CUE CARD: ART

Đề: Describe a piece of art you like.

You should say:

• what this work of art is

• when you first saw it

• what you know about it

and explain why you like this piece of art.

Model Answer:

A piece of art I really like is a brilliant work by the world-famous painter, Pablo Picasso, and the name of it is “Guernica (1937)”. I saw it for the first time at one of my country’s leading museums back in about ten years ago, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to fully understand and appreciate the painting at that time. Then, as I started to take “Spanish” language class and started to learn a little about the history of Spain in the process, the famous painting started to present a much clearer picture to me.

The painting is about the “city of Guernica” which was bombed by the Nazi Germany planes during the Spanish civil war in 1937. The painting, in essence, has become a very famous symbol of anti-war indictment by depicting the horrors and tragedies of war in a perfect manner. In fact, “Guernica” is considered to be one of the Spanish Masterworks.

Apart from capturing a very historical event so nicely, what I really like about this painting is that it is full of many symbols, and yet, its main theme, which is about the sufferings of humans and animals alike, has been depicted very masterfully. Besides, the overwhelming size of the painting, which is about eleven feet tall and 25 feet wide, will make you feel like it wraps around you as if you are immersed into the action in real life. Of course, it wouldn’t feel surreal, in my opinion, without the mastery of a perfect colour combination where a contrasting colour of black and white has been used on the surface of the painting in order to create some dramatic intensity.  

Finally, the unique thing that I really like about this painting is the symbols, presented in this oil painting, are open for public interpretation. In other words, one will need to interpret the symbols as they deem fit in order to understand its “exclusive meaning”. But does it really have some meaning other than the fact that this painting is still very relevant today with wars still being fought around the world?

TỪ VỰNG CHỦ ĐỀ “ART - NGHỆ THUẬT”

• Sketching: vẽ phác họa

• An original idea: ý tưởng độc đáo

• To boost one’s emotions: thúc đẩy cảm xúc của một người

• Inspire: truyền cảm hứng

• Masterpiece: kiệt tác

• An artifact: tác phẩm tạo tác               

• Stimulate one's cognitive development: kích thích sự phát triển nhận thức của một người

• The aesthetic qualities of something: chất thẩm mĩ của cái gì đó

• A connoisseur of something: người sành sỏi/am hiểu về lĩnh vực nào đó