Exam Topics: Life is short, art is long

Our world has become a very visual one – we have art all around us. Understanding art is understanding our world! A good first step is to try to understand what we mean by art. The arts include visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts, like music, theatre, and film, among others. If you ask people in the street what art is, paintings and statues are common answers. But actually it’s more than that. The types of visual art include architecture, animation, collage, comics, design, drawing, graffiti, illustration, installation art, photography, sculpture and so on.

The first time that the question of what art is came up in the 19th century in an essay by Leo Tolstoy. In his work he argues against numerous theories which define art in terms of the good, truth, and especially beauty. In Tolstoy’s opinion, art at the time was much more than that. According to him, art must create an emotional link between artist and audience, one that “infects” the viewer. Some researchers believe that art is actually about communicating the feelings of the artists.

But of course there are people who view the art as a commercial idea. As Frank Zappa once said, “Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.”

For someone art can be therapy. There is even a term “art therapy”. The aim of art therapy is to improve or maintain mental health and emotional well-being. In my opinion art plays a large part in making our lives infinitely rich. Art stimulates different parts of our brains to make us laugh or cry, calm down or start shouting. You could say “Art is something that makes us more thoughtful and well-balanced humans.”

Art is form and content. Form means the elements of art, the principles of design and the actual, physical materials that the artist has used. Content is idea-based and means what the artist meant to say, what the artist actually did say and how we react, as individuals, to the author’s messages.

The world of art is really fascinating. It is the world of fine artists and sculptors, art historians and critic curators, designers and photographers. We can enjoy masterpieces of both old and modern art in such world famous museums as the Louvre (Paris), the British Museum and the National Gallery (London), the State Hermitage (St. Petersburgh), the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Prado Museum (Madrid) and many others.

A lot of young people enjoy graffiti – the so called street art, though some older people consider it to be illegal and ugly. I think we have to accept it as part of our lives. A lot of companies use graffiti imagery to promote their things.

The most frequent association with the word art is painting. Painting has had a long and glorious world history as an independent art.

Belarusian artists have made an enormous contribution to the development of world culture. In the 12-18^th centuries the most popular genres of fine arts in Belarus were frescos, icon and portrait painting. The 16^th century portraits created in Belarus were influenced by the Italian and German Renaissance. Ivan Chrutsky (1810-1885) is considered to be the greatest figure in Belarusian art of the 19^th century. His sentimental portraits and luminous (светящиеся) still-life paintings had been assiduously (усердно) collected by Russian and Polish art galleries.

An important role in the formation of young artists in Belarus was played by the opening of art schools in Vitebsk (1898) and Minsk (1906). Among the various genres of Belarusian fine arts water-colour painting is of undoubting importance and interest. Here we should mention V. Tsvirko, one of the leading Belarusian artists. His water-colours Willows Have Burst into Blossom, The Melted Snow and April are superb.

The most famous Belarusian artists who painted in oils are M. Savitski, E. Zaitsev and I. Akhremchik. The war theme predominates in their pictures, though, of course, they also painted landscapes and portraits. The series Figures on the Heart by M. Savitski has become a specific phenomenon in Belarusian art.

At the beginning of the 20^th century a new trend of abstract painting developed in Vitebsk. Among the artists who belonged to that trend were the world famous M. Chagal, K. Malevich, G. Pen and others. Some of them had to leave Belarus and live abroad.

Here I would like to insert some words about abstract art. Understanding abstract art does not come naturally for everyone but it can’t leave people indifferent. To understand abstract art you have to open up your intuition and see where the painting takes you.  Abstract art allows the viewer to decide what the artwork is about, on a very personal level. It requires an open mind and a big imagination. What people don’t realize is that the best abstract artists have excellent drawing skills, a fine sense of composition, and a deep understanding of the workings of color. Instead they choose to express their emotions by creating a piece that is more free, free of the weight of objects. If you want to fully understand an artwork, it’s important to know the artist’s intention behind it. Knowing the artist’s thought process for creating a certain work of art adds to the meaning and value of a painting.

Pablo Picasso once said: “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird?” Picasso has a point. Art can’t be explained in words, because its influence on people is very personal.

Art echoes the natural world. Art is a means of communion as well as communication. Art creates awareness of social issues. Art may express and reflect the religious, political, and economical aspects of cultures. Art is and can be what ever a culture says it is or what ever they want it to be. Art also helps us to express our sentimental relations. It can beautify, surprise, inspire, stimulate imagination, inform, tell stories, and record history. As someone once said, “Art is life.”

Let’s talk about art.

1. Tell me what forms of art you enjoy most.

2. Is graffiti a form of art or an act of vandalism?

3. Ask me questions about the comedy I have lately seen.

4. Give me a piece of advice on what architectural monuments are worth visiting in Belarus.

5. Are you interested in videoblogs? Why or why not?

Write the answers to the questions in comments.