The Art Is The Deal

By Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conaway
© Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved

  1. Nelson Rockefeller was used to getting his way. But when he hired Mexico's greatest muralist, Diego Rivera, to paint a fresco in New York City's Rockefeller Center, he got more than he bargained for. Rivera, a communist, included a portrait that looked suspiciously like Lenin on the fresco. Rockefeller responded by:
    A. Having Lenin repainted so he looked like Abe Lincoln
    B. Having Lenin repainted so he looked like Nelson Rockefeller
    C. Having the entire fresco destroyed

  2. True or false: Paul Klee, one of the finest artists associated with the German Bauhaus, was not German but a native of Austria.

  3. When French painter Édouard Manet exhibited his masterpiece, Olympia, in 1865, the Parisian critics were outraged. What angered the critics about this painting of a reclining nude?
    A. Manet's use of color, especially yellow
    B. The nude stared directly at the viewer, instead of looking discreetly away.
    C. It depicted a nude contemporary woman, rather than a classical or mythological nude.
    D. All of the above


  4. True or false: The term Rubenesque refers to a light, golden-brown color.

  5. The Netherlands has produced many of the world's finest patinters. True or false: All of the following are Dutch: Jan van Eyck (1390?–1441), Hieronymus Bosch (1450?–1516), and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497?–1543).

  6. In his will, Pablo Picasso left Guernica to the people of Spain, with one condition. True or false: This condition was unlikely to be fulfilled as long as Generalissimo Francisco Franco was alive.

  7. Grant Wood (1892–1942), the Midwestern US painter, lived a life far removed from the typical cosmopolitan experiences of artists. True or false: Wood was widely disliked and distrusted by his local community.

  8. Arguably the greatest single theft in art history occurred in 1911 when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. True or false: When the painting was recovered in 1913, the thief claimed he was motivated by patriotic reasons.

  9. The Prophets was created by Brazilian Antônio Francisco Lisboa (1738?–1814), who worked under the name Aleijadinho. True or false: By the time he was thirty years old, Aleijadinho was so sickly that he had to have his hammer and chisel strapped to his arms in order to sculpt.


  10. True or false: The Group of Seven was known for painting Canadian landscapes.



Answers