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Description: | A small group of artworks within the Art Collection are related to music and movement. Although all linked to music and movement in some way, the music at the route of the inspiration is diverse, as is the relationship between the music and the artwork.
J.D. Fergusson’s 1911 painting, 'Rhythm' was inspired by the intense and exciting experience of the Ballets Russes performances he saw in Paris. These performances combined new dance, music and art. Among the composers writing new music for the Ballets Russes company was Stravinsky, who composed 'The Firebird, Petrushka' and 'The Rite of Spring', performed by the Ballets Russes in 1910, 1911 and 1913. Each of these works is marked by a rhythmic energy, which Fergusson sought to capture in his art. (This painting was created at a moment when artists, musicians and dancers broke with the past and were creating consciously modern works of art).
Alan Davie has taken inspiration from music and movement in quite another way. As well as his work as an artist, Davie played tenor saxophone in the jazz band known as the Tommy Sampson Orchestra in the 1940s. In his artwork he aims to work automatically and improvisation is important to his artistic as well as musical practice. 'Zurich Improvisations VII' is held in the Art Collection. This is part of his series, 'Zurich Improvisations', which consists of 34 lithographs created in 1965 in a print studio in Zurich. These artworks were created collaboratively with the printers, Davie painting onto the lithographic plates and getting the printers to combine the colours and combinations in different ways to create a series of improvised prints.
Jon Scheuler was also a jazz musician as well as an artist, and although the links between his art and musical interest are perhaps less immediately apparent, he very clearly identified parallels. In a 1972 diary entry reflecting on the late 1940s and early 1950s, Schueler recounts his interest in jazz: “Jazz was very important to me ... Jazz was time and creating time, feeling the exact moment and feeling it ride into the next ... Through improvisation in music I tried to understand something about painting.” ('The Sound of Sleat', p.224). He goes on to note, however, that while with jazz there was a dialogue between musicians and dancers and among the musicians themselves, this was in stark contrast to the loneliness he felt as a painter. But the loneliness was important to Schueler, bringing opportunity to contemplate and, it would seem, to have a dialogue with the paint and canvas in which he would destroy, create and re-create.
Another notable artist in the collection, inspired by music and movement is Norman McLaren. A world renowned experimental film maker, his animated works seamlessly combine music and movement. In his best known works, McLaren’s films feature animated shapes, colours and lines, which move and morph in time with the music which they are set to. McLaren’s interest in movement can be detected in the original prints held in the Art Collection. These include a series called 'Mutation', a familiar device in his animated films. Two pieces are also named for a ballet term, pas de deux, while they all hint at the lines, shapes and images which move fluidly to music in his abstract and animated films.
Katy Dove’s piece within the collection, 'Score', was directly influenced by the work of McLaren. Dove, however, responded to McLaren as a result of an existing interest in synesthesia and the ways in which some people can see sounds as images or colours. Her work has been referred to as kinetic and often combines animated abstract work, which responds to music. This print is a series of broken scores, which float across the printed surface.
Another work responding to music in a similar way is 'Polyphony' by Diane Tulloch, whose title refers to the texture of a musical piece created by combining more than one melodic voice. This is a mixed media piece.
Two further works in this group relate directly to individuals involved in musical creativity. One is and oil painting, 'Are you experienced? Portrait of Jimi Hendrix' by Geoffrey Cervantes and the other a print entitled 'Elvis' by Andrew Hay. | Subjects: | Fine Art | Source: | University of Stirling | Address: | University of Stirling
Stirling,
FK9 4LA | Identifier: | STIAC-CLD.5.1 | Language: | en-GB | Relation: | STIMR-CLD.5 |
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