Match the words to the same sound.

2. snake ________

Match the words to the same sound.

3. miniature ________, ________

Choose the correct word(s).

1. You mustn’t / must use your mobile phone while you’re putting petrol into your car.

Choose the correct word(s).

2. We ought / should to have set off earlier.

Choose the correct word(s).

3. You don’t got / have to tip taxi drivers, but they always appreciate it.

Choose the correct word(s).

4. Everyone will have to / better show their passport when we cross the border.

Choose the correct word(s).

5. We need / needn’t call Maria – she’s expecting us.

Choose the correct word(s).

6. You didn’t need / needn’t have to pay for dinner, but it was nice that you did.

Choose the correct word(s).

7. It is not able / not permitted to bring your own food into this dining area.

Choose the correct word.

1. When I was at the Summer Music Festival I saw your brother’s band ________.

Choose the correct word.

2. I ________ someone say ‘hello’, but I couldn’t see who it was.

Choose the correct word.

3. You ________ my friend Marco.

Choose the correct word.

4. This soup tastes ________ garlic. It’s delicious!

Choose the correct word.

5. He ________ unhappy. Is everything OK?

Choose the correct word.

6. Malcolm seems ________ a mistake. He was supposed to order four boxes of paper, but he ordered 40!

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.3. Are you sure that you are ________________ bells? I can’t _____________ them.3. Are you sure that you are ________________ bells? I can’t _____________ them.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Complete the sentences with the correct form of hear, smell, taste, see, or touch.

Choose the correct word.

1. Things may not be that simple, you know. It’s not always black / grey and white.

Choose the correct word.

2. We share the road with five other households, but when it comes to maintaining the road, it’s a bit of a black / grey area.

Choose the correct word.

3. To be honest, my mother-in-law’s food isn’t great! She really can’t cook at all, but I always tell a little black / white lie and say everything’s delicious.

Choose the correct word.

4. The murder mystery party was great, but as usual there were a lot of red / blue herrings to throw us off track. Even so, we solved it in the end!

Choose the correct word.

5. I don’t think that’s the genuine article, and for that price, I’d say he must have bought it on the grey / black market.

Rewrite the sentences using the bold words.

Choose the correct word.

6. My boss says my business trip’s on hold for the moment. Apparently there’s an awful lot of red / white tape involved with my visa application.

Choose the correct word.

7. Obviously I was happy to inherit my uncle’s piano, but to be honest it’s a bit of a grey / white elephant in my modern apartment.

Complete the words with a negative prefix.

Complete the words with a negative prefix.

Complete the words with a negative prefix.

Complete the words with a negative prefix.

Complete the words with a negative prefix.

Choose the correct word.

1. That chicken looks a bit ________cooked to me. I wouldn’t eat it if I were you because raw chicken is dangerous.

Choose the correct word.

2. I think Jack’s suffering from ________wedding nerves. I suppose that’s normal the day before the wedding.

Choose the correct word.

3. I must have ________understood what you said. I thought you said not to bother doing anything beforehand.

Choose the correct word.

4. The doctor told her she was ________weight and for health reasons advised her to lose ten kilos.

Choose the correct word.

5. What’s your opinion of these so-called ________foods like blueberries? Do you think they can really be so great?

Choose the correct word.

6. Unfortunately my computer crashed just as I was finishing the assignment so I had to ________do the charts and graphs.

Choose the correct word.

7. The building work that had been carried out was ________standard, so we had to knock the garage down and start again.

Match the words to the same sound.

1. statistics ________, ________

Choose the stressed syllable.

1. an|ti|bi|ot|ic

Choose the stressed syllable.

2. min|ia|ture

Choose the stressed syllable.

3. ex|pe|di|tion

Choose the stressed syllable.

4. co|in|ci|dence

Choose the stressed syllable.

5. su|per|vi|sor

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

1. Question:

acknowledges the difficulty of defining art in a simple way. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

2. Question:

believes that art may appeal to more than just an individual’s sight. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

3. Question:

feels that the peculiarities of a piece constitute its superiority. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

4. Question:

believes that style and good judgment are lacking among the general public. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

5. Question:

likens the emotion involved in discovering a piece of good art to experiencing feelings of tenderness. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

6. Question:

believes the ability to distinguish between inferior and superior art comes with practice. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

7. Question:

states that art, by its very nature, is a contradiction in terms. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

8. Question:

believes that commenting on a piece of art is not necessarily as simple as some experts would have us believe. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

9. Question:

points out that an appreciation of art is not a solitary affair. _____

Read the article about what makes good art and choose the correct answer.

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What makes good art?

If you’re a fan of art like I am, but often wondered how to tell a good painting from an average one, then help is at hand. Four experts tell us how to separate out the best art from the rest.

Expert A

For me, it’s when art has its own internal logic and you just know it when you see it. It is unique in conception and well-executed. I didn’t come to this realization overnight, however. It comes with experience and developing your eye, training it.  While art has become, in the experimental 20th and 21st centuries, impossible to define – critics learned long ago to stop being prescriptive, perhaps a little too well. Good visual art looks stunningly right and, in retrospect, obvious, or inevitable, yet it’s also continually surprising. It is a powerful paradox. How can someone have possibly made this? How in the world could it not have been made?

Expert B

Reality is by agreement. The reality of art is usually by some kind of agreement. The arbiters are the museums, the museum curators, the people who spend their lives and their time actually being critical of what they see and judging what they see. If you add in four or five art critics who are then able to write about it, if you get four or five major collectors who are passionate about what they collect to patronize it, and several major auction houses to auction it, then a consensus or vetting process begins to unfold. Of course there’s magic dust involved, so this is not a sure way, but it’s a safe way to go about judging what is good art. It’s hard to answer the question ‘What makes good art?’ without stating something that appears pretentious. The perception of what makes art ‘good’ revolves around the application of that difficult word ‘taste’ which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today.

Expert C

Quality, quality, quality. This is the mysterious and subjective key to good art. In all periods of art there are good and bad works of art. I find that defining quality in representational art is easier than in modern and abstract art. The other key word is looking. Everything looks good when you first start looking at art, as you have nothing to compare it to. As you hone your eye, you begin to discriminate between good and bad. The more you look at art, the easier it is to determine what is good and what is bad.

Also, there are two schools of thought as to what’s good and bad. Some people believe that good and bad are personal distinctions and entirely in the eye of the viewer. Others believe that there is good art and terrible art and no one can tell them otherwise. I think the real answer is somewhere in-between, and this is based entirely on the quality of the eye of the viewer.

Expert D

At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across). Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitious, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses. It doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more… and never ever bore. What makes art good is when you see a piece from across the room, you immediately fall in love with it without knowing anything about it and are in love with it forever.

10. Question:

acknowledges the limitations of characterizing art in modern times. _____

Listen to two people discussing a survey connected to the ‘nanny state’. Choose the correct answer.