Beethoven described music as “the highest revelation”; for Mozart It was the “most sublime, the most emotional and the most mysterious” art; while Nietzsche stated that “without it, life would be a mistake.”
Painting has also been described as a transformative art, for Horace it is “a poem without words”, for Leonardo da Vinci “silent poetry”. Both disciplines appeal to the senses and, as the language suggests, their effects are comparable: The colors vibrate like the strings of a guitar.
The spell transcends, an initiative of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in collaboration with Amazon Music in the form of a guided tour of several paintings in the gallery, demonstrated last weekend the connection between the two disciplines. All the paintings included in the tour remain in the art gallery.
“The relationship between painting and music is, without a doubt, powerful and fascinating. In visual art, music is not only represented through instruments or musicians, but also in the composition, the rhythm of shapes and colors, in the vibration of light and in the textures that evoke almost musical sensations. It is as if each stroke or color contrast could make a soundresonate with the viewer, and in that sense, the painting becomes a complete, almost mystical sensory experience,” explains Carolina Fàbregas, Director of Marketing and Business Development at the Museum.
“Many wondered which art was superior: music or painting; the avant-garde decided that it was music,” says Pepa Mateos, museum guide, before guiding us through an itinerary that puts these two arts in dialogue. A few years ago, the museum held a course on the presence of music in painting from the 13th century to the end of the 20th. “In the 20th century, the presence of music in painting is very important,” adds the expert.
The tour begins with View of the Opera and Unter den LindenBerlin (1845), where the Opera House (today Staatsoper) of the German capital is performed. “Before that time, a play was attended with the lights on while people ate or talked. Wagner put an end to that and combined sight and hearing,” explains Mateos, in reference to the birth of the total work: scenery, costumes, music… everything was integrated.
The influences that mark painting also affect music. Monet was inspired by ukiyo-e Japanese to dismantle the classical perspective in The thaw in Vétheuil (1880), a work that, like the views of Mount Fuji, invites us to observe from our perspective.
Musicians like Debussy and, later, Satie would also draw on this orientalist tendency. The drawings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec They demonstrate that, towards the end of the 19th century, music had ceased to be exclusive to the aristocracy. In 1893, when he was commissioned to cover the cover of a magazine focused on music, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed Yvette Guilbert, star of the Parisian cabarets. “Music becomes popular; the bourgeoisie consumes it. A revolution,” says Mateos.
In Metropolis (1916-1917) by George Groszthe colors begin to have a musical note, but it is not until the abstraction of artists like Kandinsky, Kupka and Hilma af Klint that the painting becomes synesthetic. “Kandinsky and Kupka make musical compositions in their paintings,” Mateos clarifies.
The inventors of cubism, Braque and Picasso, break harmony and natural perspective. “Cubism is like jazz, syncopated music,” says Mateos. Flamenco, like other popular music, is claimed by the Generation of ’27 and surrealism.
The tour ends with From the Plains (1954), from Georgia O’Keeffe, who maintained that the earth has its own music and that its rhythm should be explored in painting.
Last Friday, November 8, in addition to the guided tour, a social film filmed in the art gallery with the singer Ángeles Toledano (Villanueva de la Reina, Jaén, 29 years old) was presented. Toledano got hooked on flamenco almost by accident: When she was a child, she loved Before Dead Than Simple, by María Isabel, but when she went to retrieve the album at her grandparents’ house where she had forgotten it, she couldn’t find it and picked up another one at random. It was a compilation with Juanito Valderrama, Pastora Pavón, Manuel Vallejo and Niña de la Puebla. In 2004, under the fascination of flamenco and at only eight years old, he received his first prize: 150 euros for performing a half of Granada and The bell ringers.
The Andalusian artist, who has updated flamenco in her debut mudblood (published on September 27) and whose lyrics talk about witches or menstruation, performed live Without you I am nothing (Amazon Music Original), a stripped down version of Amaral’s hit. He also sang two poems Mudblood, You’re pretty and Nocturnal appleand closed with How the poor loveby Gata Cattana, in tribute to the victims of DANA. A way to anticipate International Flamenco Day (November 16).
“Flamenco borders on the ineffable and has something mystical about it. Just as flamenco has a ‘duende’ that surrounds the listener, the intention of this proposal is for the paintings to transmit a similar energy, to make their strength and mysticism felt. Because music is life, and each work in the museum has its own heartbeat that dialogues with the power of each element,” concludes Carolina Fàbregas, Director of Marketing and Business Development of the Museum.
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