Who decides what art means? Part 1

Who decides what art means?

Part 1 

I Lead in. Choose one of the paintings below.

1) Take 5 minutes to note down your answers to the questions:

A)  What do you see when you look at this work?

B) How is this work organized? What elements and principles or art do you see?

C) What is the artist saying to me? What mood, feelings, ideas are expressed?

D) Do you like this painting?

2) Go online and find the information about the meaning of the painting. What did the artist want to show? How do we know about it: did the artist write or tell the audience about the ideas or did art critics and historians decide what the painting meant? What do critics think the paining shows? (the paintings are: Henri Rousseau The Sleeping Gypsy; Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait with Monkey; Edvard Munch The Sick Child; Grant Wood American Gothic; Edward Hopper Nighthawks; Pablo Picasso Guernica; Jean Antoine Watteau Venetian Feast)

3) Are your ideas and interpretation of the painting similar or different from the critics’ or artist’s thoughts?

4) Now you know what art critics and historians think about the painting. Is your attitude or understanding of the painting different? Do you like or dislike the panting more now because you know about the artist’s ideas?

5) Do you think it is important to know about artist’s ideas before you look at the painting? Do you believe that viewer’s reactions and understanding are more important that knowledge about the artist’s initial ideas?

II Pronunciation focus. Look at the phonetic symbols [ɪ], [aɪ]. How do you pronounce them? Put the words in the list in the correct column based on the way you pronounce the underlined letters. Listen or watch and check.

Exhibit; striking; vibrant; symbol; convinced; interprets; replica; favorite; silver; intentions; philosophers; critics; sight; qualities; since; possibilities

[ɪ]	[aɪ]
lid	bike

III Watch the video in Task 2 again. Focus on the quotation at the beginning of the video. What did the artist mean by this quotation? Find examples of the artist's paintings. What were (or could be) the associations with the paintings?  


 IV Watch the video above and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

romantic; person; abilities; painting; creation; student; red; project; internet; strolling; symbol; information; critics; unavailable; philosopher; critical; interpretation; possibilities; argument; interest; dessert; favourite; enjoyed; crawling; qualities; global; reject; study; different; truth;

Imagine you and a friend are 1)_____ through an art exhibit and a striking 2)_____ catches your eye. The vibrant 3)_____ appears to you as a symbol of love, but your friend is convinced it's a 4)_____ of war. And where you see stars in a 5)_____ sky, your friend interprets 6)_____ warming-inducing pollutants. To settle the debate, you turn to the 7)_____, where you read that the painting is a replica of the artist's first-grade art 8)_____: Red was her 9)_____ color and the silver dots are fairies. You now know the exact intentions that led to the 10)_____ of this work. Are you wrong to have 11)_____ it as something the artist didn’t intend? Do you enjoy it less now that you know the 12)_____? Just how much should the artist's intention affect your 13)_____ of the painting?

 It's a question that's been tossed around by philosophers and art 14)_____ for decades, with no consensus in sight. In the mid-20th century, literary critic W.K. Wimsatt and 15)_____ Monroe Beardsley argued that artistic intention was irrelevant. They called this the Intentional Fallacy: the belief that valuing an artist's intentions was misguided. Their 16)_____ was twofold. First, the artists we 17)_____ are no longer living, never recorded their intentions, or are simply 18)_____ to answer questions about their work. Second, even if there were a bounty of relevant 19)_____, Wimsatt and Beardsley believed it would distract us from the 20)_____ of the work itself. They compared art to a 21)_____. When you taste a pudding, the chef's intentions don't affect whether you enjoy its flavour or texture. All that matters, they said, is that the pudding "works." Of course, what "works" for one 22)_____ might not "work" for another. And since different interpretations appeal to 23)_____ people, the silver dots in our painting could be reasonably interpreted as fairies, stars, or pollutants. By Wimsatt and Beardsley's logic, the artist's interpretation of her own work would just be one among many equally acceptable 24)_____.

V Match the words to their definitions. Use five words in your sentences.

toss around; a bounty of; in sight; twofold; equally; distract from; unavailable; texture; fairy; stroll; interpretation; catch your eye; striking; appeal to; settle the debate; pollutant; vibrant; misguided; fallacy; irrelevant; affect; convinced; flavour; replica

1.    to walk leisurely as inclination directs; ramble; saunter; take a walk:

2.    attractive; impressive:

3.    to attract attention

4.    energetic and bright

5.    completely certain about something

6.    a substance that pollutes something, especially water or the atmosphere

7.    ending the debate by making a final decision

8.    an exact copy or model of something

9.    a small imaginary being of human form that has magical powers

10.have an effect on

11.the action of explaining the meaning of something

12.to discuss something, especially in an informal way

13.near, close to being achieved or realized

14.not connected with something

15.a mistaken belief

16.mistaken

17.having two parts

18.not able to be used or obtained

19.a lot of

20.to cause (someone) to stop thinking about or paying attention to someone or something and to think about or pay attention to someone or something else instead

21.how food or drink tastes

22.how something feels when people touch it

23.to interest or attract someone

24.in the same amount or size

VI Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	art	a)	the debate
2.	catch	b)	project
3.	vibrant	c)	critics
4.	settle	d)	from
5.	turn	e)	of information
6.	art	f)	consensus in sight
7.	exact	g)	around
8.	toss	h)	to
9.	art	i)	to
10.	with no	j)	exhibit
11.	literary	k)	to the internet
12.	a bounty	l)	your eye
13.	distract	m)	intentions
14.	compare	n)	critic
15.	appeal	o)	red

VII Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.      Philosophers and art critics know how to understand the true meaning of a work of art.

2.    Some critics and philosophers believe that artist’s intentions are irrelevant.

3.    Intentional Fallacy is the belief that valuing an artist's intentions is right.

4.    Sometimes it’s not possible to know the true artist’s intentions.

5.    Some art critics and philosophers believe that viewers decide what works of art means.

6.    The video compares artwork to a cake.

7.    Art “works” in the same way for all people, so people understand works of art in a similar way.

VIII OVER TO YOU. A) Think of  works of art (a painting, a sculpture, an installation, etc.) that inspire you. Choose the less famous one (a contemporary work of art or not very famous work by a well-known artist. (For example, it’s not a very good idea to choose Mona Lisa by Da Vinci). Describe it using the Art Criticism steps (see the scheme below). Focus on your interpretation of the meaning of this work.

B) Search for the information about the meaning of the painting. What did the artist want to show? How do we know about it (from the artist, from the critics)?

C) Are your ideas and interpretation of the painting similar or different from the critics’ or artist’s thoughts?