painting music:

rhythm and movement in art

20062007 20th Annual Sheldon Statewide Exhibition
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery University of NebraskaLincoln

painting music:

rhythm and movement in art

In the past 100 years music has played a
tremendously important role in the stylistic
development of visual art. It has created
impetus and inspiration for those artists
wishing to produce a pure and transcendental
art form. Music has also been used as an
analogy or metaphor in artistic expression.
By listening to music and emulating it in their
work, artists have discovered unconventional
techniques in their art-making approach.
Painting Music: Rhythm and Movement in Art
explores the influence of music on the visual
arts beginning in the early 20th century with
the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and
continuing with the work of contemporary
artists. While some works in the exhibition
express characteristics of music and dance
others reference a particular composer or style
of music. Most of the exhibition is composed
of nonrepresentational art reflecting its
relationship with music and the belief that, like
music, art is created from the depths of ones
inner self and the purest way to express this is
without recognizable imagery.
The music and art connection can best be
described in the late 19th century concept of
synaesthesia or the blending of senses. The idea
means that sensory perception of one kind
can manifest itself as a sensory experience of
another. Color was considered a core element
in sensory perception and in seeing color it has
been asserted that one hears certain sounds.
As with music, color can act directly upon the
emotions.
In 1911 Kandinsky attended a concert by the
Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg, an

Wassily Kandinsky, No. III, Die Kleine Welten, 1922, four-color lithograph, 10 15/16 x 9 1/16
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

event that became a turning point for the artist.

Kandinsky was so impressed with the music
that he began correspondence with Schoenberg
and later invited the composer to exhibit art
with a group of artists called Der Blaue Reiter
(The Blue Rider).1
Kandinsky attempted to put order to tonal
colors. In his famed 1912 essay Concerning the
Spiritual in Art he explained how he associated
certain colors with particular instruments. For
example: yellow was linked with the sound of
the trumpet, red with the tuba or kettle drum
and blue with the cello, contrabass or organ.2
Kandinsky also asserted that a new art could
evolve from the formal abstract structure of
music such as can be seen in No. III, Die Kleine
Welton (The Little Worlds, 1922). By layering
and blending paint and creating juxtapositions,

artists created compositions likened to musical

scores. And indeed synaesthesia proved to be
essential in the development of abstract art.
The Swiss artist Paul Klee explored the laws
of color harmony in relation to musical
harmony. An accomplished violinist, Klee used
polyphony or harmonized multiple voices, as a
model for painting. Using a small format Klee
rendered nature by using gradations of color
and repetitions of shapes to give a sense of
unfolding parallel to music. A contemporary
artist who considers Klee to be his greatest
influence is Robert Natkin. In Natkins #630
(1979) large, colorful, textured abstractions
with a layering can be likened to Klees Park
(1914-15) despite the difference in scale.
Kandinsky, Klee and German-born artist Josef
Albers all taught at the Bauhaus School in the
mid-1920s. There they developed theories
about music and art, and they remained in
close contact after the Bauhaus was closed in
1933. Albers created a systematic, serial group
of works such as the Treble Clef sequence
of 1934. This isolation of elements set up
systematically was similar to music in the way
sounds are isolated and then equally treated in a
composition. Albers went on to experiment and
write about the psychological effects of color:

Paul Klee, Park, 191415, color lithograph, 4 7/8 x 4

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Josef Albers, Formulation: Articulation I, 1972, screen print, 12 3/16 x 26

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Only by alterations of color can

a completely different climate be
engendered... What I envision is
playing staccato or legato and
all the other musical terms.4
Ed Garman first encountered Kandinskys
work at the Art Institute of Chicago when he
saw his series of Improvisations in 1935.5 In
Ed Garman, Variation of a Structure No. 43, 1965, polymer paint on Masonite, 45 x 33
UNLGift of Arthur H. Johnson in memory of May Van Dyke

1941, he moved to New Mexico and joined the

Transcendental Painters Group who sought
to create art with a spiritual purpose using
color and form. After his service in WWII,
Garmans art began to take on a more abstract
appearance. Variation of a Structure No. 43
(1965) pulsates with bright colors and straightedge geometric shapes that defy gravity and
perspective.
Like Garman, James Brooks style changed
after WWII. He had painted in a realist
manner for the WPA (Works Progress
Administration) before entering the war after
which his work became more lyrical and
abstract. Brooks tended to paint in dark tones.
His work evolved into a fluid style with chance
not unlike the work of the famous abstract
expressionist artist Jackson Pollock with whom
he had become a friend and neighbor. His
painting, U-1951 is monochromatic or with
few variations on one color. In musical terms it
might be described as having a slow, deliberate
tempo proven effective by its ponderous shapes
and minimal color. 6
Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright
were also influential forces in furthering the
connection between music and art. Interested
in the psychological effects of color and
sound they developed the method of color
composition based on what they termed color
chords derived from the color wheel. Russell
has been credited for inventing synchromism,
meaning with color. It was chosen as an
analogy to the musical term symphony to
denote his emphasis on color rhythms. The
Synchromists first exhibited in Munich in
June 1913, with artwork that was controversial
because of its abstract and ephemeral nature.7

James Brooks, U-1951, 1951, oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 25 3/4

NAAThomas C. Woods Acquisition Fund

Jan Matulka, Cubist Nudes, 1918, oil on canvas (double-sided), 29 x 25

UNLGift of Mary Riepma Ross

According to Russell, color was light and the

color rhythms that they produced unfolded
before the viewer giving their paintings the
fourth dimension of time. Russell emphasized
rhythm, the palpitation or undulation
over the subject of the painting.8 In his
painting, Synchromy (about 1925) we see a
three-dimensional quality, which equates with
the theory that color should express form. This
structural solidity might have stemmed also
from Russells training in architecture.
The vivid colors in Dragon Forms (1926) by
Macdonald-Wright tend to vibrate on the
canvas as music does in our ears. About his
work he wrote as nature recedes from the
eye it becomes blue-violet or violet, while as
it advances, it becomes warmer or in other
words, more yellow or more orange. And in
between were all the intermediate steps
of the spectrum.9 Macdonald-Wright and
Russell both felt that if effective, art, like music,
could deliver humankind to a higher realm or
spiritual awakening.

Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Dragon Forms, 1926, oil on panel, 26 1/4 x 15 1/4

NAABequest of Herbert Schmidt, Centennial Committee, the Art of Politics,
and Joseph Chowning

Morgan Russell, Synchromy, about 1925, oil on canvas, 11 x 20 1/8

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

In Jan Matulkas Cubist Nudes (1918) we see

figures possessing detached, colorful shapes that
contain structural elements similar to the work
of the Sychromists. Matulkas close friendship
with Stuart Davis may have also strengthened
his relationship to music. Matulkas work was
cubist in style but more direct and hard-edge
than that of Picasso or Braque.
Known as spontaneous, intuitive and
experimental, John Ferren explored honesty
and sincerity in his art. He was interested in the
spiritual, transcendental and natural world and
studied Zen Buddhism and Taoism. An usher
for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra,

Ferren was passionate about music and

became deeply aware of its emotive and
symbolic power. He believed that abstract art
could communicate creative emotion better
than representational art. Ferren lived in
Paris in 1929 and again from 1931 to 1938.
He studied Kandinskys The Art of Spiritual
Harmony and knew him personally. Borrowing
ideas from the book, Ferren continued to paint
and interpret abstract art into the 1950s. His
adept use of color as creative emotion can be
seen in Red and Blue (1954).
Abraham Walkowitz also was deeply influenced
by Kandinskys work and writings. He studied
both seriously and adapted a style of his own
that incorporated a similar philosophy. An
admirer of dancer and choreographer Isadora
Duncan, Walkowitz made her his primary
subject for several years. His work, which began
as portraits, grew into simple curved lyrical lines
with musical references. Similar characteristics
can be seen in Untitled (New York) completed in
1912. Walkowitz also believed in non-referential
language that communicated the inner
expression of the artist. He was quoted as saying
Abstract artis a universal language, and
dwells in the realm of music with equivalent
emotion. Its melody is attuned to the receptive
eye as music is to the ear. 10
Listening to the music of jazz piano players
Earl Hines and Fats Waller inspired artist Stuart
Davis to find a similar style of painting. He
likened his color intervals to the way Hines used
space in his music. Furthermore he discovered
that painting has an element that will dominate
and make chaos seem orderly just as jazz
rhythm will hold together the most unrelated
excursions that occur in individual pieces. 11

John Ferren, Red and Blue, 1954 , oil on canvas, 48 x 38

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

John Cage, Stones 2, 1989, spit bite, sugar-lift, soft-ground etching, 18 x 22 3/4
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Finding success in his new style, Davis

encouraged his friend Romare Bearden to
consider the visual analogies in jazz. Bearden,
who grew up listening to jazz music, learned
from Davis how to incorporate music elements
such as intervals and rhythm in his art.

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (New York), about 1912, graphite on paper, 12 7/8 x 9 1/2
UNLNelle Cochrane Woods Memorial

Romare Howard Bearden, Jazz, 1979, photogravure with hand coloring, 22 1/4 x 30 1/8
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Bearden lived in Harlem when it was a hub

of intellectual and cultural life. His family
apartment was located across the street from
the Lafayette Club where his friend, Duke
Ellington, along with Ella Fitzgerald and Fats
Waller, performed. Bearden also had a studio
above the Apollo Theatre for 16 years. He
painted two entire series entitled Of the Blues
and Of Jazz. In the early 1950s Bearden stopped
painting and spent the next few years writing
songs. With composer Dave Ellis he founded
Bluebird Music Company and recorded 20
songs. Jazz (1979) was created at a time when
Bearden was producing album covers for jazz
musicians. It depicts musicians playing together
within a colorful and well-lit setting. Bearden
also outlines the image with bright colors that
seem to convey the lively, energetic music being
produced.
Musicians also have created visual art as was
the case with John Cage. In the late 1940s this
composer, writer and artist made a life-altering
discovery. In a silent chamber at Harvard he
heard two sounds: one was high, which he
deduced was his nervous system, and one was
low, thought to be his blood circulation. This
revelation and his study of Eastern philosophies,
led him to his exploration of nonintention.12
Like the chance methods in his music, Cage
used color and shape randomly in his visual
art. Cages awareness of silence in music can be
seen through its abundance of white space in

his piece called Stones 2 (1989). Using rocks and

chance placement, the personality of the artist is
removed. The result is a series of prints that are
as quiet and empty as his music. 13
The late 20th-century composer Gyorgy Legeti
is the subject of John Christies serigraph
from the portfolio titled: Homage to Ligeti/
Organisation and Chaos (1981). Christies
imagery was inspired by a statement he read
in the programme notes for the San Francisco
Polyphony. In describing his music Legeti referred
to the interplay between chaos and organization
and likened it to throwing a lot of things into
a drawer. Even though the things in the drawer
are in disarray, the drawer itself is a well-defined
form. Christies image includes a newspaper
clipping of the composer next to what might be
described as a chaotic musical score.
Painting Music: Rhythm and Movement in Art
is about the many ways artists have emulated
music using techniques such as color, form,
repetition, layering and lyricism. It also
exemplifies how music has influenced and
inspired art and art making. As many ways
as there are to explore the music and art
connection, what is actually being seen and
what is heard is up to the individual. What do
you hear: a symphony, a ballad, the blues or
jazz? Perhaps you hear only noise or silence
between the notes. However you experience it,
we hope you will enjoy the performance.
Sharon L. Kennedy
Curator

John Christie, Homage to Ligeti/Organisation and Chaos (from Ten Recent Prints and a
Collage/Drawing portfolio), 1981, screen print, 12 x 16 1/4
UNLGift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Judd

Endnotes
1

Kerry Brougher, et al., Visual Music Synaesthesia in Art

and Music Since 1900 (New York, Thames & Hudson,
2005), p. 32.
2
Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (New
York, George Wittenborn), p. 58.
3
Brougher, p. 16.
4
Karin Maur, The Sound of Painting, Music in Modern Art
(Munich, Prestel, 1999), p. 103.
5
Gail Levin and Marianne Lorenz, Theme and
Improvisation: Kandinsky and the American Avant-Garde
1912-1950 (Boston, Little, Brown, 1992), p. 128.
6
Sam Hunter, James Brooks Whitney Museum of Art
(Montpelier, Capital City Press, 1963), p. 14.
7
Gail Levin, Synchromism and American Color
Abstraction (New York, George Braziller, 1978), p. 18.
8
Levin, Synchromism, p. 9.
9
Levin, Synchromism, p. 47.
10
Levin, Theme and Improvisation, p. 25.
11
Mona Hadler, Jazz and the Visual Arts, Arts Magazine,
57 (June 1983), p. 98.
12
http://www.newalbion.com/artist/cagej/autobiog.html
13
http://www.cyberchiks.com/cage_interview.htm

painting music:

rhythm and movement in art

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

Josef Albers
Formulation: Articulation I
1972
screen print
12 3/16 x 26
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

John Cage
Stones 2
1989
spit bite, sugar-lift,
soft-ground etching
18 x 22 3/4
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Jennifer Bartlett
From Rhapsody
1987
spit bite, sugar-lift, photogravure
37 1/4 x 12

Dan Christensen
Untitled (Pink Abstraction)
1968
acrylic on canvas
33 1/2 x 41 1/2

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

UNLGift of Murray and Ruth Gribin

Romare Howard Bearden

Jazz
1979
photogravure with hand coloring
22 1/4 x 30 1/8

John Christie
Homage to Ligeti/Organisation and Chaos
(from Ten Recent Prints and
a Collage/Drawing portfolio)
1981
screen print
12 x 16 1/4

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

UNLGift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Judd

James Brooks
U-1951
1951
oil on canvas
37 3/4 x 25 3/4

Stuart Davis
Detail Study for Clich
not dated
color lithograph
12 1/2 x 14 7/8

NAAThomas C. Woods Acquisition Fund

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

John Ferren
Red and Blue
1954
oil on canvas
48 x 38

Paul Klee
Park
191415
color lithograph
4 7/8 x 4

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Ed Garman
Variation of a Structure No. 43
1965
polymer paint on Masonite
45 x 33

Stanton Macdonald-Wright
Dragon Forms
1926
oil on panel
26 1/4 x 15 1/4

UNLGift of Arthur H. Johnson

in memory of May Van Dyke

NAABequest of Herbert Schmidt,

Centennial Committee, the Art of Politics,
and Joseph Chowning

Victor Huggins
Composition
1969
acrylic on stitched and padded canvas
7 x 22 1/8

Jan Matulka
Cubist Nudes
1918
oil on canvas (double-sided)
29 x 25

UNLBequest of Bertha Schaefer

UNLGift of Mary Riepma Ross

Wassily Kandinsky
No. III, Die Kleine Welten
1922
four-color lithograph
10 15/16 x 9 1/16

Walter McConnell
Cascade
1989
metal, rope, gesso, crayon
55 x 28 x 15

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Dwight Kirsch
Dance Rhythm - Mechanization
1937
watercolor
12 x 10

Robert Natkin
#630
1979
oil on canvas
71 1/2 x 48

UNLGift of Ann R. Edholm

UNLGift of Michael Todd

10

Douglas Peden
Landscape #14
1968
acrylic on canvas
56 x 46

Tom V. Schmitt
Tondo
1961
oil on canvas
43

UNLGift of Jackie and Lester Lipsky

UNLF. M. Hall Collection

Man Ray
Merchant of Venice
1967
color lithograph
16 1/2 x 24 1/2

Abraham Walkowitz
Untitled (New York)
about 1912
graphite on paper
12 7/8 x 9 1/2

UNLDale D. Brodkey Memorial

UNLNelle Cochrane Woods Memorial

Morgan Russell
Synchromy
about 1925
oil on canvas
11 x 20 1/8
UNLF. M. Hall Collection

11

painting music:

rhythm and movement in art

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

June 13 August 13, 2006

Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln,
Nebraska
August 17 September 24, 2006
Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska
October 9 November 12, 2006
McKinley Center, North Platte, Nebraska
Teacher Training Workshop: Oct. 13
Local sponsors: NebraskaLand National Bank,
Art Study League of North Platte

February 2 March 6, 2007

Columbus Art Gallery, Columbus, Nebraska
Teacher Training Workshop: Feb. 2
Local sponsors: Robert C. and Linda Labenz,
Columbus Bank and Trust Company
March 8 April 6, 2007
Morton James Public Library, Nebraska City,
Nebraska

November 14 December 14, 2006

High Plains Museum, McCook, Nebraska
Local sponsors: McCook Arts Council

April 10 May 13, 2007

Stuhr Museum, Grand Island, Nebraska
Teacher Training Workshop: April 9
Local sponsors: Home Federal Bank,
Grand Island Public Schools, Moonshell Arts
and Humanities Council

January 3 28, 2007

West NE Arts Center, Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Local sponsors: Barbour Music

May 15 June 24, 2007

Edgerton Explorit Center, Aurora, Nebraska
Local sponsors: Hamilton County Foundation, Inc.

Painting Music: Rhythm and Movement in Art is organized by Sheldon

Statewide, an outreach program of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The exhibition is made possible by the
generous support of the membership of the Nebraska Art Association, the
Nebraska Arts Council, Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Nebraska,
James and Rhonda Seacrest and Lonnie Pierson Dunbier.
Front cover image:
Stuart Davis
Detail Study for Clich
not dated
color lithograph
12 1/2 x 14 7/8
UNLF. M. Hall Collection