The Scream sells for record price at auction
Level 2
Intermediate
1 Warmer
O
•P
H
NEWS LESSONS / The Scream sells for record price at auction / Intermediate
CA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
Name ten famous artists and the title of a painting by each of them. Write your answers in the picture frames.
The Scream sells for record price at auction
Level 2
Intermediate
2 Find the information
Scan the article to find the information.
1. What is the name and nationality of the painter?
2. What is the title of the painting?
3. What price was it recently sold for?
4. Where was it sold?
3 Key words
Write the key words from the article next to the definitions below. The paragraph numbers are given to help
you. Then find and underline the words in the article to read them in context.
anxiety recognizablebidding expressionist icon imitated
inspiration modest
mortals
proceeds bargainversions
1. ordinary people __________________________ (para 1)
2. something you buy that costs much less than normal __________________________ (para 1)
3. the process of offering sums of money for things, for example at an auction __________________________
(para 2)
4. quite small, especially when compared with other things of the same type __________________________
(para 3)
5. forms of something that are different from each other __________________________ (para 4)
6. copied __________________________ (para 5)
7. a worried feeling you have because you think something bad might happen __________________________
(para 7)
8. someone who paints in a style that emphasizes emotions and reactions to things rather than objects as they
really appear __________________________ (para 7)
9. something that gives you new ideas and the enthusiasm to create something with them
__________________________ (para 8)
10. money that you make from selling something __________________________ (para 9)
11. when you are able to immediately know what something is because you have seen it before
__________________________ (para 14)
12. something that is very famous and that people think represents a particular idea
H
•P
CA
NEWS LESSONS / The Scream sells for record price at auction / Intermediate
O
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D
•
__________________________ (para 14)
The Scream sells for record price at auction
Level 2
Intermediate
The Scream sells for record $120m
at auction
Edvard Munch’s painting is bought by an
unnamed telephone bidder during an auction at
Sotheby’s in New York
Paul Harris
3 May, 2012
described himself “shivering with anxiety” and
feeling “the great scream in nature”.
9 It was sold by Norwegian businessman Petter
Olsen, whose father was a friend of the artist.
Proceeds of the sale will pay for a new museum,
art centre and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where
Olsen’s father and Munch were neighbours.
1 To mere mortals it didn’t seem like a bargain. But
someone, somewhere, has decided that owning
a rare version of Edvard Munch’s 1895 painting,
The Scream, is worth paying $119.9 million.
10 “It is a unique chance for someone to acquire
this version. It is the best of the four but you
really need a national budget to buy it. And not
the budget of a small country either,” said Winter.
2 The price, one of the highest ever paid for a
work of art, was reached after just 12 minutes
of bidding and paid by an anonymous bidder
by telephone.
11 The Scream will join a small group of works of
art that have sold for more than $100 million,
including Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and
Bust, which sold in 2010 for $106.5 million.
3 As the auctioneer’s hammer came down at
Sotheby’s in New York, the crowd in the room
cheered the remarkable event. Bidding had
started at a quite modest $40 million with at least
five bidders. Most of them stopped bidding as
the price got very high.
12 Yet even that high price feels like a bargain
compared with the unbelievable $250 million
paid by oil-rich Qatar for Paul Cezanne’s The
Card Players for a new art museum.
4 The painting is one of only four versions of the
work in existence and thought by many to be
the best. It is one of only a very small number of
artistic images that have moved from the world
of high art to popular culture.
5 It has inspired film references, from the villain of
the Scream slasher movies to a famous scene in
Home Alone, where child star Macaulay Culkin
imitated the painting’s famous pose.
13 Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist
and Modern Art in New York, said The Scream
was one of the most important paintings to ever
come from private hands on to the open market.
14 “Instantly recognizable, this is one of the very
few images that transcends art history and
reaches a global icon.” he said.
© Guardian News and Media 2012
First published in The Guardian, 03/05/12
6 It is also very popular with the therapy industry,
with its image of stress and terror.
7 “This is not a beautiful landscape in Surrey
or a harbour on the French Riviera. It is a
representation of extreme anxiety. Imagine if
a psychiatrist in London had this on their wall.
It’s a fantastic painting for their profession.
Of course, they could not afford it,” said Mark
Winter, director of Munch Experts, a company
that specializes in works by the
Norwegian expressionist.
O
•P
H
NEWS LESSONS / The Scream sells for record price at auction / Intermediate
CA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
8 This version is the only one whose frame
was hand-painted by the artist to include his
poem explaining the work’s inspiration. Munch
The Scream sells for record price at auction
Level 2
Intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the article? Correct any statements that are false.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The highest price ever paid for a single painting is $119.9 million.
The buyer of The Scream is from Qatar.
The money from the sale of the painting will pay for an art gallery, a museum and a private clinic.
There are four other versions of this painting in existence.
The picture is well known to many people, not only those in the art world.
This version is special because it includes a poem written by the artist.
The poem is on the back of the painting.
5 Summarizing and retelling
a. Look again at the key words from task 3. Find the words that come before or after them.
1. _________________ mortals
2. _______ bargain
3. _______ _________________ _______ bidding
4. _________________ modest
5. _________________ versions
6. _________________ _________________ imitated
7. _________________ anxiety
8. _________________ expressionist
9. _______ _________________ inspiration
10. proceeds _______ _______ _________________
11. _________________ recognizable
12. _________________ icon
b. Now (without looking at the article) use these words and phrases to retell the the article.
6 Discussion
Discuss the questions below in small groups.
•
•
Why are people willing to pay so much money for art?
Would you want any of the paintings mentioned in the article hanging in your home?
7 Webquest
Watch a short video of the auction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2012/may/03/scream-auction-new-york-video
Munch’s poem on this version of The Scream starts I was walking along the road with two friends … How
does it continue?
Take a look at an interactive analysis of The Scream.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2012/may/03/edvard-munch-scream-interactive
O
•P
H
NEWS LESSONS / The Scream sells for record price at auction / Intermediate
CA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
Watch a slide show of the ten most expensive auctioned pieces of art.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2012/may/03/most-expensive-auction-in-pictures
The Scream sells for record price at auction
Level 2
Intermediate
KEY
1Warmer
5 Summarizing and retelling
Teacher’s note: Turn this into a competitive task by
getting the students to work in groups, setting a time
limit of five minutes and giving points for each
correct answer.
1. mere mortals
2. a bargain
3. 12 minutes of bidding
4. quite modest
5. four versions
6. Macaulay Culkin imitated
7. extreme anxiety
8. Norwegian expressionist
9. the work’s inspiration
10. proceeds of the sale
11. instantly recognizable
12. global icon
1. mortals
2. bargain
3. bidding
4. modest
5. versions
6. imitated
7. anxiety
8. expressionist
9. inspiration
10. proceeds
11. recognizable
12. icon
4 Comprehension check
1. F – Someone paid $250 million for The Card
Players by Cezanne.
2. F – The buyer is anonymous.
3. F – The money from the sale of the painting will
pay for an art centre, a museum and a hotel.
4. F – There are three other versions of this painting
in existence.
5. T
6. T
7. F – The poem is on the frame.
7Webquest
Teacher’s note: If you do not have internet access in
class then these tasks can be set as homework.
Different translations of the poem can be found on
several websites. For example:
http://www.all-art.org/modern_art_20cent/munch1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream
Alternatively, you can use this translation:
I was walking along the road with two friends. The
sun set, and the sky turned blood red. I felt a touch
of melancholy, and stopped and leaned against the
railing, feeling extremely fatigued. Blood-red clouds
and tongues of fire were floating above the city and the
blue-black fjord. My friends kept on walking, but I stood
still, trembling with anxiety. I felt as if I were hearing the
immense, infinite cry of nature.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
NEWS LESSONS / The Scream sells for record price at auction / Intermediate
O
3 Key words
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
Edvard Munch, Norwegian
The Scream
$119.9 million
at Sotheby’s auction house in New York
•P
H
1.
2.
3.
4.
CA
2 Find the information