Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 894, Understanding Modern Art.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 894.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful and I do mean beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is about understanding modern art, something many of us have a difficult time doing.
We'll listen to a dialogue between Stephen and Livia.
Let's get started.
What's that?
It's my latest artwork.
It's experimental.
It's, um...
Abstract.
It's part of a performance art piece I'm putting together.
It'll really challenge people's perceptions of reality.
I don't really understand contemporary art.
Is it supposed to represent something?
It's my interpretation of how the rich oppress the poor.
Really?
Yes, from a postmodern perspective.
Oh, I see.
You do?
No, not really.
I don't think I'm cut out for modern art.
I prefer art to be representational.
I just can't wrap my head around this.
That's the point.
It's supposed to challenge you and make you think.
It has?
Yeah, it's made me realize that I've underrated Paint by Numbers all these years.
Steven begins our dialogue by asking Livia, What's that?
What is that?
Livia says, It's my latest artwork.
It's experimental.
Artwork A-R-T-W-O-R-K.
One word is anything that an artist creates that expresses his or her ideas.
It could be a painting.
It could be a sculpture.
It could be drawing.
It could be filmmaking.
Any of these objects, any of these things could be called artwork.
Livia says that her artwork is experimental.
Experimental usually means something that is new, something that hasn't been done before, something that perhaps you're not quite sure will work.
Stephen uses um to think of something to say.
Of course, he wants to say something nice, but he's a little, perhaps, confused.
Livia says abstract.
She's describing what the artwork is.
Stephen couldn't come up with the name, perhaps.
So Livia helps him by saying it's abstract art.
Abstract means as an adjective when we're talking about art.
Objects that don't look like real objects.
They're not clearly seen.
You have to use perhaps your imagination to understand what the symbols or shapes or colors are saying to you in the art.
Livia says it's part of a performance art piece I'm putting together.
Performance art is really a kind of drama, a kind of acting, a kind of series of actions that...
Make up the art piece.
Performance art typically happens in a given place and time.
And if you're not there, then you can't experience the art.
It's not like art on the wall at a museum.
I actually took a class in performance art, oh, many years ago, back in the early 90s.
Performance art... was very popular in Los Angeles.
There were a lot of well-known artists who came to Los Angeles to do performance art.
And there are still places where you can go and see performance art here in LA.
In fact, in Santa Monica, there is a place especially for performance art.
Well, Livia is talking about her performance.
Art piece piece here just means artwork.
Livia says it'll really challenge people's perception of reality.
Your perception of something is how you view it, how you see it, how you interpret it.
Reality is that which is real, that which is true, real life, how the world really is.
Stephan says, I don't really understand contemporary art.
Contemporary here means the same as modern, art that has been produced recently.
You can use contemporary also as a noun when describing a person who is the same age or lived at the same time.
Is really what we're talking about as another person.
So we could say that F. Scott Fitzgerald and T.S.
Eliot were contemporaries.
They lived at the same time.
I'm not sure if they knew each other.
I don't think so.
Anyway, Stephen is talking about contemporary art, which is modern art, art of our generation.
Stephen says, is it supposed to represent something?
To represent in art means to symbolize, to have a meaning beyond the normal appearance of whatever the thing is.
For example, you might have a rose in your picture, in your painting.
That represents love, or represents goodness or passion or whatever it is.
You're trying to communicate with the people looking at your art.
Livia says the artwork she made is my interpretation of of how the rich oppress the poor.
Interpretation is how you, as an individual, understand something, how you think it works, how you try to express it to another person.
In art, your interpretation is the way you see this particular piece of art being expressed.
Artists and actors will also talk about interpretation.
To interpret a role means to act a certain part in a play or movie or drama or, And the idea here is that it is your idea of what that performance should be, your interpretation of it.
This artwork is Livia's interpretation of how the rich oppress the poor.
To oppress, O-P-P-R-E-S-S. means to treat someone unfairly, to treat someone cruelly.
It's not an art term.
It's a term really more common in politics or sociology.
Livia is interested however, in expressing how the rich people with a lot of money oppress the poor, treat the poor badly.
Stevens says, really?
Which here means, is that true?
Is that really true?
Livia says, yes, from a postmodern perspective.
Postmodern is a term you will see in many places in philosophy and science and in art.
It relates to things in art that were developed in a style that came after modernism.
Post, P-O-S-T as a prefix means after.
Postmodern art tends to have a very, how we might say, skeptical interpretation of the world, a questioning interpretation of the world.
Stephen says, oh, I see.
Livia says, you do?
Stephen says, no, not really.
Meaning, I don't really see.
I don't really understand anything.
I don't think I'm cut out for modern art, Stephen says.
To be cut out for something is a phrasal expression meaning to be prepared for something, to be ready to have or ready to do something.
I don't think I'm cut out for playing the piano.
I tried, but I wasn't very good.
I really did.
I tried once about five, six years ago.
Didn't do very well.
I'm not cut out for playing the piano.
Stephen says I prefer art to be representational.
Something that is representational is something that shows things the way they really are.
When you look at a painting, you can say, oh, yes, that's a car, that's a flower, that's a mountain.
That is representational art.
Stevens says, I just can't wrap my head around this.
To wrap, W-R-A-P, your head around something means to be able to understand something.
Something that perhaps is very difficult or complex.
To wrap your head around something.
Stephen says he cannot wrap his head around Livia's art.
Livia says, that's the point, meaning that's exactly what I'm trying to do.
It's supposed to challenge you and make you think.
Stephen says, well, it certainly made me think.
Livia says, it has, meaning it has made you think.
Stephen says, yeah.
It's made me realize that I've underrated Paint by Numbers all these years.
To underrate U-N-D-E-R-R-A-T-E means not to appreciate something the way you should and to consider something less important or less valuable than what it really is.
Stevens says he underrated paint by numbers.
Paint by numbers was a type of painting.
Well, it was a type of activity that was popular in oh the 1970s, when I was growing up.
Usually, it's something that children now do, not adults.
Basically, you have a picture, a drawing, and you have little numbers and the numbers tell you what colors should go in that little space.
Children often color in things that are numbered and have colors for them.
At least they used to.
I don't know.
Maybe they don't anymore.
Even among adults, paint by numbers was a popular activity, at least in the United States during a certain period of time, as I say, back in the 1970s.
At least that's what I remember.
Well, Stephen thinks that paint by numbers, which is not considered real art, it's not considered art that you would put in a museum.
Stephen is saying that that kind of art, that paint-by-numbers art, maybe was better than he thought it was.
Of course, what he's doing here is he's insulting Livia.
He's saying that that paint-by-numbers art is better than your professional art.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's that?
It's my latest artwork.
It's experimental.
It's um abstract.
It's part of a performance art piece i'm putting together.
It'll really challenge people's perceptions of reality.
I don't really understand contemporary art.
Is it supposed to represent something?
It's my interpretation of how the rich oppress the poor.
Really Yes, from a postmodern perspective.
Oh, I see.
You do?
No, not really.
I don't think I'm cut out for modern art.
I prefer art to be representational.
I just can't wrap my head around this.
That's the point.
It's supposed to challenge you and make you think.
Well, it's certainly made me think.
It has?
Yes.
Yeah, it's made me realize that I've underestimated paint by numbers all these years.
She's definitely cut out for script writing.
I speak of our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
