Thursday 22nd to Monday 26th August 2024
10am to 4pm
Ringstead Village Hall, High Street, Ringstead
West Norfolk PE36 5JU
 
Exploring how musical terminology can enhance our visual experience.
Can a painting be described as a Rhapsody? In music the term is used to describe something irregular in form, an improvisation. So, yes.  If George Gershwin can use the colour blue to describe his rhythmic jazzy ‘Rhapsody’ then ‘Rhapsody in Green’ can be used to describe my painting of barleycorn blowing in the wind.

I’m Barbara king and I’m re-examining my paintings with music in mind. It is a well-known fact that some people see colour when they hear sounds. Known as synaesthesia, this is a fascinating process whereby the brain engages two or more unrelated senses to process information. Duke Ellington claimed to see different colours for the exact same note when played by different musicians and even experienced textures in his perception. For example, he described the note of D as ‘dark blue burlap’.

On the flip side of this, Kandinsky, famous 20th century painter, could hear colours. A high trumpet note sounded when he used lemon yellow and he actively set out to paint pictures which would stimulate both aural and optical senses. For him his highly orchestrated and richly coloured abstract paintings must have resonated like a powerful symphony.

I don’t have synaesthesia, but I like the idea of the symbiosis of visual art and music and how there can be a crossover between the two disciplines as exemplified by Whistler whose beautiful portrait of a ‘pre-Raphaelite’ girl is titled ‘Symphony in White’. Both Joan Miro and Chopin had their ‘Nocturnes’. Debussy had two ‘arabesques’, utilising a word used to describe the intertwining plant and abstract designs of Islamic art for his sinuous and flowing piano melodies. Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ (from where I pinched my title) is a piano suite with ten movements each inspired by artworks seen at an exhibition by Viktor Hartman.

mauve

Of course certain words such as harmony, tone, resonance, and expression are neutral terms mutually beneficial and useful to both visual artists and musicians alike. But can words such as tango, sonata, adagio, be used to describe visual art? Can a painting incorporate a crescendo, a legato – a walk in the park? Musical terminology is such a rich and expressive resource drawing on our fundamental instinct for music, that I think its employment in the description of paintings may be nothing short of transformational and enhancing.

And so my ‘concerto’ of paintings, for which I am the conductor, will include alternative musical titles as part of my homage to a suite of spectacular native wildflowers amongst other subjects. There will be a red hot ‘Tango’ of Valerian and Meadow Cranesbill, a ‘Crescendo’ of Rosebay Willowherb full of ‘bravura’ with undertones of Creeping Thistle and in contrast a muted (con sordino) ‘Pastorale’ of Cow Parsley on a Frosted Winter Morning. A sonata, maybe even a scherzo or two with a glissando from left to right. All designed to encourage the observer to engage their visual and aural senses to enrich their experience of the paintings.

Alongside the wildflower paintings will be ‘major’ and ‘minor’ harmonic landscapes, Nocturnes with fireworks and some ‘symphonies’ abstracted from the dancing patterned reflected images of boats on water – expressive and ‘agitato’.

Beach Scene

I am also hoping to create a ‘fugue’ or two, (a theme repeated and developed by different parts throughout the piece) and some new experimental works painted for the exhibition for which the musical definition will be the starting point.
Definitions of the terms will be included on the labels along with ‘etudes’ from my sketchbooks, showing the initial ideas and sketches for the paintings – preludes to the final composition.

Poetry, that lyricism of words, will also be represented with individual poems by Michael King shown alongside some of the paintings to further enrich your experience. His book ‘Passing Shadows’ will also be available to read and buy. (www.fabtimes.com for further information).
I hope I will have the pleasure of both seeing you and hearing your thoughts on whether the addition of evocative musical terminology enhances your understanding, appreciation – or otherwise – and your all-round experience of these ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. Why not bring your favourite piece of music and we will try and match a painting to it!

http://www.barbaraking.co.uk
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