English Conversation - An Art Exhibition

It had been announced that 62 original French paintings were to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Hansa and Reena decided to go.

Hansa Reena, are you going to see the exhibition of French paintings?

Reena Yes. I guess we ought to go. It is supposed to be cultural event of the season

Hansa And these are the originals. I under stand, except for a similar exhibition in Japan, this exhibition has never been held anywhere else in Asia.

Reena So I hear. Let’s go together, shall we? When does it open ? The exhibition I mean.

Hansa There are still another couple of weeks to go.

Reena I wonder which artist’s works are being exhibited. I do hope that there are number of impressionists like Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin.

Hansa Some people are crazy about artists like Modigliani, Picasso and the cubanists. I must say that I don’t understand much about modern art, do you Reena?

Reena I suppose I don’t always understand what a modernistic painting is supposed to depict. But I do, at times appreciate the colour used and the forms and shapes devised and put together.

Hansa I was told that art is supposed to be the artist’s vision of the world and the objects he sees. So, if there are distortions in the proportions of the figures and landscapes, that is meant to show how the artist sees these prople and objects.

Reena All art is a projection and outpouring of the artist’s inner feelings, but, I think modern art has tended to become a sort of gimmick as well. Painting is now said to be a method of “breaking space” in a novel and interesting manner.
Hansa What is the meaning of breaking space?
Reena There is a space; it might be a huge well, a big canvas or smaller one. The artist has to fill up that blankness with some combination of colours and shapes. He might like to make a geometric arrangement of nails on the board or just paint one black dot on a white background or make anything which he thinks is artistic and different according to him.
Hansa Have you been to see the Indian paintings on permanent exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art?
Reena Yes I have. They have been arranged very well. The Rajput and kangra minitures are in different sections and the modern Indian painters are in different rooms. Infact, separate rooms are available to each artist.
Hansa Which is your favourtie modern India artist?
Reena I am very impressed with the work of Amrita Shergil.
Hansa Indian painting has begun to get recognition ohly recently, after independence. The colonial rulers tended to denigrate and ignore all forms of Indian art. And creative activity was at a stand – still.
Reena Most of our artists, in every field, heavily imitated the British with the result that little greatness was achieved.
Hansa Will there be guides to explain the paintings of the French masters at the forthcoming exhibition?
Reena I heard that there will be what is known as “lec-tours” These are lec-tours. Every view carries a small radio receiver and earphones. As the viewer goes around the gallery. Voices on the receiver playback pre-recorded tapes explaining about the artist and his work.
Hansa This must be a new feature they’ve introduced. I believe the whole introduced. I believe the whole gallery is being air conditioned too, so that there is no deterioration in the paintings.
Reena I would like to see the exhibiton more than once. The first time with a guide or with a “lec-tour” and then I’d like to see the paintings at leisure and study each one minutely to understand what marvels the artists have created.
Hansa I’ll come along too. I hope there won’t be too much of a rush. One would want to enjoy beautiful creations unhurriedly and without being jostled.




VOCUBULARY

Gallery background
Guide book restoration



PHRASES

Brush and palette pavement artists
To study a painting opening of an exhibition




MEANINGS

Restore - to repair
Original - earliest, creative, the first one to be made.
Depict - to show
Devise - to make
Distort - out of shape
Proportion - parts in balanced relationship to each other
Landscape - view or scenery
Projection - one’s mental ideas presented in a material form
Gimmick - a clever trick
Outpouring - expression of
Canvas - a thick cloth used for painting
Denigrate - to show in a bad light
Imitate - to copy
Deterioration - worsen
Minute - very small going into details.
Palette - an artist’s flat plate for mixing colours or an artist’s mixing knife.



(C) Study the following responses:


1 Give a brief review of the growth of European painting.
Response Painting as a celebrated art form appeared late in the 16th century in Italy. The earliest paintings were used mainly to decorate churches in Europe in the thirteenth century. It is only in the 16th century that the names of great Italian painters like Leonardo da less Vinci, Michel Angelo, Raphael, Titian and others came to be honoured. This was the period of the European Renaissance in art. The world and the people in it were painted faithfully, depicting their beauty, motion colour and details. Paintings were like photographs with depth, emotion and an extra dimension.
In Germany, painters like Van Eycks were painting with harsh realism. A style of precision portrait painting was being evolved and perfected in the 18th century. The Englishmen, Reynolds and Gainsborough painted portraits of the rich. In Spain, Goya, though a court portrait painter started painting socially satirical paintings. In the early 19th century, landscape painting become popular. The genius of British painters like constable and Turner reached great peaks and Paris become the world’s art capital in the middle of the 19th century. Portrait painting was substituted with the photographic lens of the camera. Artists revolted against respectable society. They set out to shock people with dramatic flouting of conventions. They started to depict distortion of light and painted not noble subjects, but common places like railway station or café. A medley of colours, a flur of action and distortion of light were used. The American, whistler, joined this revolution. This was the impressionist movement, which made the world see itself in a new light. Famous names were Manet, Renoir and Monet.




(D) Make Suitable Responses:

1 What are the various ways of seeing an art exhibition?
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2 What do you know about Indian painting?
Response ___________________________________________
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