Arts and culture

UNIT 1

Lead-in

First take a few minutes to answer these questions for yourself. Then discuss your answers in pairs or groups. Find out about other people’s ideas and opinions.

1. What is art? How can you define it? Do you consider all creative work to be art?

2. What is its function?

Can art be ‘good for you’?

3. Are you an artist in any way?

4. What do you think of the art shown on this page?

/Adapted from Initiative/

Reading

What is art

1. Read the passage and answer the questions below.

Trying to define art is almost impossible because each individual has an opinion on what is or is not art. For some, art is only certain types of music or painting or sculpture, while for others art includes any creative act. The best way, then, to define art may be to consider what it does rather than what it is.

For most people, the function of art is to be pleasing to the eye or ear. In fact, art has served as decoration since prehistoric times. Yet, does some­thing have to be beautiful to be art? Can a disturbing or distasteful piece be considered art? Does the definition of art as beauty exclude works like Picas­so's Guernica, which portrays the destruction of an entire town?

According to some critics, art goes beyond beauty. It involves making the world understandable by bringing order to the chaos of human experience. But can this definition be appropriate when one considers the chaos in works such as Michelangelo's Last Judgement or Erik Satie's Through the Looking Glass?

Perhaps we can define art only by giving a more general explanation of its function. Art historian John Canaday expresses this idea by saying that art is meant "to clarify, intensify, or otherwise enlarge our experience of life."

Guernica, Pablo Picasso

/From Mosaic 2 Grammar, Patricia K. Werner, John P. Nelson/

2. Answer the questions.

1. Why is it difficult to define art?

2. What is the purpose of art for the majority of people?

3. What other functions does art have?

3. Discuss the questions with a partner.

1) Do you agree with the idea that the main function of art is to be pleasing?

2) To what extent do you think modern art performs this function?

3) Comment on John Canaday's idea of art. Do you agree with it?

!!! Look up Function File on page 40 in case you need to revise expressions of agreement and disagreement.

4. Study the following graph to find out more about art forms. There are two mistakes in the way the words are organized into groups. Can you find them?

THE ARTS

Novels Theatre Dance Cinema Drama

Short

Stories LITERATURE PERFORMING Ballet

ARTS

Biographies Classical Opera Concerts:

poetry/rock/

country/western/jazz

FINE ARTS

Painting Sculpture

• We often include architecture and ceramics within the arts.

The arts (plural) covers everything in the network. Art (singular, uncountable) usually means fine art, but can also refer to technique and creativity.

E.g. Have you read the arts page in The Times today? [that part of the paper that deals with all the things in the network]

She's a great art lover. [loves painting and sculpture]

Shakespeare was skilled in the art of poetry. [creative ability]

• Dance usually refers to modern artistic dance forms; ballet usually has a more traditional feel, unless we say modern ballet.

• Remember: a novel is a long story, e.g. 200-300 pages; a short prose fiction, e.g. 10 pages, is a short story.