90
9.3
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTORS
READING
1
Work with a partner. Do you know of any
sculptures in Bahrain, or in the rest of the world?
2
Read the profiles of three artists quickly, and say
what artistic disciplines each has worked in.
3
Read the profiles again and answer the questions.
According to the texts, which artist:
1
still lives in his/her country of birth?
2
did not complete his/her education?
3
had a husband/wife who was more famous than
he/she was?
4
is influenced strongly by his/her country of birth?
5
has received criticism of his/her talent?
6
uses him/herself as a model?
7
has recently combined two artistic disciplines
in his work?
4
Which of the works of art in the photos do you
like the most? Would you like to go to the artists’
exhibitions? Why?/Why not?
VOCABULARY
ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
5
a
Look at the highlighted phrases in the profiles. List
the adjectives under some of these headings.
age, material, colour/pattern, opinion, nationality, size,
shape, most other qualities
5
b
Add the adjectives from the following examples
under the headings in Exercise 5a. Try to work out the
order of adjectives before a noun (i.e. opinion is first).
Check your answers in the table on page 166.
beautiful, antique, colourful, Japanese silk paintings
a huge, well-known, dark bronze sculpture
6
Complete the sentences below, putting the
adjectives in brackets in the correct order.
1
Michael Ayrton made
sculptures.
(bronze, fabulous, large)
2
Rothko’s paintings often consist of a number of
boxes. (coloured, large, rectangular)
3
These
figures date back 2,000 years.
(antique, wonderful, Javanese)
4
The artist created a
sculpture.
(fantastic, stainless steel, shiny)
5
Lacquer is a
varnish.
(hard, coloured, heat-resistant)
6
Wall paintings are used to brighten up some
environments.
(dreary, urban, modern)
7
The bird was made with a piece of
paper.
(square, Japanese, origami)
Anish Kapoor was born
in Mumbai, India, in
1954 and moved to
England
in 1972
.
He studied at two famous art
schools in London, before starting
out as a sculptor. Kapoor soon
became well-known
because of his particular style,
which, in his early works, involved
the clever use of monochrome
and brightly-coloured pigments
surrounding the sculpture.
Although he is
mainly
resident
in London, he often visits India,
and Western and Eastern styles
influence his work. His use of
colour is
strongly
influenced by
the heaps of coloured spices and
powders found in Indian markets.
Kapoor’s later works are
often
very large. In fact, his 110-ton
Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago
is amongst the largest in the
world. This sculpture is forged
from a series of highly-polished
stainless steel ‘plates’ that create
an arched, highly-reflective
work with Chicago’s skyline
and Millennium Park in the
background.
Kapoor has also worked on
subway design in Italy and his
work is increasingly becoming a
mixture of art and architecture. In
2012, he completed ‘Orbit’ for the
2012 London Olympic Games. At
115 metres tall, Orbit is the tallest
sculpture in the UK.
Anish Kapoor
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono, who once said
‘Everybody’s an artist’, was born
in 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. In 1945,
at the end of World War II, she
had to hide with her family when Tokyo
was fire-bombed. Although she came
from a rich, aristocratic family, she had to
pawn her mother’s property to obtain rice
when Japan surrendered and everyone
was poor. She moved with her family
to
New York
when she was eighteen. She
went to college, but dropped out after
two years.
She is
primarily
known for her sculpture
