4. Van Gogh constantly drew and painted the wonders of the earth and sky.
5. Van Gogh was fascinated by the beauty of the landscape of northern France with its mists and rain.
6. Van Gogh won a spiritual victory in opening a new path for artistk vision and expression.
II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?
1. What did Van Gogh do in his youth? What was the theme of Van Gogh's art? What did Van Gogh work out in Paris under the influence of Impressionism and Japanese prints?
2. Why did Van Gogh leave Paris? What did he do during the next two years? How many canvases did Van Gogh paint in Arles? What inspired Van Gogh?
3. What was revived in A View of La Craw? What expressive device was used in this painting? How did Van Gogh transform the Impressionist technique?
4. Why is The Night Cafe characterised as a disturbing picture? What happened in late December of 1889? What was Van Gogh allowed to do in the hospital?
5. What does Van Gogh's Self-Portrait reveal? What colours dominate in this work of art? What mood does the picture communicate?
6. What does The Starry Night represent? What were Van Gogh's innovations?
III. i. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:
to identify art with emotion; the colouristic discoveries of Impressionism; to free the palette; space construction; to work out a new, original sense of pattern in contour; emotional instability; Renaissance perspective; an expressive device; brushstrokes vibrate throughout the picture; to endow the painting with; cosmic embrace; tragic circumstances; to win a spiritual victory; artistic vision and expression; a style unprecedented in European art; transformation of Impressionist technique; against the blue.
ii. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:
одержать духовную победу над; модифицирование техники импрессионистов; колористические открытия импрессионистов; быть очарованным; мазки пульсируют в картине: видение художника; трагические обстоятельства; объятие космоса; одержать духовную победу; оригинальный стиль; на голубом фоне; построение пространства; для достижения большей выразительности; разработать новый оригинальный контур; перспектива Ренессанса.
iii. Make up sentences of your own with the given phrases.
iv. Arrange the following in the pairs of synonyms:
a) to vibrate; expressive; device; to endow; technique; spiritual; victory;
b) ethereal; to bestow; meaningful; triumph; invention; to wave; method.
IV. Here are descriptions of some of Van Gogh's works of art. Match them up to the titles given below.
1. In this painting the perspective is so strongly exaggerated that it seems to catapult the observer into the end wall.
2. Exploding masses of gold fire expand against the blue.
3. Renaissance perspective of fields and farms is revived in this painting.
4. In a mood of renewed confidence, the artist has endowed the painting with his own physical colouring.
a. The Starry Night
b. The Night Cafu
c. Self-Portrait
d. A View of La Craw
V. Translate the text into English.
Винцент Ван Гог - "великий голландец" - неразрывно связан с французской живописной школой. Художника, воплотившего душевную смятенность современного человека, называют постимпрессионистом. В своих произведениях Ван Гог выразил глубокий трагизм, с которым он воспринимал жизнь. Любой портрет, пейзаж или натюрморт у Ван Гога исполнен скрытой драматической силы. Ощущение беспокойства выражено в резком звучании красок.
Творчество Ван Гога охватывает десятилетие, причем самыми важными являются последние пять лет. Это были годы нечеловеческого труда, в результате которого Ван Гог создал произведения, оставившие неизгладимый след в мире искусства.
VI. Summarize the text.
VII. Topics for discussion.
1. Van Gogh's style and colour.
2. Van Gogh's theme.
3. Van Gogh's artistic heritage.
When the twentieth century opened, Henry Matisse, already past thirty, was a competent painter in a modified Impressionist style. He was not interested in the innovations of the Post-Impressionists. Soon after the turn of the century Matisse began experimenting with figures so simplified that their masses could be stated in bold areas of pigment. Then he turned to the divided touches of bright colour introduced by the Neo-impressionists. In 1905 came the Fauve explosion. Matisse burst upon the art world with astonishing series of paintings in which masses of brilliant colour were applied in broad areas and full intensity. His Green Stripe, of 1905, exhibited in the celebrated group of Fauve pictures in the Salon d'Automne, excited horror because this blazing bouquet of colours was applied not only to the background but also to the face, dominated by the green stripe through the centre of the forehead and down the nose. Matisse intensified the differentiation of hues already analysed by the Impressionists in order to produce a strong emotional effect. Not even Gauguin had dreamed of such distortions.
The triumphant affirmation of Matisse's Fauve period is the huge Joy of Life, of 1905-6, almost eight feet long. A forest glade is inhabited by a happy company of nudes, male and female, embracing, playing pipes, picking flowers, draping garlands about their bodies, or dancing in a ring, all indicated with an unbroken contour of the utmost flexibility. In a sense, Matisse's new scale and contour were prepared by Gauguin. But Matisse has gone farther, especially in his heightening of colour to intensify the fluidity of contour. The primitivism desired by Gauguin has been reached here without reference to exotic cultures. Matisse's figures abandon themselves to nature physically as the Impressionist painter and viewer had visually.
In 1908 Matisse wrote: "What I am after, above all, is expression... Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. The whole arrangement of my pictures is expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part... What I dream or is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter..." Matisse's Red Studio sums up his art and philosophy. Walls and floor are coloured the same strong surprisingly airy red. As there are no shadows, the painting looks flat at first sight, but then the beautiful clear red begins to suggest a kind of space in which the objects float. Against the walls hang or lean canvases by Matisse. Among the furniture contoured in wavering yellow lines are modelling stands bearing small sculptured nudes by Matisse. The idea of the picture as an arrangement in colour has been perfectly fulfilled by Matisse. The recapitulation of his artistic achievements becomes a delicate web of line and colour, in which Renaissance perspective survives only as an echo.
For more than forty years Matisse continued to paint the relaxed themes he loved. He never deserted his basic Fuave message of linear and colouristic freedom, calm and beauty. In 1921 he took up residence at Nice, where he created a series of masterpieces. Typical of his Nice period is Decorative Figure Against an Ornamented Background (nicknamed Nude with the Straight Back). The strongly modelled, grandly simplified forms of the nude are played off against the movement of the Rococo shapes in the wallpaper and the mirror. Between the browns, rose tones, and yellows of the Oriental rug and wallpaper the richness of colour is almost overwhelming.
In 1943 Matisse moved to the Riviera hill-town of Vencc, where during a serious illness he was cared for by Dominican nuns. In gratitude he designed and financed a wonderful chapel for them. He created architecture, murals, stained glass, vestments the altar, candlesticks, and crucifix, between 1948 and 1951. Despite the fact that Matisse professed no formal religion, this chapel is one of the few greatest works of the religious art done in the twentieth century.
Although in old age Matisse was confined to bed, his scope and freedom of art widened. Zulma, of 1950, is dominated by blue, green and pink. Its pulsating contours, flat surfaces and brilliant colour revive on a new scale the energy of Matisse's Joy of Life. To many critics Matisse remain, from a purely pictorial stand point, the most sensitive painter of the twentieth century.
Make sure you know how to pronounce the/allowing words:
Henry Matisse [ÓnrÖ m@PtÖs]; Nice [nÖs]; Vence [Pvans]; nun [nön]; Fauve [fþv]; Fauvism [fþvizm]; Oriental [þriPentl]; bouquet [buPkei]; distortion [disPtþSn]; Dominican [d@Pminik@n]; forehead [Pforid]; triumphant [traiPömf@nt]; decorative [Pdek@r@tiv]
NOTES
The Green Stripe - "Зеленая полоса"
Joy of Life - "Радость жизни"
Red Studio - "Красная комната"
Decorative Figure Against an Ornamented Background (Nude with the Straight Back) - "Декоративная фигура на фоне орнамента" (Обнаженная с прямой спиной)
Zulma - "Зульма"
TASKS
I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.
1. Matisse was an amateur painter.
2. In 1900 came the explosion of Cubism.
3. Matisse's new scale and contour were prepared by Gauguin.
4. Matisse reached Gauguin's primitivism only with reference to exotic cultures.
5. In 1943 Matisse took up residence at Nice, where he created a series of masterpieces.
6. Matisse is considered to be the most sensitive painter of the twentieth century.
II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?
1. What innovations interested Matisse? What experiments did Matisse perform? What attracted Matisse then?
2. Why did The Green Stripe excite horror? What is depicted in this painting?
3. What is the triumphant affirmation of Matisse's Fauve period? What did Matisse reach in this picture?
4. What did Matisse write in 1908? What painting sums up Matisse's art and philosophy? What was the idea of this picture? What has survived as an echo in this painting?
5. What did Matisse create in 1921? What is typical of Matisse's Nice period? What is represented in this painting?
6. What did Matisse do in 1943? What did he create between 1948 and 1951? What did Matisse produce in his old age?
III. i. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:
the innovations of the Post-Impressionists; simplified figures; the art world; the celebrated group of Fauve pictures; to intensify the differentiation of hues; to produce a strong emotional effect; to intensify the fluidity of contour; exotic culture; a delicate web of line and colour; stained glass; from a pictorial stand point.
ii. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:
упрощенные формы; перспектива Ренессанса; знаменитые работы фовистов; утонченная изысканность линии и контура; витраж; экзотическая культура; произвести сильный эмоциональный эффект; подчеркнуть плавность линий; мир искусства; с точки зрения живописи; усилить контраст тонов.
iii. Make up questions of your own with the given phrases.
iv. Arrange the following in the pairs of synonyms:
a) contour; vestment; masterpiece; mural; touch; revive;
b) artistic scene; style; masterwork; recover; shape; garment
IV. Here are descriptions of some of Matisse's works of art. Match them up to the titles given below.
1. This painting is dominated by blue, green and pink.
2. A forest glade is inhabited by a happy company of nudes, male and female, embracing, playing pipes and picking flowers.
3. Renaissance perspective survives here only as an echo.
4. The strongly modelled, grandly simplified forms of the nude are played off against the movement of the Rococo shapes in the wallpaper and the mirror.
5. The blazing bouquet of colours was applied not only to the background but also to the face.
6. It is a great work of art of the 20-th century.
a. Red Studio
b. Zulma
c. The Green Stripe
d. The Chapel
e. Decorative Figure Against an Ornamented Background (Nude with the Straight Back)
f. Joy of Life
V. Translate the text into English.
Анри Матисс, самый талантливый из фовистов, прошел через увлечение импрессионистами и в поисках интенсивности и яркости цвета пришел к упрощенности и плоскости форм. Предметом изображения Матисса служат самые простые мотивы: цветы, кресла, ткани. В его полотнах почти нет объема, композиции строятся на контрасте цветов. Линии у Матисса очень лак9нич-ны. "Матисс-декоратор"- это особая страница монументально-декоративной живописи первой половины XX в. Одна из последних его работ - декоративное оформление капеллы в Вансе.
VI. Summarize the text.
VII. Topics for discussion.
1. Matisse's artistic philosophy.
2. Matisse's mature works of art.
UNIT XVIII PICASSO (1881-1973)
The long career of Pablo Ruiz у Picasso cast across the twentieth century a shadow as long as those of Michelangelo and Titian across the sixteenth century. Picasso created one of the most important movements of the twentieth century, participated in many others, and influenced every phase of artistic activity throughout the world in one way or another until his extreme old age. Throughout his entire life he showed an incredible range of ideas and styles, and even in later years he remained a towering figure. The best works among his immense output have taken their place among the masterpieces of twentieth-century art.
A fully trained painter at the age of nineteen, the Spanish-born Picasso took up residence in France in 1900. He fell under the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec. Picasso became concerned with the lives of those who lived as he did on the periphery of society. The woman in his AbsintheDrinker, of 1902, is enveloped in self-pity and helplessness, a figure of extraordinary sculptural simplicity and beauty. The painting is coloured by blue - the proverbial colour of melancholy - which has given its name to this period in Picasso's evolution, lasting about four years (1901-4). For the young painter it was a period of hopeless maladjustment to the art world of Paris.
By late 1904 Picasso's mood of depression had lightened, and so also had his palette. A brief Rose Period (1904-6) followed, in which he was less concerned with the tragic aspects of poverty than with the nostalgic charm of circus performers. Salimbanques, of 1905, shows a family of these strolling players grouped together physically, but emotionally detached, before a mysterious desert landscape. Figures and costumes, surely drawn and modelled blend with the ground and the sunny haze in tones of softly greyed blue, rose and beige, creating mother-of-pearl effects. This is one of the loveliest pictures of the 20-th century.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, of 1907, heralds the beginning of Cubism. The attitude and methods of the Cubists are not easy to explain. Cezanne had founded planes in real objects and had used them to establish a structure of form seen by means of colour; the Cubists do the opposite, imposing their own structure of mono-chromic planes upon the object. The composition of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was derived from a small bather composition by Cezanne. The intensity of the partially decomposed figures contrasts with a still life in the foreground. Instead of Cezanne's lovely roses, blues and greens, the figures are largely light brown, their anatomy is indicated by uneven white or black contours. A harsh blue, as if a sudden glimpse of sky, surrounds the figure at the upper right. The staring expressions of the central figures give way at all sides to simplified, influenced by African sculpture, faces.