A2                  Key 8

Fine Arts


Task 1  - Vocabulary Quiz

1 still life 2  sculptor  3  symbolism                 4  canvas              5  technique

Task 2 – Reading

A)  6 Christo (Javacheff): The Reichstag Wrapped, 1995

B) 4 Juan Gris, Glasses, Newspaper and a Bottle of Wine, 1913

C) 2 Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-1506

D) 3 Claude Monet, Waterlily Pond, 1899

E) 5 Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1967

F) 1 Donatello, David, 1433


Listening
Task 5 –  fill in the missing words:

A: So this is her husband – Diego Rivera. She can’t have fallen in love with him for his looks, can
she?

B: No, I reckon he must have been very rich or very intelligent.

C: Actually, he was both highly intelligent and very rich. At first, Frida’s father was against her
marrying Diego, because he was a communist, but he finally agreed to it because he couldn’t pay her
daughter’s medical expenses anymore. Frida must have spent a fortune on doctors and operations over
the years.

B: Oh, yes, what a terrible life – first polio and then that awful accident. It’s amazing she
produced so many paintings, isn’t it?

A: Yes, she must have been an incredibly brave woman.

B: But the marriage didn’t work out too well, did it?

C: Well, it had its ups and downs.


Task 6 –

B: She painted this one with the cropped hair while they were separated, didn’t she?

C: Yes, that’s right.

B: She really looks like a man here. In fact, she looks as if she’s got a moustache! And why was
she dressed in a man’s suit?

A: I thought it might have had something to do with women’s liberation. You know – she cut off her
hair to symbolize equality or something.

C: No, the reason she cut off her hair and put on a man’s suit is because Diego Rivera loved her
long hair and also loved the traditional women’s Mexican dresses she used to wear.

She did it to hurt him.

B: And why did they divorce?

C: Nobody really knows. Diego may have found out about Frida’s affair with Leon Trotsky, or it
could have been Frida who was unhappy about Diego’s affair with an American film star. What we are
sure about is that Frida was very unhappy about the divorce.


Task 7: A: But they were back together by the time she painted “Roots”.

C: Yes, they remarried a year after they separated. She painted this one when her health was
beginning to deteriorate. She must have been in a lot of pain.

B: I find this one rather depressing . The rocks she’s lying on don’t look very comfortable. I
suppose they represent her  pain.

C: Probably, but actually, if you look at the expression on her face, she looks quite calm. I think
the green leaves suggest hope. In spite of everything, she was a very optimistic person. The last
painting she did was called “Viva la vida – Long Live Life”.


Task 8 –

1. Ryman’s Courier II is the funniest painting I’ve ever seen; it’s not a painting at all.

2. Renoir differed a lot from Monet with a much wider range of subject matter and a greater
response to things seen.

3.  “Shockingly mad, madder than ever, quite mad,” wrote Horace Walpole in 1785, having seen a
picture by Henry Fuseli. (mad)

5.  In the painting Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp (by Rembrant), the Amsterdam surgeons are less
interesting  than the dissected corpse before them. (little interesting)

6.  The longest-lived and most influntial genius of the 18^th century was Francisco Goya.

7. Impressionism is often easier to understand than expressionism.

8. We managed to buy that painting more cheaply than we had expected.


Task 9 –

1.       The older the paintings, the darker their colours are.

 2. The fewer visitors in the gallery, the more I enjoy the exhibition.
 3. The more abstract the artwork, the fewer people appreciate it.
 4. The wider range of gallery events, the more types of visitors go there.
 5. The more popular the artist, the bigger media coverage of his/her work will be.


Task 10 –
 1. He is not in the LEAST interested in fine arts.
 2. The Rococo painter Boucher, LIKE/SUCH AS Watteau, was influenced by Rubens.
 3. Florentine painters did not have such great feeling for colour AS most Venetians had.
 4. Some artists find that to produce a piece of art is THE LEAST part of their work; to sell is
THE MOST difficult problem.
 5. Abstract art doesn’t seek to represent the world around us AS/LIKE realism does.
 6. This year the art gallery had FEWER visitors than last year.
 7. Some artists, SUCH AS/LIKE Mozart, lived close to poverty for most of their lives.
 8. Art is not a life necessity, just LIKE any other luxury.


Task 11:
 1. F          2. F      3. T      4. T      5. F      6. T