立体主义绘画的先驱

李全忠

乔治·布拉克，法国立体主义画家与雕塑家，深刻影响着20世纪西方现代派艺术。布拉克在20世纪初遇到了对他的艺术产生深远影响的毕加索，这两位伟大画家的协作史也是立体主义的早期发展史。

1 Georges Braque was a French artist best known for his cubist （立体派的） paintings. He worked closely with Pablo Picasso as they broke down traditional rules of the use of perspective in painting.

2 Growing up in the port city of Le Havre， France， young Georges Braque was trained to be a house painter and decorator like his father and grandfather.

3 In the period between 1909 and 1912， Georges Braque began to work with Picasso as they both developed a new style. They focused on starting a revolution in painting in a style now known as analytic cubism. Before that， paintings were like windows—they were painted to look as if they had depth. You could tell which objects were “close” to you and which objects were “far away”. But Braque and Picasso didn t want to paint like that anymore. To them， a painting wasn t a window to the world; it was a mark and line on a flat surface. Why， they thought， should an object like a guitar be shown only from one angle（角度）？ A guitar can look very different depending on which angle one looks at it from. Their answer was to show all the angles. They broke the guitar up into pieces. Their style of painting is called cubism.

4 But why did they feel such a need to change things？ Well， the world around them was changing， too. Science was turning people s ideas upside down. Albert Einstein s theory proved that what we knew about time and space was wrong. The world was becoming different; artists needed to start seeing and painting it differently.

5 Braque painted ordinary objects like flowers and garden chairs. He created his final series of eight works between 1948 and 1955.

6 While his painting ranged across multiple styles during his lifetime， Georges Braque was primarily remembered for his cubist work. His focus on still life and landscapes influenced later artists who returned to the traditional subject matter. Braque s most distinctive legacy is his development of collage（拼貼画） techniques involving cut paper that he focused on for only a few short years of his career.

7 At the time Georges Braque died in 1963， many considered him one of the fathers of modern art.

Gist 1. What is mainly discussed about Braque in the text？

A. The high price of his paintings.

B. The popularity of his paintings.

C. His difficulties in his career.

D. His achievements in art.

Inference 2. In what way did Braque and Picasso paint？

A. They painted objects with different depths.

B. They made their paintings look like windows.

C. They painted an object from different angles.

D. They broke objects up into pieces and painted them.

Detail 3. What caused Braque and Picasso to start cubism？

A. Einstein s theory.

B. The changing world.

C. A broken guitar.

D. Their interest.

Inference 4. How does the author develop the text？

A. By adopting time order.

B. By following space order.

C. By describing real scenes.

D. By comparing different reasons.

Ⅰ. Discover useful structures in the text

1. what引導主语从句

Albert Einstein s theory proved that what we knew about time and space was wrong. 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的理论证明了我们对时间和空间的认识是错误的。

2. while引导让步状语从句

While his painting ranged across multiple styles during his lifetime， Georges Braque was primarily remembered for his cubist work. 虽然他的画作在他的一生中跨越了多种风格，但乔治·布拉克主要因其立体主义作品而被人们铭记。

Ⅱ. Memorize some theme？鄄centered chunks

be known for 以……而闻名

break down 出故障;破裂;消除

focus on 集中于

as if 好像

depend on 依靠;依赖

upside down 颠倒;倒转;翻转