READING 1

PREPARING TO READ
1 Match the art forms in the box to the materials or objects (1-8).
UNDERSTANDING
KEY VOCABULARY
calligraphy pottery sculpture poetry weaving music
furniture making photography

1 piano, guitar, orchestra

2 wood and metal
3 clay and glaze
4 pen and ink
5 stone and bronze
6 words
7 camera
8 wool and thread

2 Read descriptions (1^) and match the artists to the photographs of their
USING YOUR
work (a-d).
KNOWLEDGE TO
PREDICT CONTENT 1 Andy Warhol: An artist who was famous for his prints of
celebrities. ______
2 Damien Hirst: A radical British artist who famously used dead
animals in his work. ______
3 Marcel Duchamp: An early twentieth-century French artist
who changed what people thought o f sculpture. ______
4 Frank Lloyd Wright: An American architect who focused on
the role of buildings within the landscape. ______
 ART AND DESIGN U N IT9

WHILE READING

Scanning to find information

Scanning is a reading technique used to look for specific information in a text.
If you know what information you want from a text, you do not need to read it
ail Just move your eye quickly down the page looking for the key words in the
information you want. When you find it, you can just read that part in detail

3 Scan the magazine article and put the artists in Exercise 2 in the order
SCANNING TO FIND
they appear.
INFORMATION
a Andy Warhol ______ c Marcel Duchamp ______
b Damien Hirst ______ d Frank Lloyd Wright ______

Art for art’s sake?

hat is art.’’ This question artist famous for his Pop Art in the of a painting. He signed it and said:
W has puzzled philosophers
and great thinkers for centuries.
1960s once said: ‘an artist produces
things that people don’t need
‘everything an artist produces is
art’. Today many people complain
A dictionary definition states that to have’.This is the distinction about the lack of skill in the
art is ‘making objects, images or between fine and applied art. production of conceptual artistic
music, etc. that are beautiful or that Applied arts require an object to be objects. Some contemporary artists
express certain feelings.’ This is a functional, as well as beautiful. use assistants to produce all their
very broad definition. There are a In the twentieth century, artists art for them. British artist, Damien
number of different categories of began to challenge the established Hirst claims that as long as he
objects and processes under the notion of art. They recognized that had the idea, it is his work. He has
umbrella term of art which need to their work belonged to the higher compared his art to architecture,
be explored. social classes who had the wealth to saying: ‘you have to look at it as if
Art is typically divided into two purchase art and the leisure time to the artist is an architect, and we
areas: fine art (such as painting, enjoy it. The architect Frank Lloyd don’t have a problem that gyeat
sculpture, music and poetry); and Wright commented: ‘art for art’s architects don’t actually build
the applied arts (such as pottery, sake is a philosophy of the well- the houses’. In fact, Hirst’s mass-
weaving, metal working, furniture fed’. In an attempt to challenge produced works sell for millions
making and calligraphy). However, the situation, the French painter, of dollars, and despite a hundred
some claim that the art label can Marcel Duchamp submitted a toilet years of modern art, fine art is still a
also be attached to car design, to an art exhibition in 1917 instead preserve of the wealthy
fashion, photography, computer
games, cooking, or even sport. Fine
art is categorized as something
which only has an aesthetic or
conceptual function. This point
was made over a thousand years
ago by the Greek philosopher
Aristotle, who wrote: ‘the aim of
art is to represent not the outward
appearance of things but their
inward significance’. He noted that
artists produced objects, drama
and music which reflected their
emotions and ideas, rather than just
trying to capture a true image of
nature. Andy Warhol, the American
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 4 Read the magazine article again. Are the statements below true (T),
READING FOR DETAIL
false (F) or the article does not say (DNS)?
1 The writer feels the dictionary definition o f art is too wide.
2 Metal-working is an example o f fine art.
3 Some people argue that sport is a type of art.
4 Aristotle was the first person to say that art should be
affordable for all.
5 Andy Warhol invented Pop Art.
6 ‘Art for art’s sake’ refers to applied art.
7 Duchamp’s toilet was sold at an art exhibition for a very
high price.
8 Damien Hirst produces all his own art.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

5 According to the article, which o f the artists mentioned would probably
MAKING INFERENCES
have the opinions below? Write the initials o f the artists from Exercise 3
FROM THE TEXT
(e.g. AW, DH, MD or FLW).
1 It is the idea of the work o f art which is most important. _________
2 Art isn’t functional. _________
3 Everything an artist makes can be considered art. _________
4 It does not matter if the artist doesn’t actually make the
work of art. _________
5 Only the rich think that art does not need a purpose. _________

DISCUSSION
6 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions below.
1 What do you think is the main purpose of art? Does it need to have a
purpose, or can it just be beautiful?
2 Which of the four artists mentioned in the text do you agree with most?
3 Do you think art is only for rich people? Why / Why not?
4 Do you think activities such as car design should be classified as art?

READING 2

PREPARING TO READ
1 Work in pairs. Discuss which o f the activities below you think are art.
USING YOUR
KNOWLEDGE TO
cooking sculpture photography fashion drawing
PREDICT CONTENT
computer games football gardening

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 ART AND DESIGN U N IT 9

2 Match adjectives (1-9) to definitions (a-i).

UNDERSTANDING
aesthetic a by a machine KEY VOCABULARY
mechanical b using new ideas
analogous c relating to beauty
fine d agree, admit something is true
creative e similar, comparable
objective f boring, uninteresting
acknowledge g suspicious, negative
banal h based on facts and reality
cynical i excellent, skilled

WHILE READING
3 Read the essay on the next page quickly. In which paragraphs (A-D) are
SCANNING TO FIND
points (1-6) discussed?
INFORMATION
1 Fine art is a creative, collective experience. _
2 Photography is a means of producing art. _
3 Spending large amounts of money on equipment may result in
better photographs. _
4 Some photographers have become more vocal about calling
themselves ‘artists’. _
5 The use of a camera, for example, means that photography
cannot be thought of as fine art. _
6 A list of some other types of industry that also use photography. _

4 Match the sentences from the essay (1-5) to the corresponding

PARAPHRASING
paraphrase (a-e).
1 Any beauty that is perceived in the Since photography is
picture is the beauty of the time and frequently used for non-
place where it was taken and is not artistic purposes, it cannot
the creation o f the photographer. be considered art.
2 Photography is not art because it is Even if photographs are
produced with a mechanical device considered as valuable as
rather than by hand. paintings, people may not
3 Photography is so widely used for accept them as art.
other functions, such as police work, Art cannot be created by a
advertising and news reporting, machine.
that it cannot claim to be made for The aesthetic value o f a
aesthetic purposes alone. photograph comes from the
4 You don’t take a photograph, you natural world, not from the
make it. skill o f the person holding
5 These high prices may not be the camera.
enough to change people’s Photography requires artistic
perceptions of whether photography input.
is art.
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 Should photography
be con sidered
a fine art,
like painting
or sculpture?
A The production of fine art is the use
o f skill and imagination to create
aesthetic objects or experiences
which can be shared with other
people. Photography is thought
by some to be a form o f fine art,
because it is made using the same critical and creative process that a painter or sculptor
would use. However, others claim that photography is not art because it is produced with a
mechanical device, rather than by hand. This essay will explore both o f these positions.

В Those who believe that photography is not a form o f art present several arguments. They
claim a photograph is nothing but an objective record of a particular place at a particular
time. Therefore, any beauty that is perceived in the picture is the beauty o f the time and
place where it was taken, and is not the creation of the photographer. They also argue
that sophisticated and expensive equipment often plays a greater role in the success o f a
photograph than the photographer’s creativity. Even some of the greatest photographers
acknowledge that there is a limit to the amount o f influence they can have on a final
product. Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famous French photographer, admitted, ‘of course
it’s all luck’ . Finally, it is often pointed out that photography is so widely used for
practical functions, such as police work, advertising and news reporting, that it cannot
claim to be made for aesthetic purposes alone.

C However, there are also many reasons why photography is appreciated on the same level
as other recognized forms of visual art. The decisions involved in creating a photograph
are analogous to those made by any other artist. A photograph is not just a banal record
of the world, but a deliberately created image with its own artistic features. Ansel Adams,
the American photographer, commented on this point when he noted; ‘You don’t take a
photograph, you make it.’ There is a growing trend for photographers to call themselves
artists. Cynical observers say this is because artists can sell their pieces in the higher-
priced fine-art markets, whereas photographers cannot. A photograph by German artist
Andreas Gursky, for example, recently sold for almost four and a half million dollars.
However, these high prices may not be enough to change people’s perceptions of whether
photography is art.

D The arguments about whether photography is art have been discussed since the earliest
cameras were used. The creative process involved in taking a fine photograph, deciding
what, when and how the picture should be taken, is certainly similar to the process of
making fine art. However, cameras are also increasingly used to take photographs for non-
artistic functions. Although we cannot say that photography itself is necessarily art, we can
certainly see that it is a medium that can be used to make art.

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 ART AND DESIGN U N IT9

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

5 Match opinions (1-6) with people (a-f).
MAKING INFERENCES
1 There’s no reason for a great photograph to a Ansel Adams FROM THE TEXT
be any cheaper than a great painting. b Henri Cartier-Bresson
2 Even a child could take a great picture of c Andreas Gursky
that view. d The author of the
3 There’s a lot more skill to making a picture essay
than just pointing a camera at something e Somebody who
and clicking. It’s something that I create. believes photography
4 Most of us would just walk by and not is art
notice something that could make a f Somebody who
fabulous photo. And even if we did notice doesn’t believe
we probably wouldn’t know how to take photography is art
a photo that would stir other people’s
feelings.
5 It all depends what the camera is used for.
6 Sometimes you just see something that will
make a great picture and the light is perfect
and you have your camera with you. At
other times, nothing seems to be right.

DISCUSSION
6 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions below.
1 Do you like taking photographs? Why / Why not? If so, what kinds of
photographs do you like taking?
2 Should photography be considered an art form? If so, is it fine art or
applied art?
3 Is photography less of an art form now we can digitally improve our
photographs?
4 Can a photograph really be worth $4.5 million? Why / Why not?

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