What Is Art?

1.             What types of art do you know? Write as many as you can remember.

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2.             Read and name each text.

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A Willard Wigan (born in 1957 in England) is the creator of the smallest works of art on Earth!

His miniature sculptures include The Titanic on a pinhead, a cat on an eyelash and the six wives of Henry VIII in the eye of a needle. Some are a lot smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence.

Wigan started making tiny things when he was a child. People made him feel small because he had learning difficulties, so he decided to show them how significant small could be!

To create his unbelievable micro sculptures, he slows his breathing, then patiently sculpts or paints between heartbeats, so that his hand stays perfectly still. He spends months carving his tiny creations from materials such as toothpicks, sugar crystals and grains of rice and then paints them with a tiny hair such as an eyelash.  Visitors to Willard Wigan's exhibitions should use a microscope to view his work.

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B Banksy (no one knows his real name) is a British street artist who is famous for his graffiti that has appeared on walls and buildings in cities around the world. He also sometimes holds 'shows' of paintings, usually in warehouses.

In February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned six of Banksy's works, fetching almost £400,000 altogether. Later that year, Banksy won an art award, but he didn't turn up to collect it - he prefers to remain anonymous.

 Despite Banksy's 'success', there are many people who see his work as vandalism rather than art. They see graffiti as ugly, irresponsible and childish and they say Banksy encourages more people to do it. Many city councils remove Banksy's works from their walls but they cannot do anything when it is on private property.

 In fact, many people want to keep his work on the walls of their building as it adds value to the property because it is considered by many to be a valuable work of art.

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C In 2005, three paintings sold at an auction in London for £12,000. The painter was a chimpanzee. Congo did the paintings more than fifty years ago when he was three years old.

 Altogether, he did nearly four hundred drawings and paintings before he died in 1964. Congo was a popular guest on Zootimc, a British television show hosted by animal behaviourist Desmond Morris.

In 1957, Morris held an exhibition of 'chimpanzee art', which included some of Congo's work. He wanted to try to understand chimps' ability to be creative, as well as our own human desire for artistic creativity.

Congo's art didn't impress everyone, but apparently famous artists Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro were fans of his - both owned one of his paintings!

3.             Which type of art (A-C) ... 

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can't be seen in the usual way?
requires special control of the body?
attracted the interest of the media?
was made by a very young artist?
had well-known owners?
was inspired by a childhood experience?
is over 50 years old?
has a lot of opponents?
was done by an artist that was well-known by the public?
is done by an artist who doesn't want people to know his/her identity?

4.             Which of these statements about art do you agree (+), disagree (-), not sure yet (?).

Art requires some skills.
To become an artist you should have a natural talent.
Artists express their thoughts and are inspired by their experience.
Art is always legal.
You can become a well-known artist only over a period of many years.
People who create art usually have a lot of opponents.
Artist remains anonymous.

5.             What is Art?

Art – __________________________________________________________________
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6.             Prove it’s art/it isn’t art.

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