YEAR 12 – What is art?

January 2010
Worksheet 2

On one wall hung a coloured print of some creature who might have been a girl
had the head not been cleft down to the shoulders; she was bald, her eyes were
closed, her profile was superimposed on one half of her face, and she was kissing
herself in her mouth. And she had eleven fingers. I stared at the picture
dumbfounded.
(…)
He said, “A picture is not a girl, even though it is the picture of a girl. One can
even say that the more closely a picture resembles a girl, the further it is from
being a girl. Everyone wants to sleep with a girl, but no one wants to sleep with the
image of a girl. Even an exact wax model of Cleopatra has no bloodstream, and no
vagina. You do not like the eleventh finger, but now I shall tell you something: the
eleventh finger takes the place of these two things.”
When he said this he looked at me and laughed. Then he leaned over me and
whispered, “Now, I am going to let you into the most remarkable secret of all: the
image of Cleopatra which resembles her more closely than all other images, namely
the person that has just walked through this room and into the kitchen to make
some coffee – she of course has a bloodstream and many other nice things, but
even so, she is the furthest of all from being Cleopatra. Nothing tells one less about
Cleopatra than this apparently haphazard but yet logical biochemical synthesis.
Even the man who celebrates a silver wedding anniversary with her after twenty-
five years of marriage will not know more about her than the one who lay with her
for half an hour, or than you who see her for a few seconds crossing the room; the
fact is, she is not even a likeness of herself. And this is what the artist knows; and
that is why he paints her with eleven fingers.” Note: Cleopatra is the character that entered
the room, not the Egyptian Queen.

In this house there hung, so to speak, mountains and mountains and yet more
mountains, mountains with glacial caps, mountains by the sea, ravines in
mountains, lava below mountains, birds in front of mountains and still more
mountains; until finally these wastelands had the effect of a total flight from
habitation, almost a denial of human life. I would not dream of trying to argue that
this was not art, especially since I do not have the faintest idea what art is; but if
this was art, it was foremost the art of those who had sinned against humanity and
fled into wilderness, the art of outlaws. Quite apart from how debased Nature
becomes in a picture, nothing seems to me to express so much contempt for Nature
as a painting of Nature. I touched the waterfall and did not get wet, and there was
no sound of a cascade; over there was a little cloud, standing still instead of
breaking up; and if I sniffed that mountain slope I bumped my nose against a
congealed mass and found only a smell of chemicals, at best a sniff of linseed oil;
and where were the birds? And the flies? And the sun, so that one’s eyes were
dazzled? Or the mist, so that one only saw a faint glimmer of the nearest willow
shrub? Yes, certainly this was meant to be a farmhouse, but where, pray, was the
smell of cow dung? What is the point of making a picture which is meant to be like
Nature, when everyone knows that this is the one thing which a picture cannot be
and should not be and must not be? Who thought up that Nature is a matter of sight
alone? Those who know Nature hear it rather than see it, feel it rather than hear it;
smell it, good heavens, yes – but first and foremost eat it. Certainly Nature is in
front of us, and behind us; Nature is under and over us, yes, and in us; but most
particularly it exists in time, always changing and always passing, never the same;
and never in a rectangular frame.

The Atom Station by Halldór Laxness (Vintage, 2004)

WORK ALONE
(pp. 11 / 37 & 38-39).

Before you start, make sure you read through the instructions and that you
understand them.

Read the two extracts from The Atom Station in which the concept of art is
discussed. The narrator is a young woman who was born and raised in the country,
‘in the north’, and is now a servant at an MP’s house in the capital of Iceland,
Reykjavík.

To start with it is important that the meaning is clear so check your understanding
of the text. Then you’ll be able to discuss more abstract concepts.

Extract 1 – 45’

1. Take some time to look up the words you do not know. Write them down,
preferably in context.

2. Lines 1-4– Draw your own version of the woman in the picture.

3. Underline all comparisons and rephrase them.

4. Raise your left hand if you’ve understood all instructions so far. Raise your right
hand if you have not understood all instructions so far. Do it now.

5. “and that is why he paints her with eleven fingers” (lines 18-19). Explain what
is meant in your own words.

6. Will you now think twice before you dismiss a picture you do not immediately
understand? Explain.

7. Stand up and take a look at the pictures that are on the table, by the teacher.
Later, you will have to pick out one and write about it (question 15)

Extract 2 - 45’

8. Look up the words you do not know. Write them down, preferably in context

9. List the girl’s arguments (lines 8-15) as why Nature does not belong in a frame.
Organize them in a table or diagram.

10. Would you agree that painting Nature is synonymous with being
contemptuous of Nature? (line 7).

11. In your opinion, does Nature belong in a ‘rectangular frame’?

12. Why, do you think, does the girl say she has no idea of what art is. Do you
believe her? Explain.

13. Now that you can picture in your mind the paintings she is talking about…
are they art? Explain.

Final tasks - 45’

14. In your opinion are extracts 1 and 2 contradictory or overlapping?

15. Your final task is to write a short essay about one of the pictures you saw
before (question 7). You’ll be given more specific instructions next lesson.

Clear your throat and announce to the class “This was a brilliant exercise. Now I
am ready to start”.
Weeping woman
Pablo Picasso
1937

http://www.artquotes.net/masters/picasso/picasso_weeping1937.jpg