Controversial Art (Speaking: 800L; CEFR B1)

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Hi there, and welcome to our weekly art review. We are both university art lecturers, and our blog is for all of you art lovers.

Last weekend, we went to an art exhibition by a world-famous painter, Julian Long. We’ve followed his work for many years, and we really like his style. He paints beautiful images that capture the magic of life under the sea. We’ve learned a lot about marine animals and plants from his work. However, Long has changed his style in this exhibition, especially with the main piece, called The Blue and Green Dot. It’s a controversial image. The painting is about two meters tall and three meters wide. The background is completely black, and there is a small blue and green circle in the center. The left half is blue, and the right half is green.

This piece is causing a lot of debate among art critics and fans because some argue that it’s too simple. We admit that when we first saw it, we both laughed, because it was like the paintings a seven-year-old child does at school. However, after we gazed at it for several minutes, both of us began to feel a bit funny. Strangely, The Blue and Green Dot reminded us of our planet. We both imagined we were in space looking at Earth from very far away, and we were leaving it behind. We felt quite sad.

There was someone standing next to us, and she looked at the picture for a while. Interestingly, she told us she felt happy and peaceful. She saw the dot as an egg with a new world inside it. It gave her hope.

The aim of art is to make us feel something, and The Blue and Green Dot certainly created strong feelings for all three of us. We understand that some people might say The Blue and Green Dot isn’t great art, but we think it’s really powerful. We all see things through our own eyes, whether we identify a new world, a planet, or something completely different. So, we recommend you go to the exhibition or look for the piece online. Please comment and tell us your thoughts!

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