Based on the following piece of art:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/57.92/
Exhibition I is the first in a collection of suites in which I take art from a particular artistic movement and use them as the inspiration for the pieces in the suite. While researching artists I was particularly struck by the work of Barnett Newman and other abstract expressionist works so that’s the artistic movement I decided to base the first suite on.
Developed in New York in the 1940s, Abstract expressionism is one of the big post-Wolrd War II art movements. The movement achieved international influence and put New York City at the centre of the western art world. After the war, these young artists wanted to express their feelings about the world through their artwork; wanting to communicate emotions like sorrow, outrage, and joy.
Based on the painting ‘Autumn Rhythm’ by Jackson Pollock, the piece features the musical equivalents of the spontaneous drips and splashes found in action painting, with glissandi mimicking the movement of paint and intertwining melodic fragments representing the dense web of lines in the painting. I recreated the disorienting nature of the painting through syncopation, unexpected changes in meter and additive rhythms.
