PREPARATION TASKS

Vocabulary practice 1: Match a word from box A with a synonym or near-synonym from
box B.

A. installations B. ideas
materials innovate
concept conceptual
groundbreaking media
abstract innovative
sculpture methods
experiment mould
techniques exhibitions
cast figure

READING SKILL FOCUS

Task type: True – False – Not Given

Strategies
Some problems you may have when completing TFNNG will be discussed in this course.
1. The biggest problem here is the ‘not given’ option. Most students are not used to answering
questions like this and it causes them lots of problems because they are not sure what to look
for. They also spend too much time making sure that it is ‘not given’ and this affects the rest of
their test.
2. Students also fail to understand exactly what each statement means and therefore cannot
identify if it is true or false. Many focus on keywords instead of understanding what the statement
as a whole means.
3. Another common mistake is identifying keywords in the statements and then trying to find words
that exactly match them in the text. You can do this, but more often the words will be synonyms.
4. Finally, some students fail to understand exactly what true, false and not given actually mean
and get confused.

Then what you should do is…

1. Ignore anything you already know about the topic and don’t make assumptions. Base your
answers on the text only.
2. Identify any words that qualify the statement, for example, some, all, mainly, often, always and
occasionally. These words are there to test if you have read the whole statement because they
can change the meaning. For example, ‘Coca-Cola has always made its drinks in the U.S.A.’
has a different meaning from ‘Coca-Cola has mainly made its drinks in the U.S.A.’
3. Be careful when you see verbs that qualify statements, such as suggest, claim, believe and
know. For example, ‘The man claimed he was a British citizen,’ and ‘The man is a British citizen’
mean two different things.
4. There will be at least one of all three answers. If you don’t have at least one ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘not
given’ you have at least one answer wrong.
20TH CENTURY MODERN ART CHAMPIONS: RAUSCHENBERG AND WARHOL
A. The term 'Modern Art' refers to art from the period 1860s to 1970s and encompasses the work of
such well-known names as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso. Modern Art represents
the discarding of the artistic traditions of the past in favour of a spirit of experimentation. It conceptualised
the functions of art in new ways and introduced different ideas about the nature of materials. Two artists
who had a huge impact on modern art in the twentieth century were Robert Rauschenberg and Andy
Warhol. Arguably, they both had an important influence on art as we know it today, but whereas Warhol
became a household name, Rauschenberg is remembered only by those in the artistic community.
B. Milton Ernest Rauschenberg, who later became known as Robert Rauschenberg, was born in Port
Arthur, Texas in 1925, while (1) Andrew Warhola - Andy Warhol - was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Both were of European heritage, born to working class families. In Rauschenberg's case, his
childhood environment was hardly inspiring - a blue-collar town that has been described as a 'cultural
wasteland with no art'. His father had no understanding of art and gave him no encouragement. His mother,
on the other hand, supported her son as much as she could. For much of his life, (2) Rauschenberg had
been waiting for the opportunity to leave his hot sticky industrial home town and he did so in 1944, moving
to California. Like Rauschenberg, Warhol was close to his mother. A sickly child, he spent a lot of time at
home with her. Though he was missing a lot of school, (3) he was developing his artistic skills and tastes,
so it was actually an important period of his life. He eventually enrolled in the Carnegie Institute in
Pittsburgh, where he took his first steps into the art world. Eventually, both artists gravitated towards New
York, (4) which, by the early 1950s had taken over from Paris as the centre of the Avant Garde*.
C. Artistically, what the two have in common is the willingness to innovate, take chances and be
different from everything that had gone before. Both were a new type of artist who embraced and drew
inspiration from popular culture. Both rejected the orthodoxical views of 'high' and 'low' art. To their minds,
anything could be art. Rauschenberg produced paintings and sculptures and even combined them to
produce mixed media, working with a variety of less conventional materials including silk, metal and glass.
(5)It has been said that 'the whole world was his canvas'. He was the ultimate scavenger, prepared to use
anything he could find in his artworks, even going so far as to incorporate such disparate objects as socks,
bedspreads and car parts into his work. His 1953 piece entitled Automobile Tire Print was conceptual art
as never seen before and would ensure him a place in the art history books.

Read Paragraph B carefully. Match each statement 1-3 with its answer. One is True, one is False
and one is Not Given.
1. Rauschenberg was often unwell as a child. NG
2. Both artists had a positive relationship with their mothers. T
3. Warhol began to develop his ability as an artist when he went to New York. F

Read paragraphs A, B and C. Are the following True, False or Not Given?
1. Neither artist is known by their birth name. T
2. Rauschenberg first achieved artistic fame in his home town. NG
3. Paris was the best place for Modern artists in the 1950s. F
4. Neither artist believed in distinguishing between high and low art. T
5. Art critics were shocked by Rauschenberg's use of everyday objects in his work. NG
READING EXAM PRACTICE

MODERN AND POST- MODERN SCULPTURE

A. Modern sculpture has its origins in the work of Frenchman Auguste Rodin. Born into a modest family
in 1840, Rodin began his creative journey in the 1860s, a journey that would lead to him being
remembered as the 'bridge' between traditional and modern sculpture. Before Rodin, sculpture told
stories about the past: religion, history, myth and literature. Sculptures typically left little to the
imagination. Figures tended to be idealised in some way to avoid any imperfections of the model. Rodin
can be considered a realist in that he refused to improve on what he saw in front of him. He considered
all of nature beautiful and if a model was old and wrinkled, he would be portrayed as such. Moreover,
like much of the art that he helped inspire for later generations, his work spoke to the emotions and
imagination: both his and his viewers'. The stories he told were internal and conceptual and there was
no right or wrong way to interpret them.

B. Rodin was inspired by the fragments of Greek and Roman sculpture that were being discovered by
archaeologists during his time. He was one of the first sculptors to treat fragments or parts of figures
as complete works of art One of his most famous works is Large hand of a pianist. In this piece he
demonstrated one of the characteristics of Modern Art- to make visible things that are not, such as
energy, sound and rhythm. He sculpted elongated fingers to make visible music being played
effortlessly. Groundbreaking for its time, this concept has been taken forward by sculptors right up to
the present day.

C. Rodin worked mainly in bronze and was fascinated by the effect of light on irregular surfaces. In
particular, he realised that light bouncing off textured bronze surfaces could create the illusion of
movement. He pioneered two new techniques: marcottage and assemblage. Marcottage means
creating a new work by putting together pieces from different existing works. Assemblage, which was
further developed later by artists like Picasso, began with Rodin's technique of repeatedly casting the
same figure and using multiple casts to create a new piece.

D. The Late Modern Period (1900 to 1945), which saw the rise of extreme distortion* - and then
abstraction** - in sculpture can be seen as a natural development from the pioneering work of Rodin.
Romanian French sculptor Constantin Brancusi was one of the leading exponents of this style. He
attempted to reduce the physical world to three basic forms: egg, pebble and grass blade. The
development of Rodin's assemblage also continued and came to represent the building of sculptures
rather than carving or moulding them. Picasso's sculptures were called 'Constructions' and used a
range of different objects and materials. The rise of minimalism, a movement that reduces sculpture to
its most essential features, comes very much from this tradition.

E. Thanks to the work of these 'forefathers', Modern sculpture embraces many forms and styles. It is
increasingly common to see it created outdoors, often in view of the spectators. One form of outdoor
sculpture is known as Earth Art, which is based on nature and makes use of rocks, branches, leaves,
dirt, soil, water and other naturally occurring materials. Another offshoot is kinetic sculpture - sculpture
that involves moving parts. Mobiles are one such example. Early examples had moving parts powered
by wind or touch and later some were even powered by machines. Other pioneering forms of Modern
sculpture include ice sculptures used in culinary art and sound sculptures - such as Aeolian harps
'played' by the wind.
F. Art installations are another example of how sculpture has developed in the Modern and Post-modern
eras. They can be defined as a work of art consisting of multiple components, often though not
necessarily in mixed media, usually exhibited in an indoor gallery space in an arrangement specified
by the artist. Installations are multi-sensory experiences built for a specific time and space. They are
often highly imaginative and bring different materials together to create something original and
unexpected. The audience is drawn to them because they are immersive, often allowing audience
participation. One such installation was Cloud City, a huge construction created by Argentinian sculptor
Tomas Saraceno. It consisted of 16 interconnected modules, 16.5 by 8.5 metres, displayed on the roof
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Visitors were able to walk up and inside the modules.

G. In fact, these days sculpture increasingly involves the public. The use of digital technology has further
increased the possibilities of creating art that reaches everyone. Digital installations allow artists to
'play' with the boundary between the real world and virtual reality and give new opportunities for active
participation in the artwork by the spectator. Touch, physical participation and social interaction are
now common features of the experience of going to see art. Modern sculpture has come a long way
since Rodin got the ball rolling in the 1860s, and the future promises limitless possibilities.

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage above?
Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Before Rodin, sculpture was very realistic. F

2. Rodin expected people to interpret his sculptures in their own way. T
3. Rodin studied the sculpture techniques of the Greeks and Romans. NG
4. Rodin felt that incomplete figures were still artistic works. T
5. His Large Hand of a Pianist tries to convey music being played. T
6. Rodin believed the surfaces of sculptures should be smooth. NG