1 . Pablo Picasso was probably the most famous artist and one of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century. This great artist lived more artistic lifetimes than any of his peers. During his 75-year career, he produced thousands of works, not only paintings but also sculptures, prints, and ceramics, using a wide variety of materials. He almost single-handedly created modern art, changing art more profoundly than any other artist of his century.
Born in 1881, in Spain, Picasso was a child with great talents, completing the one-month qualifying examination for the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona in one day at the age of 14. After finishing his studies in Barcelona, the artist continued his training in Madrid but later returned to Barcelona. There began his “blue period”, so named for the dominant blue tones in the artist’s paintings. During this time, he moved frequently between Barcelona and Paris. In Paris, he spent his days studying the masterworks at the Louvre and his nights with other artists at night clubs, during which time he became fascinated with the circus world’s acrobats and wandering performers. This marked a radical change in color and mood for the artist. He began painting in subtle pinks and grays, often highlighted with brighter tones. This was known as his “rose period”.
The peak of Picasso’s creativity is evidenced in his pioneering role in Cubism. In 1907, he painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a Cubist painting which changed 20th century art completely. In it, the artist and viewer look at the subjects from many different angles at the same time. Picasso and French painter Georges Braque were the leading figures of the Cubist movement. For Picasso, the 1920s were years of rich artistic exploration and great productivity. He designed theater sets and painted in Cubist, Classical styles. In the last decades of his life, he still experimented with new methods of printing and painted a series of variations of old master paintings. He died in France in 1973, at the age of 91. His powers of creativity and execution continue to astonish artists all over the world.
1. How are Picasso’s early paintings categorized?| A．According to their subject matter. |
| B．According to where he lived and worked. |
| C．According to the colors he used. |
| D．According to the trainings he got. |
| A．Picasso was accomplished in a number of media. |
| B．Picasso was primarily an accomplished painter and illustrator. |
| C．Picasso was an artist who was known for a limited number of works. |
| D．Picasso was an artist who had the longest life span. |
| A．Picasso’s reputation exceeded other artists of the period. |
| B．Picasso was a solitary genius, unconnected to others of the period. |
| C．Picasso’s genius failed him in the later years of his life. |
| D．Picasso’s genius astonished artists all over the world after his death. |
| A．To explain the reasons for Picasso’s creativity. |
| B．To describe the major periods that marked Picasso’s artistry. |
| C．To compare Picasso with other painters and styles of the period. |
| D．To stimulate modern artists to learn from Picasso. |
2 . Mary Poppins held on to her famous black umbrella while floating overhead and singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” The audience watched in amazement, and many sang along! Poppins floated for a bit and eventually landed in the midst of the excited crowd before getting on stage. No, this wasn’t a scene from a Disney movie.
They had limited success until 1995 when Rieu was asked to provide entertainment for a soccer game. He got the entire stadium to sing along to a popular waltz.
Today Rieu is the best-selling classical artist worldwide. He has sold in the ballpark of an astonishing 40 million records. He is the biggest male solo touring artist on the planet. His concerts sell more tickets than Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen!
Many classical concerts are serious events, but Rieu’s are the opposite. He’s been nicknamed “The King of the Waltz” because he loves waltzes.
His shows are attended by people of all ages and always include surprises, like the delightful appearance by Mary Poppins. As Rieu says, “I only play music that touched my heart. And I know when it touches my heart, it will touch your heart.” During his performances, many audience members are visibly moved. They often clap, sing, dance, laugh, weep or hug one another. Rieu promises his audience, “You will have an evening that you will never forget.”And he is true to his word.
| A．Afterward, he sold over 200,000 CDs and his popularity rising. |
| B．Rather, it was part of one of André Rieu’s amazing concerts. |
| C．As a result, Rieu became a house-hold name and won great popularity. |
| D．Yet his shows consist of an extensive variety of musical genres and performances. |
| E．Then, Rieu continued his style until he got his nickname. |
| F．From early on, Rieu knew what he wanted - his own orchestra. |
3 . Artist Susan Shepherd is best known for her flower paintings, and the large garden that surrounds her house is the source of many of her subjects. It is full of her favourite flowers, most especially vancties of tulips and poppies. Some of the plants are unruly and seed themselves all over the garden. There is a harmony of colour, shape and structure in the two long flower borders that line the paved path which crosses the garden from east to west. Much of this is due to the previous owners who were keen gardeners, and who left plants that appealed to Susan. She also inherited the gardener, Danny. “In fact, it was really his garden,” she says. “We got on very well. At first he would say, “Oh, it’s not worth it” to some of the things I wanted to put in, but when I said I wanted to paint them, he recognized what I had in mind.”
Susan prefers to focus on detailed studies of individual plants rather than on the garden as a whole, though she will occasionally paint a group of plants where they are. More usually, she picks them and then takes them up to her studio. “I don’t set the whole thing up at once,” she says. “I take one flower up at once,” she says. “I take one flower out and paint it, which might take a few days, and then I bring in another one and build up the painting that way. Sometimes it takes a couple of years to finish.”
Her busiest time of year is spring and early summer, when the tulips are out, followed by the poppies. “They all come out together, and you’re so busy,” she says. But the gradual decaying process is also part of the fascination for her. With tulips, for example, “you bring them in and put them in water, then leave them for perhaps a day and they each form themselves into different shapes. They open out and are fantastic. When you first put them in a vase, you think they are boring, but they change all the time with twists and turns.”
1. In the first paragraph, the author describes Susan’s garden as ________.| A．being only partly finished |
| B．having a path lined with flowers |
| C．having caused problems for the previous owners |
| D．needing a lot of work to keep it looking attractive |
| A．He felt she was interfering in his work. |
| B．He immediately understood her feelings. |
| C．He was recommended by the previous owners. |
| D．He was slow to see the point of some of her ideas. |
| A．She creates her paintings in several stages. |
| B．She spends all day painting an individual flower. |
| C．She likes to do research on a plant before she paints it. |
| D．She will wait until a flower is ready to be picked before painting it. |
| A．look best some time after they have been cut. |
| B．should be kept in the house for as long as possible. |
| C．are not easy to paint because they change so quickly. |
| D．are more colourful and better shaped than other flowers. |
4 . Contemporary artist Nick Smith creates pixelated (像素化的) works with hand colour-chips, synonymous with colour swatches (色块), cleverly combining text and image to create interesting and fascinating collaged (拼贴的) works.
With a previous career in Interior Design spanning 11 years, Nick references his concept design background throughout his work, reworking the design aesthetic using unique colours watches in hand-made collages, placing his work firmly in the fine art category. From his first collage experiment back in 2011 of Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’, when he assembled a tessellation (镶嵌技术) of swatches as a challenge, this eventually inspired his career as an artist and determined his unique style he is now known for.
The multi-layered element of his work, which marries image and word, allows Nick to explore complex art-historical concepts. The text employed is often narrative, which can be read in sequence adding another element of intrigue and interest to the work. This additional element of text, placed under the empty space of each swatch, creates either complimentary or subversive meanings. Nick deliberately leaves these word/image constructions open to viewer interpretation, sparking new debates and meanings.
Each P-series, such as Psycolourgy 2015, Purgatory 2019, explores complicatedly researched concepts, which are always the crucial starting point for each new series of work.Producing large-scale works to micro-chip collages, and multiple sell out print editions, Nick continues to develop his popular and recognisable art.
PSYCOLOURGY—January 2015 Lawrence Alkin Gallery,London
Smith’s debut solo exhibition with Lawrence Alkin Gallery in Soho, London , launched his unique visual reworking of classic paintings from the 20th Century canon. Universally known works, including David Hockney’s’ The Bigger Splash’, Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans’ and Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ were all recast, creating original collages that enquire ideas of depiction, digitalisation and recognition. A sell out show, with numerous successful subsequent print releases, Psycolourgy forged Smith’s path to a place among Britain’s notable contemporary artists.
PURGATORY-December 2019 Context，Art Miami
Purgatory is a shiny , sticky, glossy exploration of our societies attitude and approach to our excess,addictions and desires.
Excerpts from Dante’s Purgatory are woven through colourful works depicting popular covetable consumables, creating symbolic representations of the seven sins. Dante explores possible penance (悔) for our earthly suffering leading to spiritual growth. The results of these pairings offer a humorous, nostalgic and subversive opportunity to question our choices.our history and our future.
1. What made Nick launch his art career?| A．His deep love of fascinating collaged works. |
| B．His first collage work Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ |
| C．The challenge of piecing a tessellation of swatches. |
| D．The collage experiment dating back to 2012. |
| A．His text contains concepts of art. |
| B．His text is usually illustrative. |
| C．His text can be read sequentially. |
| D．His text elements are very simple |
| A．It opened Smith’s unique visual reinvention of classic 21th-century paintings. |
| B．David Hockney’s’Mona Lisa’ has been recreated by Lawrence Alkin Gallery. |
| C．The original collages affirm the ideas of depiction , digitisation and recognition. |
| D．It opened Smith’s path to becoming one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists. |
| A．Some useful ways to create collaged works. |
| B．The life of contemporary artist Nick Smith. |
| C．Information about Psycolourgy and Purgatory. |
| D．The introduction to Nick Smith’s works. |
5 .
15 TH OCT 2023 CULTURE Gazelle Twin, a composer, producer, and musician, opens up about being a conceptual artist and establishing a unique identity ahead of the release of her new album (专辑), Black Dog.  Q: Would you describe your music as conceptual? A: Conceptual is a good term. I don’t make music just for the sake of making music. My records are inspired by themes. I spend a considerable amount of time before writing the music, learning about subjects related to the theme. Then I work on the structure of the album. Ideas can change. For example, Black Dog was originally about ghosts (幽灵), but I ended up with an album about my childhood experiences, through to adulthood and parenthood, and the anxiety and fear that has been with me during that time. Q: Throughout the album, there is a sense of an observer. Is that person yourself, or another presence? A: Both. There is the voice of depression and anxiety, and also this other person you know is always there. I thought of having this ominous presence (不祥之兆) around you. There is also that sense of being out in the world, as a woman, aware of my vulnerability (脆弱). For example, just going for a walk is never simple. We have to build protective instincts around ourselves. Q: When you started out, did you have any idea of the kind of artist you wanted to be? A: I knew I didn’t want to fit a fixed style or be restricted by being female. I wanted to be flexible. I like to think in scale and of more than I can achieve as one person. I like artists with unique identities. Q: What would be your advice to anyone with ambitions to become a musician? A: Follow your instincts. Put yourself out there without pressure to be “finished”. Absorb things, experiment, and allow yourself to follow a journey where you don’t know where you will end up. Being successful commercially takes a team and time. You have to love it and be in it for the long journey. Q: Fast forward ten years, where do you want to be? A: I would love to carry on following my instincts and making albums. I would like more of a collection of TV and film scores because I enjoy writing scores and cooperative work. |
| A．Her records are usually about ghosts. | B．The album’s structure is a top priority. |
| C．The word “conceptual” itself is attractive. | D．Her music is highly motivated by themes. |
| A．spiritual growth | B．vivid imagination |
| C．inner self-awareness | D．external intervention |
| A．She tends to take the bigger picture into account. |
| B．Her future planning is profit-driven to some extent. |
| C．Black Dog has already become a hit album worldwide. |
| D．She expresses willingness to help the potential musicians. |
6 . To the music of Verdi’s Ave Maria, Bulgarian-born soprano Raina Kabaivanska opened the funeral service for her longtime friend and colleague Luciano Pavarotti in the cathedral of Modena. Archbishop Benito Cocchi read a message of condolence from Pope Benedict. In it, the pope said Pavarotti had “honored the divine gift of music through his extraordinary interpretative talent.”
Pavarotti’s white maple casket was covered in sunflowers-his favorite-and laid before the altar. Since his death on Thursday, some 100,000 people of all ages have filed past his coffin in the cathedral, paying last respects to the maestro. Music resounded throughout the service. Tenor Andrea Bocelli sang Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus.” Family members, close friends as well as dignitaries and celebrities attended the invitation-only service. Among those attending were Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, U2 lead singer Bono, and film director Franco Zeffirelli.
Across Italy, admirers watched the service live on television, and thousands of ordinary citizens gathered in the square outside the cathedral and followed the service on a giant screen. One admirer outside the church said Pavarotti would never die. He’s said he is convinced that Pavarotti is not dead because he will continue to live with his voice, with his songs, and he will always remain in our hearts.
Applause broke out as the casket was carried outside the church as loudspeakers amplified a recording of Pavarotti singing arias by Verdi.
As a special honor for a man of humble origins who became Italy’s greatest cultural ambassador, an air force team flew over the cathedral, streaking the sky in the white, red and green colors of the Italian flag.
1. The music played throughout the service was sung by .| A．Raina Kabaivanska | B．Tenor Andrea Bocelli |
| C．Bono | D．Verdi |
| A．People of all ages filing past his coffin in the cathedral. |
| B．family members and close friends of Pavarotti. |
| C．Italian Prime Minister and former U.N Secretary General. |
| D．dignitaries and celebrities invited. |
| A．Pavarotti is Italy’s greatest cultural ambassador with extraordinary talent. |
| B．Pavarotti will always remain in the heart of his admirers across the country. |
| C．Tenor Andrea Bocelli attended Pavarotti’s funeral solemnly and respectfully. |
| D．To show people’s respect, the funeral was completed with an air force gun salute. |
7 . “The arrow shot is so straight that it hits the bull’s eye, the young people will have good luck…” Dargye sang as he worked on his handmade bag.
Dargye, 56, an artist who excels at traditional craftsmanship and Tibetan folk music in Drinba village in Dragyib district, Nyingchi, Tibet autonomous region, remembers many folk songs he learned from his father and uncle. Now, it’s his turn to pass them on.
“I have liked traditional songs and dances since I was a child,” said Dargye, who has four apprentices (学徒).“The songs tell the histories of our ancestors and carry our unique culture, and-it’s always a lot of fun to perform these traditional songs and dances at various gatherings.” The song topics vary from archery, love, to labor and praise for the land. In addition to teaching these songs to/his family members and apprentices, he also uses social media platforms such as WeChat to teach songs.
His daughter, Chok Butri, also admires the folk culture. After posting a video of her daughter, Tsering Kyi, dancing on Douyin, she gained a lot of new fans on the popular short-video platform. “We are modern people living in a modern era, so it’s important and our responsibility that we use modern tools to pass on our traditional culture to make it last forever.” said Chok Butri, adding that she often posts songs and dances on WeChat and Douyin.
Dargye and his fellow villagers also recreate songs, adding modern elements such as aircraft and trains to the lyrics. Besides singing and dancing, Dargye makes handicrafts decorated with Tibetan cultural elements, including various hide and hair ropes, bags made of leather and cloth, and knife sheaths.
The local government encourages villagers to inherit (继承) and develop folk songs and other forms of traditional culture. Dargye’s efforts to preserve folk culture have been acknowledged by the government. In 2014, he was chosen as a county-level intangible (无形的) cultural inheritor and receives funds every year.
1. Why does Dargye want to pass the culture on?| A．He wants to satisfy his interest. | B．He wants to learn from the seniors. |
| C．He wants to bring people fun. | D．He wants to inherit and develop it. |
| A．To show folk music’s effect on her. | B．To stress Dargye’s influence on her. |
| C．To emphasize her love for folk culture. | D．To reveal the popularity of folk culture online. |
| A．Ambitious and honest. | B．Talented and curious. |
| C．Devoted and creative. | D．Generous and determined. |
| A．All efforts to preserve culture pay off |
| B．Craftsman carries tunes to preserve culture |
| C．An artist prefers traditional songs and dances |
| D．Tibetan culture is being protected and passed on |
8 . In 2001, artist Michael Landy destroyed all his possessions in a work he called Break Down. The exhibition, which was held in an empty department store in central London, cost £100,000 to put on and lasted for two weeks. Landy had spent three years cataloguing the 7,226 separate items.
More than 45,000 people came to watch him and his ten helpers destroy everything he’d ever owned, right down to his last sock, his passport and even his beloved Saab (萨博车).
Many of those who came to the exhibition applauded and encouraged Landy in his two weeks of destruction, but his mother wasn’t one of them. “I had to throw my mum out,” said Landy. “She started crying and I couldn’t handle those emotions. She had to go.”
Many other people were equally upset, especially those in the art world thought it was unacceptable to destroy famous artists’ work. Landy destroyed pieces of art given to him by people such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. But on that point Landy said he felt no guilt. After all, he had destroyed all his own work — a collection that covered 15 years.
Landy said that Break Down was an examination of consumerism — others said it was a case of madness. In fact, a minister and a doctor believed he was mentally ill and offered him counselling. However, Landy’s description of his state of mind at that time was very different. “When I finished, I did feel an incredible sense of freedom,” he said, “the possibility that I could do anything. But the freedom is gradually destroyed by the everyday concerns of life. Life was much simpler when I was on my platform.”
The art world eagerly awaited the destroyed remains of his possessions. Indeed, Landy was supposed to give the sacks of smashed metal, plastic and paper to the people who had given him financial backing for the project, and each sack would have been worth £4,000. But he had a change of heart at the last minute and ended up burying it all.
After the exhibition, offers from galleries all round the world poured in. He was even asked to repeat Break Down in a Brazilian gallery. However, as Landy points out, Break Down was a one-off.
1. When destroying all his possessions, Landy ________.| A．went totally mad | B．did not feel regretful |
| C．was desperately upset | D．was very much worried |
| A．show off his enormous fortune |
| B．break free of his mum’s control |
| C．express his envy for other artists |
| D．prove his willpower to live simply |
| A．He merely smashed his own artworks. |
| B．He suffered a major failure in his career. |
| C．He would do Break Down again some other time. |
| D．He had thought about selling the sacks of remains. |
9 . Last summer, a video from Cardiff showed opera coach Mary King wet-eyed during the finals of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.Who had moved her to tears? Mongolian baritone (男中音) Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, towering, broad-shouldered, with a huge smile and a mighty voice, the 29-year-old sang Rossini,Verdi and Tchaikovsky and charmed everyone, including the judges, who declared him joint winner of the Song prize. “There was something so imposing about the sound,” King said. “Contained and glorious. It’s very unusual to find this combination of presence, power and effortlessness.”
Ariunbaatar doesn’t have a typical background for a contestant in one of the world’s most celebrated opera contests. He grew up in the traditional Mongolian way, living in circular tents with his nomadic (游牧的) family. As a child, he rode some 60 miles a day, and he was always singing. He won a place at university in Ulaanbaatar but dropped out after two years when he couldn’t pay the fees, became a taxi driver and one night got chatting to a customer who happened to be the chief of police. Long story short: he joined Ulaanbaatar’s police orchestra, worked his way back to university, then onwards to the grand opera houses of Russia and Europe.
That backstory aroused my curiosity — so much so that three months later I was on a flight to Ulaanbaatar with a radio producer and suitcase of audio equipment. I had the same basic knowledge many westerners share about Mongolia: Genghis Khan, Gobi desert, furry camels, wild horses, wonderful throat singers. My guidebook described a proud nation. “It is rude to turn down an offer of horse’s milk,” I read, “for it is considered a gesture of friendship.”
International wins have made Ariunbaatar famous at home. Politicians hope his career will secure Mongolia’s position on the opera map-portraying it as a modern nation. He says he has no intention to leave Mongolia. His family still travel on the plain, still ride on horseback, still packup their tents to follow new grasslands. “Being with them on the land is what gives me inspiration to sing.” he says. “Wherever I am, that is what I imagine when I sing.”
1. Ariunbaatar won the Song prize mainly because of| A．his command of different songs. |
| B．his charming appearance. |
| C．his unusual background. |
| D．his impressive sound. |
| A．He was admitted to a university for the first time. |
| B．He became a member of the police orchestra. |
| C．He moved Mary King and got the big prize. |
| D．He was raised in the traditional Mongolian way. |
| A．He cares little about fame. |
| B．He hopes to become better known. |
| C．He wants to give his family a better life. |
| D．He draws inspiration from the horses. |
| A．How Ariunbaatar became a famous star. |
| B．An introduction to an opera singer. |
| C．Why the author travelled to Mongolian. |
| D．A video about a celebrated opera contest. |
10 . He may not have a Ninja Turtle named after him, but Tiziano Vecellio of Venice—Titian(提香，意大利画家), to English speakers—is regarded as the most enduringly influential painter of the Renaissance(文艺复兴), even more than Michelangelo and Raphael. Something about him fascinates his fans. Peter Paul Rubens painted nearly two-dozen copies of Titian’s work; Anthony van Dyck bought 19 Titians for his own collection. Velazquez and Rembrandt worshipped him. Oscar Wilde called Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin “certainly the best picture in Italy”.
Titian’s paintings have been the subject of countless exhibitions and art historical studies, but Sheila Hale’s new biography(传记) is the first full-length life of the Venetian master since 1877. And it doesn’t take long to see why. Although he lived an uncommonly long life, into his mid-80s, it wasn’t a very exciting one. He almost never left Venice, where he had no real competitors in art. His working practice remains unclear, since, as Hale writes, “16th-century writers on art thought it inappropriate to describe the physical act of painting.” He was faithful to his first wife, and although he remarried after her death, we don’t even know the name of his second wife. His letters deal with mostly boring matters of accounting—“I do not see how I can hope ever to obtain the money kindly assigned to me,” that sort of thing—and many of those were actually written by secretaries.
Even specialists may not really care just how much Titian received for this or that portrait, or how he got his cousin a job at court.
Venice in the 16th century was a boomtown. Intellectually and religiously progressive, it served as a mixing point for immigrants from east and west and was the capital of an expanding empire. A few decades later, Venice’s glory days were gone. Hale does an admirable job recapturing the sights and smells of the Republic, its traders and patricians(贵族), and of showing how the city nurtured one of the greatest painters of Western art history. But the subject of her biography remains beyond her grasp. As she would surely acknowledge, the brilliance of Titian rests not on his letters or bank ledgers(账本) but on his paintings.
1. The underlined word “worshipped” probably means_________.| A．admired | B．envied | C．hated | D．criticized |
| A．Shelia Hale paid unnecessary attention to insignificant details. |
| B．Shelia Hale’s study is of great economic value. |
| C．Shelia Hale’s study is comprehensive. |
| D．Specialists don’t appreciate Shelia Hale’s efforts. |
| A．Titian enjoyed longevity, which was not common at his time. |
| B．A great number of studies have been made on Titian’s paintings. |
| C．Shelia Hale succeeded in describing the historical context of Titian’s life. |
| D．Titian had to compete with other painters to earn a living. |
| A．A news report. | B．A book review. |
| C．A travel advertisement. | D．An excerpt from a novel. |
