Искусство. Котлярова С.В - 8 стр.

                         Text 2. GREAT GRAFFITI!                                  4. If you could choose, what pictures would you like to see painted in your
    Do you know what graffiti is? This text will help you to enlarge your         house? (Add sculptures etc., if you wish.)
knowledge about it.                                                               5. Do you think graffiti is a form of art?
       An intruder who got into the house of Mr Frank Bowers in Harrogate
while he was away for six days drank two bottles of his whisky but left al-               Text 3. DESCRIBING CREATIVE WORK OF AN ARTIST
most every room glowing with murals, the like of which Mr Bowers had                  The following is an imaginary obituary of an artist, sculptor and presi-
never seen.                                                                       dent of an eminent society of artists.
       The unknown artist, or artists, painted large abstracts in the dining             Hubert Thake, whose sudden death in a car crash was briefly re-
room and the main bedroom, Disney cartoon characters and a cartoon of             ported yesterday, was widely known as a portrait painter and as the sculp-
Superman going "Zap!" in one of the children's bedrooms. Downstairs, the          tor of many memorial and decorative works. As a president of the General
intruder left three abstract paintings on a board signed BRAAQ'74, a bust         Arts Association he had one of the longest terms of office in recent times
adorned with one of Mr Bowers's hats and his sunglasses, and a few                (1959-1973) and his work in gaining recognition for the association was
sketches for sculptures. There were other paintings of a less mentionable         one of his great contributions to art in Britain. He was aged 82.
nature as well.                                                                          His portrait commissions were executed with a competency to which
       When Mr Bowers, a 36-year old business consultant, left with his           the skill acquired from a thorough training and extensive professional prac-
four children for Stoke-on-Trent a week ago, the walls inside their home in       tice both contributed. It is likely, however, that the work is best known to
Yew Tree Lane were graced by nothing more exciting than magnolia paint.           the public (his "Political Portraits") has somewhat obscured his more per-
Far from being outraged by what he found on his return, Mr Bowers was             sonal artistic qualities. One could perhaps compare him to a composer
delighted. He may not know much about art, but he knows what he likes,            whose bent is for chamber music but who is continually commissioned to
and he certainly likes what the intruder has left him. Mr Bowers cannot           write the theme music for films.
paint himself, and knows no one else who does – "except an auntie who                    This is far from saying that his portrait work was unsuccessful, par-
does sunflowers and things in Stoke-on-Trent" – and can think of no rela-
                                                                                  ticularly the sculpture groups carried out in collaboration with Jason Snurd
tive or friend who would have wanted to surprise him on his return. Nor can
                                                                                  for the forecourt of the new Worridge Town Hall, but other work could be
he find any clue to the intruder, in spite of having played amateur detective
                                                                                  considered more typical of the artist's personal aspirations. An example is
by searching the dustbin. But such worries were driven from his head when
                                                                                  the water-colour "Evening", exhibited for the first time in 1948 and now in
he saw the mural in the dining room and heard the excited squeals and
                                                                                  a private collection, which with its delicacy of line and attention to detail
laughter of the children as they ran from room to room, discovering fresh
delights in each. Some of the murals he will have to have painted over "be-       gives a clearer impression of the artist's real identity.
cause of the neighbours" but most of them are there to stay.                             However it was perhaps Mr Thake's versatility which was his most
       He is not reporting the intrusion to the police because he reckons that    striking quality. In this age of specialists it was quire remarkable to find a
he has gained from it rather than lost. One of the abstracts left downstairs he   man who could turn his hand to almost any form of painting or sculpture
considers to be "stunningly beautiful" and another over the bed-head "an          with considerable success. Not only did he paint in oils and water-colour,
absolute knockout".                                                               but he was also an expert on printing and design work. His sculptures
       Use the information from the text to do the following tasks:               ranged from delicate statuettes lovingly finished to large-scale reliefs for
1. If you had come back from a holiday and found your house had been              the front of public buildings. He always stated it as a principle that no artist
treated in this way, what would your reaction have been and why?                  should be totally one-sided.
2. Make up an imaginary conversation between Mr Frank Bowers, his aunt                   Use the information from the text to do the following tasks:
in Stoke-on-Trent and the unknown artist.                                         1. In his career, Hubert Thake probably met many young would-be artist
3. Transfer this story to any other period you like and imagine (say) a house     whose work he did not admire. Make an imaginary dialogue between
visited in this way by Michelangelo, Cézanne or any other famous artist.          Hubert Thake and a student he is trying to discourage from taking up art
                                      15                                                                                16