1. Answer the questions:

Why do people go to the museums or galleries?

Which famous museums do you know?

Which of museums have you visited?

Exposition of which museum would you like to see?

What makes people create woks of art?

What makes people collect them?

What makes people go to see them in museums and other places?

2. Work in small groups. Explain the meaning of the words and phrases below.

*a handy map *to borrow an audio guide for afree

*an entrance ticket *photography is permitted

*to avoid the crowds *be organised into “wings”

*reasonably priced cafes *a personal discovery

3. Talk with your partneron the following items.

Do you often go to museums?

When did you go to a museum last?

Where is the museum situated?

Who built it?

What can you tell about the expositions of the museum?

Read the text “The Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kyiv”

The Museum of Ukrainian Arit was built by Vladislav Gorodetsky as Kyiv's first City Museum of Antiquities and Art, according to a design by Boitsov. It was opened in 1899. In 1936 the historical section withdrew to an independent organization, and the Museum of Ukrainian Art was formed. The large col­lection of paintings, drawings and sculptures embraces all periods of the de­velopment of Ukrainian fine arts and is arranged in twenty-one rooms.

The oldest exhibit displayed in the museum is the wooden polychrome relief of "St. George with Scenes from His Life" produced in the 13th cen­tury, and in the 14th century — icon of the "Virgin Hodegetria" from the town of Lutsk in Volyn.

The end of the 16th and the early 17th centuries were marked by the es­tablishment of a narrative tendency in icon painting. The desire of the artist to show what he saw in his visual environment —the specific features of eve­ryday life and costume — was quite evident. Dramatic scenes depicted in some icons reflect the events of the people's fight against the Polish and Li­thuanian invaders. The early 17th century icon "Passions" is a memorial of these times.

Among numerous icons of the late 17th and early 18th centuries are «The Intercession," which contains a portrait of the hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky and the icon «St. Barbara and St. Catherine."

Late Baroque art is represented by icons of the Deesis tier from iconostasis of the Church of the Resuirection on the village of Berezna in the vicinity of Chemihov (1760s). In the next room we find the largest collection of Ukrai­nian portrait art and folk art. The formal portraits of Cossack commanders are extremely effective. The portrait of the young monk Prince Dmitry Dolgoruky (1769) by the prominent Kyivan painter Samuel is worth attention too. In this portrait he skilfully emphasized the character's chaste dignity.

The art of the late 18th century definitely broke with icon-painting tradi­tions of the past. The trends toward realism and romanticism assumed a lea­ding place in Ukrainian painting and graphics in the first half and middle of the 19th century. The museum displays Vasyl Tropinin's portraits of peasants clearly demonstrating these trends. A lofty romantic attitude to people and to his native land is characteristic of the paintings and drawings of Taras Shevchenko. His last "Self-portrait" (1861) is especially full of dramatic underto­nes. The poetry of old homesteads and national costumes, the beauty of the Ukrainian landscape, and somewhat sentimental scenes of everyday life have found their place in painting, water-colours and sketches from nature by T. Shevchenko's contemporaries and followers, such as Vasyl Sternberg, Ivan Sokolov, Konstantin Trutovky. Realistic traditions of genre painting were de­veloped by artists of the 19th century. Famous Ukrainian genre paintings "Wedding in Kyiv Province" (1891), "At the Well Rivals" (1909) and a dra­matic scene from provincial life of the country, "Victim of Fanaticism" (1899) by Pymonenko were very popular even outside Ukraine. A student of Illya Repin, A. Murashko felt the"influence of other Western European Art’s trends. Landscape paintings have an important place in the exhibition. Here we can see the lyrical canvases of S. Svetoslavsky, I. Trush and N. Burachek.

F. Krychevsky, who has taught several generations of contemporary pain­ters, such as Tetyana Yablonska and Georgiy Melikhov, is represented by a large number of paintings. His triptych "Life" painted in realistic traditions. A large number of exhibits are by young painters and graphic artists, who came forward with their new artistic ideals. Visiting the museum the art lover may trace the progress of Ukrainian art during the 700 years of its existence.