Unit 4. THE TATE GALLERY AND ITS COLLECTIONS

 

Exercise 1

Read the text. Translate it (orally). Make use of the Notes and the Vocabulary.

 

       The Tate Gallery was opened in 1897, the cost of its erection, eighty million pounds, being defrayed by Sir Henry Tate, the sugar refiner, who also offered to the nation his collection of 67 paintings and three sculptures which were mostly the work of his fellow-Victorians. Sir Joseph Duveen, the art dealer and benefactor, paid for a wing to house the Turner Bequest, a fine collection of paintings by J..M.W. Turner which were left by him to the nation and previously accommodated in the National Gallery. In 1926 Duveen’s son paid for a further extension for the modern foreign collection. He also defrayed the cost of a third enlargement, the long sculpture gallery which was built in 1937. In 1971, work began on a fourth extension: since there was not enough space to exhibit many paintings, the Charles Clore Foundation paid for a new building to accommodate them. The Clore Gallery opened in 1987.

       In 1917 the Tate was made the National Gallery of Modern Painting and was run by the State. The Gallery contained two main collections: the British Collection, comprising paintings, sculpture, drawings and engravings by British artists from the 16^th century up to about 1900, and the Modern Collection consisting of works by British artists from 1850 and foreign works from the time of the Impressionists. There were works by all the greatest British artists, Hogarth, Blake, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites being particularly strongly represented. In all, there were about 10,000 canvasses.

       Throughout the whole history of British art, many of the greatest foreign masters were attracted to England, loaded with honours and even in some sort received into the nation by the titles of nobility conferred upon them. Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck were almost English painters during a longer or shorter period of their lives. And yet, not until William Hogarth (1697-1764) do we find a painter truly English, indeed violently so. He is in art the first name in the order of time we have to boast of, and is the greatest comic painter of any age or country. His pictures are not imitations of still life, or mere transcripts of incidental scenes or customs; but powerful moral satires, exposing vice and folly in their most ludicrous points of view, and, with a profound insight into the weak sides of character and manners, in all their tendencies, combinations, and contrasts. His object is not so much “to hold the mirror up to nature”, as “to show vice her own feature, scorn her own image”. Some people object to the style of Hogarth’s pictures, or the class to which they belong. First, Hogarth belongs to no class, or, if he belongs to any, it is to the same class as Fielding, Smollett, and Moliиre. As Charles Lamb has said, “Other pictures we see, Hogarth’s we read!”.

       The Modern Collection was the most comprehensive collection of British art over the 19th century and a quarter, its foreign works being a necessarily more selective collection but including representative examples which trace the main developments from impressionism and post-impressionism to cubism, futurism, expressionism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and optical, kinetic and “pop” art.

       Gallery displays were changed constantly; and there were frequent exhibitions, incorporating works on loan from other galleries.

       The gallery contained works bought under the terms of the bequest made by Sir Francis Chantry, the sculptor (who left most of his fortune for the purchase of British works of art for the nation), works bought from the fund provided by Samuel Courtauld, and gifts from the National Art Collection Fund, the Contemporary Art Society and private individuals. The Friends of the Tate was founded in 1958 to raise funds to purchase works to fill gaps in the collection. The Gallery also received an annual purchase grant from the Treasury.

       The year 2000 began a new era in the history of the Tate with the opening of two separate galleries in London - Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Tate Britain is the home of British art from 1500 to the present day - a full panorama from the Tudors to the present day. Tate Modern is Britain’s new national museum of modern art. Housed in the former Bankside Power Station, Tate Modern displays the Tate Collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present day, including major works by Bacon, Dalн, Picasso, Matisse, and many other renowned painters as well as contemporary work by artists such as Rebecca Horn, Steve Mcqueen and Gillian Wearing.

 

 

Notes

Henry Tate, Joseph Duveen, Charles Clore, Francis Chantry, Samuel Courtauld - имена известных политиков, деятелей искусства, предпринимателей, активно занимавшихся благотворительностью

the National Gallery - Национальная картинная галерея Великобритании

the Pre-Raphaelites (the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) - прерафаэлиты; течение в английской живописи 19 века, ставившее целью восстановление принципов искусства раннего Возрождения

Charles Lamb  - критик, искусствовед

the Treasury - Казначейство, Министерство финансов Великобритании

the Bankside Power Station - название электростанции в центре Лондона, напротив собора св. Павла; была реконструирована и передана галерее Тейт для размещения коллекции современной живописи

 

Vocabulary

defray, v взять на себя расходы

benefactor, n благотворитель

bequest, n завещательная передача (картин или других ценностей, а также суммы денег в целях покупки произведений искусства для художественных галерей и музеев)

wing, n зд. крыло (здания)

house, v вмещать, размещать, содержать

foundation, n фонд

engraving, n гравюра

canvas, n полотно, картина

still life натюрморт

 

 

Exercise 2

Translate the 2^nd and the 3^rd paragraphs of the text beginning with the words “In 1917 the Tate was made the National Gallery ...” and ending with the words “... Hogarth’s we read!” (in written form).

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Exercise 3

Divide the text into logically connected parts and entitle them. Present the points of your plan in written form in the space below.

 

 

Exercise 4

Present the general idea of the text in 3-4 sentences. Do it in written form.

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Exercise 5

Give your opinion on the collections of the Tate Gallery, and the way new paintings are bought. Present your interpretation in the form of a thesis. Write it down in the space below.

 

 

TUTOR’S REMARKS

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Специальность  № 022200 - Религиоведение

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