Jazz: An American Muse

Reynolda House Museum of American Art

Winston-Salem, NC

336-725-5325

http://www.ols.net/users/rh/index.htm

Jazz: An American Muse

May 4 - July 30, 2000

Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, is pleased to announce a special exhibition on jazz which will provide Reynolda House with an opportunity to put the institution's educational mission (exploring the relationship of the literature, music and art of any given period) at the core of an artistic exhibition. Jazz: An American Muse will focus the institution not only on the unique musical development of Jazz, it will also explore the music's influence on the painted arts. (left: Romare Bearden, Alto Composite, 1974; right: Stuart Davis, For Internal Use Only, 1944-45)

The exhibit will explore the influence of Jazz on American art through its expression in two types of images. The first are those that may be interpreted as having been influenced by Jazz. Some of these reflect the use of Jazz as an aesthetic model and others express the concept of synaesthesia - a painted sense-impression of sound. Paintings in the exhibit of this first type will be:

Arthur Dove's Dancing, 1934;
John Marin's Downtown, NY, c. 1925;
Stuart Davis' For Internal Use Only, from 1944-45 created in homage to the recently deceased Mondrian, based in part in their mutual enjoyment of jazz.

The second type of painting in this exhibit are those of Jazz as a subject matter. These will include images of specific Jazz musicians as well as more general images of Jazz performers and performances. Paintings in the exhibit of this type will be:

a pencil sketch for Romare Bearden's Le Jazz, c. 1967;
a mixed-media collage of a saxophone player by Bearden called Alto Composite, 1974;
another Bearden, Encore for Billie, 1975;
watercolor by Richard Yarde, Lady Day, 1985

Article amended 10/10/99

For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.

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