Samuel Adler: Pasiphae In the mid-1940s, Jackson Pollock started on a series of mythologically themed pictures, the largest of which was Pasiphae. Pasiphaë was the daughter of the god of the sun, Helios, and Perse, an Oceanid nymph. She was

How the artistic camaraderie between Braque and Picasso inspired classical composers Born 140 years ago in Argenteuil, Val-d’Oise, Georges Braque (1882-1963) played a decisive role in the revolutionary art movement of Cubism. Guided from a young age toward creative painting

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Images, for two pianos and orchestra American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich responded to a commission from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) with a work that reflected the contents of the museum’s collection. Written

Gary Carpenter: After Braque The French painter Georges Braque (1882-1963) had a style that encompassed Fauvism from 1905 before he worked with Picasso on the development of Cubism (1908-1912). Where Picasso’s Cubism was more puzzling and confrontational, Braque’s Cubism was

George Antheil: The Golden Bird Slimmed down to just a shadow of a profile, the Golden Bird launches itself upward. Its feet and tail are streamlined down to just minimal forms and the bird is topped with an upturned beak,

Brian Ferneyhough: Carceri d’invenzione cycle Endless staircases, blocked passages, heavy machinery with unknown power, figures trapped in dead hallways: you’re in the world of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and his world of imaginary prisons. The Carceri d’invenzione of Piranesi were begun

Pierre August Renoir (1841-1919), who loved music, was a great admirer of Richard Wagner (1813-1883). As one of the first Wagnerites in France, Renoir jumped at the opportunity to meet his hero when he was in Italy in 1882. Two

On 15 April 1452, a small village near the town of Vinci in Tuscany saw the birth of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most diversely talented individuals to ever have lived. Scholars have rightly suggested that “the scope and