The Truth About ART- IELTS Reading Answers
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The Academic passage, ‘The Truth About ART Reading Answers’, is a reading passage that consists of 13 questions.
With diligent practice, the Reading Module can be the top-scoring category for IELTS aspirants. To score well, you must understand how to approach and answer the different question types in the Reading Module.
By solving and reviewing Sample Reading Questions from past IELTS papers, you can ensure that your Reading skills are up to the mark. Take the practice test The Truth About ART below and try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com.
The question types found in this passage are:
- Matching Features (Q. 29-37)
- Multiple Choice Question (Q. 38-40)
Reading Passage 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 29-40, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
The Truth About ART
A Modern art has had something of a bad press recently or, to be more precise, it has always had a bad press in certain newspapers and amongst certain sectors of the public. In the public mind, it seems, art (that is, graphic art – pictures – and spatial art – sculpture) is divided into two broad categories. The first is ‘classic’ art, by which is meant representational painting, drawing and sculpture; the second is ‘modern’ art, also known as abstract or non-representational. British popular taste runs decidedly in favour of the former, if one believes a recent survey conducted by Charlie Moore, owner of the Loft Gallery and Workshops in Kent, and one of Britain’s most influential artistic commentators. He found that the man (or woman) in the street has a distrust of cubism, abstracts, sculptures made of bricks and all types of so-called ‘found’ art. He likes Turner and Constable, the great representatives of British watercolour and oil painting respectively, or the French Impressionists, and his taste for statues is limited to the realistic figures of the great and good that litter the British landscape – Robin Hood in Nottingham and Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament. This everyman does not believe in primary colours, abstraction and geometry in nature – the most common comment is that such-and-such a painting is “something a child could have done”.
B Lewis Williams, director of the Beaconsfield Galleries in Hampshire, which specialises in modern painting, agrees. “Look around you at what art is available every day,” he says. “Our great museums and galleries specialise in work which is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It may be representational, it may be ‘realistic’ in one sense, but a lot of it wouldn’t make it into the great European galleries. Britain has had maybe two or three major world painters in the last 1000 years, so we make up the space with a lot of second-rate material.”
C Williams believes that our ignorance of what modern art is has been caused by this lack of exposure to truly great art. He compares the experience of the average British city-dweller with that of a citizen of Italy, France or Spain.
“Of course, we don’t appreciate any kind of art in the same way because of the paucity of good art in Britain. We don’t have galleries of the quality of those in Madrid, Paris, Versailles, Florence, New York or even some places in Russia. We distrust good art – by which I mean both modern and traditional artistic forms – because we don’t have enough of it to learn about it. In other countries, people are surrounded by it from birth. Indeed they take it as a birthright, and are proud of it. The British tend to be suspicious of it. It’s not valued here.”
D Not everyone agrees. Emily Cope, who runs the Osborne Art House, believes that while the British do not have the same history of artistic experience as many European countries, their senses are as finely attuned to art as anyone else’s.
“Look at what sells – in the great art auction houses, in greetings cards, in posters. Look at what’s going on in local amateur art classes up and down the country. Of course, the British are not the same as other countries, but that’s true of all nationalities. The French artistic experience and outlook is not the same as the Italian. In Britain, we have artistic influences from all over the world. There’s the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish influences, as well as Caribbean, African and European. We also have strong links with the Far East, in particular the Indian subcontinent. All these influences come to bear in creating a British artistic outlook. There’s this tendency to say that British people only want garish pictures of clowns crying or ships sailing into battle, and that anything new or different is misunderstood. That’s not my experience at all. The British public is poorly educated in art, but that’s not the same as being uninterested in it.”
E Cope points to Britain’s long tradition of visionary artists such as William Blake, the London engraver and poet who died in 1827. Artists like Blake tended to be one-offs rather than members of a school, and their work is diverse and often word-based so it is difficult to export.
Perhaps, as ever, the truth is somewhere in between these two opinions. It is true that visits to traditional galleries like the National and the National Portrait Gallery outnumber attendance at more modern shows, but this is the case in every country except Spain, perhaps because of the influence of the two most famous non-traditional Spanish painters of the 20th century, Picasso and Dali. However, what is also true is that Britain has produced a long line of individual artists with unique, almost unclassifiable styles such as Blake, Samuel Palmer and Henry Moore.
Questions 29–37
Classify the following statements as referring to
A Charlie Moore
B Lewis Williams
C Emily Cope
Write the appropriate letters A, B or C in boxes 29-37 on your answer sheet.
29 British people don’t appreciate art because they don’t see enough art around them all the time.
30 British museums aim to appeal to popular tastes in art.
31 The average Englishman likes the works of Turner and Constable.
32 Britain, like every other country, has its own view of what art is.
33 In Britain, interest in art is mainly limited to traditional forms such as representational painting.
34 British art has always been affected by other cultures.
35 Galleries in other countries are of better quality that those in Britain.
36 People are not raised to appreciate art.
37 The British have a limited knowledge of art.
Questions 38–40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.
38 Many British artists
A are engravers or poets.
B are great but liked only in Britain.
C do not belong to a school or general trend.
D are influenced by Picasso and Dali.
39 ‘Classic’ art can be described as
A sentimental, realistic paintings with geometric shapes.
B realistic paintings with primary colours.
C abstract modern paintings and sculptures.
D realistic, representational pictures and sculptures.
40 In Spain, people probably enjoy modern art because
A their artists have a classifiable style
B the most renowned modern artists are Spanish
C they attend many modern exhibitions
D they have different opinions on art
Reading Answers
29 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 1
Answer explanation: In the specified line, it is given that “Williams believes that our ignorance of what modern art is has been caused by this lack of exposure to truly great art.”. This means that Lewis Williams is of the opinion that British people don’t appreciate art because they don’t have enough exposure (see enough art around them all the time). Hence, the answer is B.
30 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 3
Answer explanation: In Paragraph B, it is said that “”Our great museums and galleries specialise in work which is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.”. This points to the fact that as per Lewis Williams, British museums aim to appeal/ specialize in popular tastes in art (lowest common denominator). Hence, the answer is B.
31 Answer: A
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 6
Answer explanation: In the given line of Paragraph A, it is said that “He likes Turner and Constable, the great representatives of British watercolour and oil painting respectively…”. The phrase ‘the great representatives of British’ represents the average Englishman who likes Turner and Constable. Hence, the answer is A.
32 Answer: C
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 2
Answer explanation: In the mentioned line, it is stated “Emily Cope, who runs the Osborne Art House, believes that while the British do not have the same history of artistic experience as many European countries, their senses are as finely attuned to art as anyone else’s.”. It can be concluded that Emily Cope believes that Britain does not have the same belief as everyone else, but has its own view of what art is (history of artistic experience) like every other country (as finely attuned to art as anyone else’s). Hence, the answer is C.
33 Answer: A
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 3 – line 4
Answer explanation: In the quoted lines it is given that “The first is ‘classic’ art, by which is meant representational painting, drawing and sculpture…British popular taste runs decidedly in favour of the former, if one believes a recent survey conducted by Charlie Moore…”. This points out that in his survey, Moore found out that the interest in art for the British is mainly limited to traditional forms such as representational painting. Hence, the answer is A.
34 Answer: C
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 7
Answer explanation: The following lines – In Britain, we have artistic influences from all over the world.– proves the fact that Cope rightly claims that other cultures have affected British art. Hence, the answer is C.
35 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 4
Answer explanation: The specified line states that “We don’t have galleries of the quality of those in Madrid, Paris, Versailles, Florence, New York or even some places in Russia.”. From this reference, it can be said that Williams said that galleries in other countries (Madrid, Paris, Versailles, Florence, New York or even some places in Russia) are of better quality than those in Britain. Hence, the answer is B.
36 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 5 – line 6
Answer explanation: The indicated lines of Paragraph C mention that “We distrust good art – by which I mean both modern and traditional artistic forms – because we don’t have enough of it to learn about it. In other countries, people are surrounded by it from birth.”. This statement indicates that people in Britain are not raised to appreciate art and therefore, they distrust art. Hence, the answer is B.
37 Answer: C
Question type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 12
Answer explanation: The given line of Paragraph D says that “The British public is poorly educated in art, but that’s not the same as being uninterested in it.”. It is clear that from the phrase ‘poorly educated in art’ that the British have a limited knowledge of art.Hence, the answer is C.
38 Answer: C
Question type: Multiple Choice Question
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 2
Answer explanation: The given line of Paragraph E says that “Artists like Blake tended to be one-offs rather than members of a school, and their work is diverse and often word-based so it is difficult to export.”. It is clear that many British artists follow their own pattern rather than work as members of a school or follow the general trend. Hence, the answer is C.
39 Answer: D
Question type: Multiple Choice Question
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 2
Answer explanation: The following line in Paragraph A says that “The first is ‘classic’ art, by which is meant representational painting, drawing and sculpture…”. In light of the fact that ‘Classic’ art can be described as realistic, representational pictures and sculptures, the answer is D.
40 Answer: B
Question type: Multiple Choice Question
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 4
Answer explanation: The given line in Paragraph E says that “It is true that visits to traditional galleries like the National and the National Portrait Gallery outnumber attendance at more modern shows, but this is the case in every country except Spain, perhaps because of the influence of the two most famous non-traditional Spanish painters of the 20th century, Picasso and Dali.”. It can be concluded from this statement that although traditional galleries have more visitors than modern shows, in Spain, it is the opposite because of the influence of the two most famous non-traditional (modern) Spanish painters of the 20th century, Picasso and Dali. Hence, the answer is ‘B.
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