подтверждающие теорию о том, что климатические изменения в Северной Атлантике можно объяснить изменением направления теплых океанических течений, а не глобальным потеплением или похолоданием.	1. There is evidence that supports the theory that heat transfer by ocean currents – rather than global heating or cooling – may account for the climate changes in the North Atlantic.
2. Крупнолистные растения на переднем плане и расположенные сзади растения с более мелкими листьями усиливают ощущение пространства, создавая видимость перспективы.	2. Large-leafed plants in the foreground and smaller-leafed plants towards the back will increase the feeling of space, by creating a false perspective.
3. По словам психолога, у пациента могут быть диагностированы галлюцинации, вызванные психологической травмой.	3. According to the psychologist the patient may be diagnosed as having a delusion related to psychological trauma.
4. Каждый присяжный должен сохранять беспристрастность.	4. Each juror must retain impartiality.
5. Устройство – немногим больше обычной флэшки. Но сзади под небольшой крышкой открывается порт, совместимый с картой памяти micro SD.	5. The device is only slightly larger than a standard USB stick. However, at the back of the device is a small catch that opens to reveal a slot capable of holding a microSD card.
6. Мы помогаем компаниям достигать существенных результатов и удерживать их, благодаря нашему знанию технологии и подходу, ориентированному на интересы клиента.	6. We help businesses achieve and sustain tangible results, through technology expertise and collaborative, customer-focused relationships.
7. Продюсеры фильма говорят, что еще рано судить о том, ждет ли эти фильмы кассовый успех.	7. The producers of these films agree that it’s still too early to speculate whether these films will spell box-office magic or not.
8. Дизайнер использовал встроенный шкаф, чтобы скрыть оборудование, сводя к минимуму ощущение присутствия электроники в доме.	8. The designer has used an adjacent closet to conceal the equipment, minimizing the impact of the electronics on the look and feel of the home.
9. В воде отражались безупречные очертания ротонды, украшенной колоннами и фонтаном розового мрамора.	9. The waters reflected the flawless outline of a rotunda decorated with several columns and a pink marble fountain.

 

Reading Comprehension

I. Make sure you know the answers to the following.

1. What is the first impression a viewer gets when looking at Vermeer’s work and how does it change if one has a closer look at the painting?

2. What is the setting of many of Vermeer’s paintings? What can it tell us about the artist?

3. How did the artist work on his pictures?

4. What was his attitude to fame?

5. What are the peculiarities of Vermeer’s style?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following::

Обостренное восприятие; первые почитатели художника; преодолеть (перепрыгнуть) препятствия; откинутый занавес; изображенные в таком ракурсе, что их почти нельзя узнать; четко выраженная индивидуальность; тонкое восприятие градации тонов; оконные стекла с двумя видами переплета; продумывать композицию; расставлять мебель; драпировать стулья; торговец произведениями искусства; продолжить дело после смерти отца; приобретать аллегорическое значение; косвенным образом; незаметная деталь; лавровый венок; исказить овал лица; сделать крюк; не могло быть и речи о том, что…; пышные волосы; выдать себя; фигура, окруженная контуром; менять цвет или оттенок; проецировать цветное изображение на белую поверхность; пятна света; каждая фигура идеально соотносится с соседними; и в пространстве, и на плоскости картины.

III. Discuss the following.

1. Comment on the title of the text. What is your manner of looking at pictures? How attentive are you to details?

2. Do you think it is important to know at least some facts of an artist’s biography to appreciate his work?

Listening Comprehension

Text 1

Great art does not need a soundtrack.

caveat – предостережение twanging – бренчание diminishment – уменьшение, ослабление

• What are the impressions of the speaker concerning his visit to an exhibition of the Indian painting?
• Whose idea was it to accompany the exhibition with music? Why was the speaker so opposed to the idea?

Have your say

Have you ever attended an exhibition accompanied with a soundtrack? How do you like the idea?

Text 2

John Constable.

elude – избегать, ускользать Suffolk Hampstead The Haywain

 

• What facts from Constable’s biography can you name?
• What were the main features of his style?
• Was he a success as an artist in his homeland while he was alive?
• What artists were affected by Constable’s style?

Have your say

Why does it happen that artists are not always recognized and appreciated by their countrymen in their lifetime?

Project

Great art belongs to humanity and is rightfully considered to be the world’s common heritage. At the same time all works of art are legally owned by state or private institutions and individuals. In the turmoil of war all laws and rules are violated and works of art are looted and stolen. What are the ways of saving precious art works from plunder and destruction? Are there ways of returning stolen artifacts to their legal owners? How far should the process of restitution go? These are difficult and often controversial questions. Read the following article and express your opinion on the matter.

Germany Thanks Russia for Returned Art, Asks for the Rest Back

Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union returned 1.5 million art treasures looted at the end of World War II to East Germany. Twenty-eight German museums are staging a series of exhibitions to say thank you.

Gratitude is one half of the message. The other is: Can we have the remaining 1 million works back now too, please?

Ever since reunification in 1990, Germany has been gently pressuring Russia for the return of the art, with few results. Many Russians, including museum directors, view the booty as legitimate compensation for Soviet treasures looted or destroyed by Hitler's troops. Under Russian law, German art taken by Stalin's Soviet Trophy Commission is Russian state property.

``Fifty Years of Loss and Return'' at Sanssouci, the summer palace commissioned by Frederick the Great in Potsdam, offers an interesting insight into the scale of the losses -- and the scope of that restitution in 1958.

In an act of friendship to communist East Germany, 300 train carriages from Moscow and St. Petersburg carried back 1.5 million of the 2.5 million art treasures that disappeared at the end of the war. Without that gesture, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin would be bereft of the Pergamon Altar and postcards and mouse mats in Dresden's tourist shops would have to feature something other than the cherubs of Raphael's ``Sistine Madonna.''

Unpacking the crates must have been like a lifetime of Christmases and birthdays rolled into one for the East German museums, many of which celebrated the return of their errant treasures with grand reopenings. Yet the hangover lingers to this day: Almost half of the art never came back.

German museum directors still don't know what the criteria were in selecting what should be shipped home and what should stay in Russia.

The Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens, which manages Sanssouci and other similar sites, is still missing about 3,000 works. Of the 159 paintings that hung in Frederick's ornate, gilded picture gallery before the war, 99 are lost.

Curators filled the gaps with paintings returned by the Soviet Union that were looted from other palaces, some of which were destroyed in the war. The paintings, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Ferdinand Bol, Guido Reni and Jan Lievens, hang in the baroque style -- close together, almost completely obscuring the wall on one side of Frederick's gallery built between 1755 and 1763.

The exhibition includes illustrations of how the gallery looked before the war, with black-and-white photographs of the missing pictures. It's clear that it no longer fully represents Frederick's collecting habits: many of the lost works have been replaced with paintings of religious subjects, while Frederick preferred mythological figures.

One gaping loss is a Rubens masterpiece, ``Tarquinius and Lucretia,'' that was cut out of its frame by a Soviet officer before the arrival of Stalin's Trophy Commission. He kept it rolled up and stored in his attic until his death in 1999.

A private collector then purchased it in Moscow for $3.5 million and paid for a costly renovation before trying to sell it back to Germany for $60 million. The German government turned down the offer and sued to try to recover the picture. A Moscow court rejected the claim, saying the current owner had acquired it ``in good faith.''

Other cases of private looting have ended more felicitously. One war veteran was weighed down by guilt and handed 101 works on paper over to the German embassy in Moscow in 1993.

The graphics and drawings by Duerer, Manet, Toulouse- Lautrec and Goya had been stored for safekeeping during the war in Karnzow Palace in the eastern region of Brandenburg. They were returned to the Bremen art museum in 2000.

``Fifty Years of Loss and Return'' is at Sanssouci, Potsdam, through Oct. 31. Similar events are taking place in Aachen, Berlin, Bremen, Dessau, Dresden, Gotha and Schwerin. (by Catherine Hickley)

1. Search for more information on the problem of art restitution.
2. Give arguments for and against the following statements.

Trophy art belongs to Russia as compensation for World War II cultural losses.	Plunder of cultural treasures violates international law. It encourages demands for revenge and promotes conflict.
Confiscation of works of art might save cultural treasures and chastise a country that had initiated a wrongful war and had itself wrongfully seized works of art.	During a war all properties are immune from seizure except in the instance of military necessity. Thus, cultural treasures could not be appropriated, destroyed or damaged.
Art looting has a long history. Famous European museums such as the British museum and the Louvre possess artifacts looted from other countries (Egypt, Italy, Greece).	Refusal to restitute trophy artifacts would make it impossible for Russia to recover its own precious artworks from Germany.

 

Written Exercises

Exercise 1

Translate using your active vocabulary.

1. Вам не следует обманывать себя, думая, что можно разбогатеть за несколько лет, без всяких усилий. 2. Несмотря на кажущееся сходство, эти виды растений не родственны друг другу. 3. Должно быть, трудно было сохранить самообладание при таких обстоятельствах. 4. У вас роскошная квартира! Должно быть, обставить ее стоило вам целого состояния. 5. Предлагаю передвинуть диван к окну, чтобы освободить место для еще одного книжного шкафа. Тогда ты сможешь расставить все свои книги. 6. Я не знаю, как объяснить его странное поведение в тот день. Возможно, он был чем-то расстроен. 7. Неужели Анна согласилась произнести речь? Она ведь такая застенчивая, все время старается оставаться в тени. 8. Где происходит действие пьесы «Макбет»? 9. Влияние этого писателя на современную ему литературу трудно переоценить. 10. Тебе не следовало обвинять его без достаточных доказательств.

Exercise 2

Translate using your active vocabulary.

1. Вероятно, он догадался, что друзья не говорят ему всей правды, иначе он не стал бы раздумывать над их странным поведением. 2. Не может быть, что она сама обо всем догадалась! Должно быть, кто-то раскрыл ей этот секрет. 3. Новые измерительные приборы следует применять более активно, так как они действительно приносят существенную выгоду. 4. Судьям нельзя рассматривать дела, в которых замешаны их родственники, так как в этом случае они не могут оставаться беспристрастными. 5. Прежде чем писать сочинение, нужно набросать план. 6. Геометрические узоры, подобные этому, можно найти во многих храмах Древней Греции. 7. Чтобы поддержать интерес ребенка к какой-либо деятельности, не стоит на него давить: не забывайте, ребенок должен делать то, что интересно ему, а не вам.

Exercise 3

Choose a topic for a composition.

1. Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. (Pablo Picasso) 2. I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing. (Francis Ford Coppola) 3. If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. (Vincent Van Gogh) 4. Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist. (Franz Liszt) 5. The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. (Aristotle) 6. The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. (Emile Zola)

 

GRAMMAR

Module 1

                       

The Article