3. Fill in the gaps with the right preposition, if necessary. 1. Symbolism in its first phase involved a dandified revolt … materialism.
2. Artists and craftsmen who pursued ever more esoteric and refined effects
and sensations eventually reached … the point where both they and their
audience began to feel permanently jaded.
3. In their paintings the Futurists wanted to render the dynamism … contem-
porary life.
4. The Futurists’ paintings of crowds and machines in motion were perhaps their
most spectacular achievement, but they did tackle … other subjects as well.
5. The invented ‘reality’ of art was brought into shocking juxtaposition … the
kind of reality that surrounded everyone.
6. A matchbox, a safety-razor and a fountain pen were presented …. quasi-
heraldic fashion, almost as if they were images …. an inn sign.
7. The fascination … machine forms had an inevitable impact … decorative arts.
8. Parisian jewelers made pendants … the shape of shells, for heavy guns, and
bracelets that seemed to be studded … ball-bearings.
9. People had started to study the products of industry … a new way, to sa-
vour industrial logic … its own sake.
Reading Comprehension and Discussion Tasks 1. Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text. 1. The late nineteenth-century decorative arts existed within the broad context
of the Symbolist movement.
2. General currency of the term ‘symbolism’ was first given by the French
poet Jean Moreas in a manifesto published in the French newspaper Le Fi- garo in 1886.
3. Symbolism had its roots in literature, but came to affect all forms of artistic
expression.
4. In their paintings the Futurists wanted to render the dynamism of contem-
porary life.
5. The Dadaists, particularly Duchamp, took matters even further, presenting
mass-produced objects completely unaltered within a fine art context.
6. The fascination with machine forms had little effect on the decorative arts.
7. In the nineteenth century pure machine forms were distinct and obvious.
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8. The late nineteenth century design ceased to be pragmatic; men began to
think of industry not as a brute force barely under the control of those who
had created it but as the paradigm of an ideal world.