“Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity.”
Modest Mussorgsky
As philosopher Richard Wollheim says, art is “one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture.” In its simplest manifestation, art is a form of communication that serves as a vehicle for the expression of emotions and ideas. As ideas and beliefs are culturally specific and constantly changing over time, there really is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art. That being said, the classical branches of the visual arts are identified as painting, sculpture and architecture. Literature and poetry are considered part of the humanities or as one of the arts, while music, alongside theatre, film and dance belong to the performing arts. In this section you will discover not only specific explorations of individual art forms, but also a more detailed probing of the relationship between the visual arts and music, including painting and music, sculpture and music and architecture and music. Originally, poetry and music were treated as a unity, but gradually they have become more independent. Nevertheless, the two art forms have never forgotten their shared genetic makeup, and been intertwined for millennia. Art and music have engaged in a dynamic relationship that reveals a diverse range of human activity intended to be appreciated for their beauty.
Inspirations Behind Darius Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit At the heart of Darius Milhaud‘s 15-minute ballet, Le boeuf sur le toit, was his trip to South America in 1919. Returning to Paris, he and his friends got together to
Spanish artist Salvador Dalí (1907–1989) took the art world of the 20th century and changed it forever. Starting with his studies of Impressionism, he progressed to Cubism and the avant-garde movements, creating worlds of new imagination. His art may have
Inspirations Behind Christopher Berg’s Les Loisirs de la Poste The French poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) is best-known in the musical world for the poem L’après-midi d’un faune (1876), which was the inspirational basis for Debussy‘s prelude to the work: Prélude
Inspirations Behind Carl Schimmel: The Alphabet Turn’d Posture Master, or The Comical Hotch Potch Acting out the alphabet is something we’ve all done, even if only the four letters of Y – M – C – A. In 1782, the
Inspirations Behind Michael Daugherty’s Cadillac Ranch Organised by year, just like the cars, American composer Michael Daugherty has made an exceptional work for wind band out of one of the unique sculptures in the world. The public art installation was
Inspirations Behind Vittorio Montalti’s Nu descendant un escalier French artists Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), along with Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, developed the principles of Cubism and engendered great controversy with his 1912 painting Nu descendant un escalier n° 2 (Descending
Inspirations Behind Kenneth Fuchs’ Autumn Rhythm American painter Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) was an abstract expressionist painter whose ‘drip’ or ‘poured-paint’ technique signalled a fundamental change in modern painting. Starting in 1947, Pollock’s new style started with a canvas on the
In writing these articles about the intersection of art and music, I find this is the first time the artist and the musician are the same. Chinese composer and artist Yang Bao (b. 1991) is based in New York and
