CULTURE AND ART

CULTURE AND ART

Culture and art are very important in peoples life. For some it is hobby for some profession. There are many kinds of culture and art: architecture, literature, film, music, fine art and theatre.

Every period of history has its own typical type of architecture. In the past architecture influenced mainly castles, churches and cathedrals. Nowadays people build modern buildings, which seams to be very simple, but people still admire old famous pieces such as pyramids in Egypt, many buildings, towers and bridges in London, Rome, Florence, Paris or Prague. In our everyday life we also meet with works of different fine art, either architecture, sculptures or painting. In museums and art galleries, which display sculptures and paintings, we look with pleasure at statues and sculptural groups or paintings painted in oil and in water-colors, drawings, graphic art or woodcut [drevoryt]. There are also shown photographs. Old and new pictures from different periods, there are permanent exhibitions of different pictures in Louvre in Paris, London, New York where is Gallery of modern art, Dresden, Florence. All around the world there are displayed works of Picasso, Dali, da Vinci.

The most favorite kinds of culture are music and film. People prefer watching television, DVD, video to going to the cinema. It is because cinemas are expensive, the choice is limited and at home it is more comfortable, you can invite your friends and you can watch what you want. It is cheaper-we can borrow it in video shop. In Slovakia there arent made many films and the most famous director is Juraj Jakubisko. In our TVs we can see usually American action films, which are made in Hollywood, they are full of violence, blood, crime and sex, it has negative influence especially on children. When we want to go to the cinema we can buy tickets straight by box office at the cinema, about half and hour before performance. Many people like sitting at the back. When the film is very popular we can buy the ticket in advance. Films are part of national culture, they reflex way of life, the ideas and the history It is a sort of learning.

We come into contact with music during our whole life. Small children take music lessons at music schools and learn to play a musical instrument like guitar, piano, pipe. Teenagers can found their own amateur band. People listen to music at work, home, in cars and also in shops. There are many kinds of music: country, classical, popular, jazz, and folk. On radio, on TV, in life concerts, which are played indoors or in the open area, in stadium, we can mainly listen to pop and rock music. Symphonic orchestras can be listened to in a church, in a small concert hall. There are operas, operettas and musicals in theaters in bigger towns.

Only few people go to the theater because for some it is boring, it doesnt display real life, there arent special effects, actors arent always good and it is more expensive than cinema. People have to dress up, suits for men and skirts or elegant trousers for women, no jeans. When people come to the theatre, they take off their coat in the cloakroom and we can hire opera glasses from the cloakroom attendant, then attendant shows us our seat. In theatre we can sit in stalls, in the boxes, in the dress circle or in the balconies. People get program, where there is written who plays in opera. People want to know a synopsis of the opera, who designed the stage scenery and costumes and when the premiere was. Then the players come and lights turn off, the curtain goes up and the performance begins. During the interval, between two acts, people can walk, talk with friends about performance in foyer. When the performance is over, people break into applause.

Cultural life in towns is richer than in villages. Villages and small towns provide little opportunities to see theatre performances, concerts, usually there isnt any cinema, gallery or museum. There is usually library, cultural house folk group and church with organ music.