Западноевропейское искусство от Хогарта до Сальвадора Дали

Элементы абстрагирования, заложенные в искусстве Сезанна, позволили его последователям считать его основоположником абстракционизма.

VI. Summarize the text.

VI. Topics for discussion.

1. Cezanne's artistic concepts.

2. Cezanne and Cubists.

3. Cezanne's as the forerunner of Abstract painting.

Henry Toulouse-Lautrec, born to one of the oldest noble families in France, broke both his legs in early adolescence, and they never developed properly. For the rest of his brief existence he remained a dwarf, alienated from his family's fashionable life. He learned to paint, and took refuge in the night life of Paris, which he depicted with consummate skill – scenes of cafes, theatres, and cabarets. All of his portrayals are prompted by the same uncritical acceptance of the facts of Parisian night life that he wished for his own deformity and found only in this shadowy world. At the Moulin Rouge, of 1892, was influenced by Degas, whom he deeply admired. Toulouse-Lautrec's line was sure, almost as much as that of his idol, but his tolerant humanity was entirely his own. The little artist can be made out toward the top of the picture in profile, just to the left of centre alongside his towering cousin and constant companion. It is significant that, to reinforce the psychological impact of the picture, Toulouse-Lautrec extended it on all four sides, particularly at the bottom and at the right. The plunging perspective of a balustrade in the added section pushes the little group huddled about the table into the middle distance, while it forces toward us with startling intensity the face of a heavily powered entertainer, so lighted from below that the shadows are green. Toulouse-Lautrec's smart and vivid drawing style, his brilliant patterning, and surprising colour contrasts were the dominant influence in Paris when in 1900, eight years after the picture was painted, the young Pablo Picasso arrived from Spain.

Make sure you know how to pronounce the following words:

Toulouse-Lautrec; Degas; Picasso; adolescence; alienated; balustrade; cabaret; cafe; dwarf; profile; psychological

At the Moulin Rouge – «Мулен Руж»

I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.

1. Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were French aristocrats.

2. Toulouse-Lautrec took refuge in the wilderness.

3. Toulouse-Lautrec depicted poplars and cathedrals.

4. At the Moulin Rouge was influenced by Renoir.

5. Degas admired Toulouse-Lautrec's works of art.

6. Toulouse-Lautrec's line resembled that of Cezanne's.

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1. Why was Toulouse-Lautrec alienated from his family's fashionable life?

2. What did Toulouse-Lautrec like to depict? Why?

3. Who was Toulouse-Lautrec's idol?

4. What is represented in Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge ? How did the painter depict himself and his cousin in this picture?

5. What did Toulouse-Lautrec do to reinforce the psychological impact of this picture? What did Toulouse-Lautrec do to impress the observer?

6. What was the dominant influence in Paris in 1900? Who was influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec's works of art?

III. i. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:

for the rest of one's existence; to take refuge in; uncritical acceptance; to be influenced by; tolerant humanity; it is significant that; the psychological impact; at the bottom of the picture; surprising colour contrasts; the dominant influence; to extend the picture on all four sides; the plunging perspective; to light from below; drawing style; at the right.

ii. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:

неожиданные цветовые контрасты; раздвинуть картину с четырех сторон; терпимость; осветить снизу; психологическое влияние; глубинная перспектива; знаменательно то, что; основное влияние; в течение оставшейся жизни; найти убежище в; стиль рисунка; быть под влиянием.

iii. Make up questions of your own with the given phrases.

iv. Arrange the/allowing in the pairs of synonyms:

a) noble; existence; alienated; humanity; deformity; idol; tolerant;

b) ugliness; aristocratic; life; favourite; patient; hostile; kindness.

IV. Translate the text into English.

Анри Тулуз-Лотрека историки искусства называют постимпрессионистом. Он работал в основном в графике и оставил острые, доходящие до гротеска образы. Это в основном литографии, посвященные типажам парижской богемы. Тулуз-Лотрек делал плакаты с изображением знаменитых танцовщиц и певиц кабаре. В «Мулен де ла Галетт» и «Мулен Руж» художник экспрессивно и драматически изобразил веселье Парижа.

Многочисленные рисунки, эстампы, литографии свидетельствуют о Тулуз-Лотреке как о выдающемся рисовальщике XIX века.

V. Summarize the text.

VI. Topics for discussion.

1. Toulouse-Lautrec's style and characters.

2. Toulouse-Lautrec as a great draughtsman.

Paul Gauguin, a French painter, sculptor and printmaker, was a founder of modern art. A successful businessman without any artistic training Gauguin began painting as an amateur while working as a stockbroker. He soon met Pissarro and Cezanne, as well as the Impressionists. Gauguin absorbed their ideas and techniques and from 1879 to the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 showed regularly with this group.

Paul Gauguin lived a life that reads like a classic tale of the misunderstood, and uncompromising artist, searching for verities against all odds. He was born in Paris and four years of his childhood lived in Peru (he was partly of Indian origin); six years of his youth he spent as a sailor and was incurably drawn to the exotic and the faraway.

For Gauguin painting itself became identified with his wanderlust and drew him away from all his daily associations. In 1883 he gave up his business career and his bourgeois existence to devote his life to art. Gauguin was convinced that European urban civilisation was incurably ill. His life was nomadic; he moved back and fourth between villages in Brittany and the island of Martinique. Impoverished, deadly ill, and in trouble with the law, Gauguin died on the Marquesas Islands.

Gauguin's departure from Western artistic tradition was prompted by the rebellious attitude that impelled his break from middle-class life. But Gauguin, too, was not an Impressionist at heart. He sought art using ideas rather than the tangible world as a starting point. In this he was influenced by the artist Emil Bernard and by the Symbolist poets Rimbault and Baudelaire. Joining him in renouncing naturalism were the Symbolists, and van Gogh.

Gauguin renounced the formlessness of Impressionist vision and recommended a return to the «primitive» styles as the only refuge for art. What he sought was immediacy of experience. Gauguin did this in his brilliant Vision After the Sermon or, alternatively, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel , painted in 1888, during his second stay in Brittany. This painting marked Gauguin break with Impressionism to follow his own style. He rejected realism in favour of the imagination, and through his expressionist means he made one of the most influential impacts on Western art. In the background Jacob is depicted wrestling with the angel. This event forms the lesson in the Breton rite for the eighth Sunday aflei Trinity. On the preceding day the blessing of horned beasts took place, followed by wrestling contests and a procession with red banners, and at night fireworks, a bonfire that turned the fields red with its glow, and an angel descending from the church tower. In the foreground Gauguin has shown at the right the head of a priest and next to it praying women in Breton costumes. Although the figures are outlined with the clarity that Gauguin derived from his study of Oriental, medieval, and primitive arts, the contrast between the large foreground heads and the smaller groups in the distance still presupposes Western perspective, and is drawn from theatre subjects developed by Duamier, Degas, and Renoir.