User Forum

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
People view art differently. Every individual will have a different opinion on a given piece and this is subjective, especially if you have no prior knowledge of the message the artist is intending to get across. Traditional pieces of art, in particular paintings and sculptures, can be appreciated for the level of skill employed to create them. However, whether or not an individual likes a piece of art, will be based on something entirely different that cannot be easily defined. There maybe a combination of colours that is pleasing to the viewer, or an image may evoke a particular emotion in them based on their past experiences. Each viewer may look at a piece of art and understand it entirely differently, and this could be what makes certain pieces so inherently beautiful.
When it comes to painted portraits, it is interesting to think about what makes them resemble the subject. It is thought that this can lie in how the eyes have been captured by the artist. And this does not need to be detailed. If you look at the work of Indian artist Jamini Roy, who painted a painting called ‘Three Pujarins’, here he depicts three priestesses with eyes that have been painted as simple almond shapes. However, the positioning of the eyes’ pupil gives them all a distinct expression. What that expression is, is again open to the interpretation of the person looking at the painting.
Individuals who look at pieces of art for the first time are also likely to be influenced by its setting, their setting and what they have seen and done immediately before looking at them. For example, if a person is in a gallery looking at lots of black and white drawings, and then suddenly comes across a wildly colourful piece, the latter is likely to create a more emotive response in the observer, than if this picture were surrounded by other, bright, colour strewn images. Again, if the observer was in a bad mood, this could transpose their opinion of a particular piece of art. On a different day, just after getting good grades at school and having won a cricket match, their thoughts on the same image could be entirely different.
So, when looking at visual art, whatever form of art this maybe, contemporary, ancient, abstract or photographic, it can be useful to first consider its setting and your own, before deciding if you like it or not.

What is interesting about portraits?

AIt shows depiction of human tribes.
BThey can capture human emotion.
CThe eyes are important.
DThe subject of the portrait is generally of most interest.