Tag Archives: Musician

Born April 7~ Sister Gertrude Morgan

Posted in 365 Women Artists, Artists Born Today Include:, Women Artists by

Sister Gertrude Morgan (April 7, 1900-July 8, 1980) was a self-taught African-American artist, musician, poet, and preacher.
Biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Morgan

New Jerusalem by Sister Gertrude Morgan
N.D. / Acrylic and ink on pieced card / 6 3/4″x7 3/4″ / Private collection

Sister Gertrude Morgan on Artnet: http://www.artnet.com/artists/gertrude-sister-morgan/

Further reading:
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/sister-gertrude-morgan-3413
https://www.bridgeprojects.com/artists/sister-gertrude-morgan
https://www.nga.gov/features/exhibitions/outliers-and-american-vanguard-artist-biographies/sister-gertrude-morgan.html

Classical Music Month~ September 8

Posted in Classical Music Month by

Table XV. Baba-Yaga’s Hut by Vasily Kandinsky

“For artist Wassily Kandinsky, the [‘Pictures at an Exhibition‘] cycle served as a basis for his first and only theater project, which was premiered in the German city of Dessau in 1928. Wassily Kandinsky was out to create a synthetic ‘Gesamtkustwerk‘. For him, that meant that sounds took on hues that listeners could see before their eyes as they listened to the music. It was intended to be a Gesamtkustwerk of sound, color and motion.”
~ https://www.dw.com/en/kandinsky-and-mussorgsky-what-happens-when-artists-inspire-each-other/a-19087823

1928 / Graphite, India ink, and watercolor on paper
11 4/5″x15 3/4″ / Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

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National Piano Month~ September 8

Posted in National Piano Month by

Pictures at an Exhibition (original piano version) by Modest Mussorgsky
“One of Modest Mussorgsky’s best friends was Viktor Hartmann, an artist who tragically died of an aneurism in 1873 at the age of 39. Two weeks after Hartmann’s death, his friends and supporters organized a major exhibition of his works at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. About a year later, Mussorgsky composed ‘Pictures at an Exhibition‘. Completed in only twenty days, ‘Pictures’ was originally a set of short pieces for piano in which Mussorgsky depicted himself walking through the exhibition and contemplating Hartmann’s works.”
~ https://houstonsymphony.org/mussorgsky-pictures/

The Hut On Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yaga) by Viktor Hartmann

“In Russian folklore, Baba Yaga is a witch who flies through the woods on a mortar and pestle, searching for children to eat. She lives in a hut on hen’s legs that stalks the land. This movement was inspired by Hartmann’s design for an ornate clock in the shape of Baba Yaga’s hut.” [Watercolor. N/D]
~ https://houstonsymphony.org/mussorgsky-pictures/

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Original piano version: watch on youtube

Classical Music Month~ September 6

Posted in Classical Music Month by

Lieder ohne Worte by Frederic, Lord Leighton

1861 / Oil on canvas / 40″x24 3/4″ / Tate Britain, London, UK

The title was suggested by a visitor to the artist’s studio, Mrs Ralph Benson,
and evokes Felix Mendelssohn‘s famous “Songs without Words“,
created for the piano between 1829 and 1845. ~ Tate Britain

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