Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 [Hardcover]

Kerry Brougher (Author), Jeremy Strick (Author), Ari Wiseman (Author), Judith Zilczer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005

Music has inspired some of the most progressive art of our time from the abstract painting of Wassily Kandinsky and Frantisek Kupka to the mid-century experimental films of Oskar Pischinger and Harry Smith to contemporary installations by Jennifer Steinkamp and Jim Hodges. While early abstract paintings tended to approach music metonymically, the colour organs, films, light shows and installations from midtwentieth century to the present day engage a range of perceptual faculties to create a plethora of sensations in the viewer.The most complete examination of this phenomenon to date, "Visual Music" features ninety major works of art plus related documentation, focusing on abstract and mixed-media art forms and their connections to musical forms as varied as classical, jazz and electronica. The book includes three scholarly essays, each discussing a distinct art historical period in depth, and an additional essay by Olivia Mattis that approaches the subject from a musicologists perspective, as well as a chronology, artist biographies and a selected bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kerry Brougher, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Jeremy Strick, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ari Wiseman, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Judith Zilczer, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500512175
• ISBN-13: 978-0500512173
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, Novel Approach to a History of Abstract Art, May 23, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 (Hardcover)

VISUAL MUSIC is first and foremost a traveling exhibition currently ensconced in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and as an exhibition it is informative, enlightening, well curated, and a unique way to study the history of Abstract Art from 1900 to 2004. One enters the large multi-room experience with a stop in a darkened theater where films dating back to the early part of the 20th century explore pulsating, rhythmic, liquid and explosive images, some in black and white, some in color, some 'illustrating' music from Brahms to Dizzy Gillespie and some in complete silence. The works are by such experimental artists as Oscar Fischinger, Len Lye and Harvey Smith and the films have been restored admirably.

The remainder of the walk through this marriage or courtship of visual images and music includes copious works by Kandinsky, Picabia, Klee, Ciurlionis, Kupka and many others, artists who sought to visualize the effect music has on the intellect and visual/aural 'synaesthesia' as the exhibition repeatedly explains. Some rooms are for framed works, other rooms for video forms of digitalized art in motion, some are simply walls of lines and abstractions and others the idiosyncratic color organs - the true synthesis of visual art and musical performance. The works representing today are from Jennifer Steinkamp in an elegant installation, Cindy Bernard, and Jim Hodges.

Though this is not meant to be a survey of an exhibition, knowing the presentation of this VISUAL MUSIC concept heightens the appreciation of the stunning catalogue that accompanies this show. From the sumptuous design elements to the splendid color reproductions to the scholarly essays, this is a book that is not an easy read but an important one. From Jeremy Strick's cogent introduction to the book through essays on the history of abstraction and the concept of what stimulated artists to relate to music and why, to the significant 'in defense of pure music' essay by Olivia Mattis, this is a magnum opus on abstract art that is unique in every phase. Kudos to the curators from the Hirschhorn (Kerry Brougher, Ari Wiseman) and MOCA's own Jeremy Strick. Grady Harp, May 05.