Baltimore, where do I start!
I’m on the flight back to New York as I write this, entering a three week break while the tour goes to Chicago. I’m officially overwhelmed with the amount of paintings I have selected for the collection; for the last eight paintings I have composed nothing as of yet. These selected works did not arise from eight separate cities… no, instead of abiding by my arbitrary and now defunct rule of selecting one painting per museum per city, I have chosen multiple paintings in each museum, unable to resist my desire to score so many beautiful works.
My ambition outpaces my working ability! I don’t quite know what to make of this. Is it better to slow down and allow for the project to feel leisurely and fun? Or should I press deeper into the mission, working relentlessly to catch up to the vision that is beginning to escape me?
I know what my friend would say; relax, calm down, maintain your joy. While I try to find balance through daily endurance running, strength training, cold showers (thanks Wim), and meditation, the reality is that I cannot relax, and I have no desire to be chill.
This is a result of the fact that I have not yet figured out how to separate my identity from my work, nor do I wish to, for this work provides the meaning that contextualizes my daily actions. It is this project that has made life on the road not only less than misérable (lol) but actually something I enjoy. What is a man without his purpose?
I will spend the next three weeks in the heart of New York City, working diligently to catch up.
Painting tl;dr
-
CITY:Baltimore -
MUSEUMS: -
PAINTINGS: -
ARTISTS: -
OBSERVATION DATE:Feb 9, 2023
Music tl;dr
-
CITIES:-
New York, NY
-
^
-
^
-
^
-
Boston, MA
-
-
LOCATIONS:-
72nd & Park
-
^
-
^
-
^
-
Aldersey & Walnut
-
-
AUDIO SKETCHES: -
COMPOSER:Niles Luther -
CREATION DATES:-
Mar 2, 2023
-
^
-
Mar 3, 2023
-
^
-
Apr 13, 2023
-
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art is already somewhat fading from my memory and it’s not been 5 days. After awhile these museums start to blend together, unless something truly remarkable in the design, layout, or exhibition presents itself. For me, the curation here was uninspiring; I highly dislike when paintings aren’t grouped by year or style, but grouped into galleries by the individual who donated them. Boring.
The joy I once had as I walked these museum halls has waned. My pace is brisk and I move with a sense of urgency, making my way past paintings with barely a second glance. There is a task at hand, and I take that seriously, however I cannot tell if my eye has grown more discerning, or more fatigued.
Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect With Smoke
Of course, it was the Monet that gave me pause. I don’t say this disparagingly, as I feel that I have come across as such when discussing French painters in past entires. Perhaps I have merely been afraid to confront Monet’s work due to his fame and greatness. This painting, however, felt too unique for me to ignore. I love it, not exactly for what it is in the sense of flecks of color on a canvas, but the way it makes me feel. Almost as if the painting I’m looking at is not presenting itself to my eyes, but to my heart.
I also don’t have to deal with a massive reputation, as I would invariably have to do if I scored one of his 250 Water Lillies, for instance, which has appeared in popular culture countless times. This relieves quite a bit of pressure.
Monet's paintings of the River Thames show his subjective response to London's modern but seemingly timeless atmosphere, unlike many of his predecessors and contemporaries, who emphasized the industrial and social aspects of the city in their realistic images. Although he visited the British capital in the 1880s and 1890s, Monet had not painted it since he sought refuge there during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871. As early as December 1891, Monet's friend Camille Pissarro reported, "Everyone is awaiting with impatience his [Monet's] series of London impressions."
In his three separate painting campaigns in London between 1899 and 1901, Monet concentrated only on the Thames, working on several dozen canvases at once to capture the fleeting effects of the changing light.
THE HELEN AND ABRAM EISENBERG COLLECTION, BMA 1976.38
Wall text for Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect With Smoke. Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Claude Monet's ‘Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect With Smoke’ recorded on Mar 2, via voice memo at a private residence in New York, NY. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room there.
The painting is hazy, and for me lacks definition. I didn’t want the music to be overly verbose or have a form that is clearly defined. I wanted to eliminate the listeners perception of bar lines, so that it almost feels like they are floating along in the sunlight… or in the smoke…
Walters Art Museum
The Walter Art Museum, thankfully, was excellent. This exhibition, the concept of curating a selection of paintings not by style, or year, or the individual who donated them, but by their mood and theme? Brilliant! I felt something, and it is feelings that I search for as I pace the halls of these institutions.
I’ll organize the following four paintings I selected by the two major themes the works were curated under: Darkness and The Golden Hour.
DARKNESS
In each of these paintings, artists use darkness to create drama and atmosphere… In Paul Delaroche's and Eugène Delacroix's paintings, the extreme contrast between glowing bodies and the darkness surrounding them underlines the divinity of the figures they portray. In Delaroche's painting (completed after his death by his pupil Charles François Jalabert) the body of a young Christian martyr floats down an inky river-the miraculous circle of light that appears above her head catches the ripples around her. In contrast, in Delacroix's painting darkness, not light, is miraculous, as the sky is shown blackened at the moment of Christ's death…
Wall text for DARKNESS. The Walters Art Museum, Maryland
The Christian Martyr
I wish I had a celeste in the orchestra, as that’s all I’m hearing. Or a glass harp. I wonder if I can create that effect with one of the instruments in the pit. The focal point for me is the Halo… how will I make it ring?
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Paul Delaroche's ‘The Christian Martyr,’ recorded on Mar 2 via voice memo at a private residence in New York, NY. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room there.
In the opening of this sketch I’m trying to mimic what I’m really hearing: the Halo. Ideally this effect would happen on some kind of chime, or celeste, or wine glass… not sure how I will recreate it with an orchestra. I feel that the weight of the low register of the cello captures well the body of the martyr as she sinks into the water…
Christ on the Cross
Gravity, weight, drama, depth!
I’m particularly drawn to the dynamic of Christ’s body against the background. This is clearly a scene of pain, violence, and hardship. You can feel that in the angle of the horses neck, the muted yellow of the moon, and the scarlet flag billowing behind the subject, yet in the foreground the body of Christ is gentle and tender. Delacroix has painted him not as a hero of external strength and fortitude, but one whose power is a result of his willingness to submit, his conscious choice to remain nailed to the cross, slowly dying as blood leaks from his hands and chest.
What is miraculous here? For me, it is the contexualization Christ’s sacrifice provides to the surrounding environment; the darkness is actually a result of this Paragon of Light choosing to extinguish himself. It further edifies the idea that darkness as a substance, whether literally or figuratively, is immaterial and only exists as the direct result to the absence of light.
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Eugène Delacroix's ‘Christ on the Cross,’ recorded on Mar 3, 2023 via voice memo at a private residence in New York, NY. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room there.
C minor, opening with the lowest note on the cello. I don’t know how else to express the depth and darkness of this painting!
THE GOLDEN HOUR
Scenes of sunset and the hours of twilight allow painters to experiment with nuanced or dramatic effects of color and shade. A sense of stillness and ease pervade the paintings in this grouping. All the artists include bodies of water in their compositions-the jet of a fountain, rippling rivers, or placid lakes--that reflect and refract the light, further heightening both the sense of calm and amplifying the colors of evening. In the 19th century, first gas and then electric light took over from oil lamps and candles, forever transforming the way that night is experienced.
Wall text for THE GOLDEN HOUR. The Walters Art Museum, Maryland
The Evening Star
It’s kind of hard to see in this iPhone photo, but right above the woman’s hand is an evening star. I love the gradient of the sky as the sun sets, and I wanted to score this painting even though I already have another Corot in the collection.
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Jean Baptiste Camille Corot's ‘The Evening Star,’ recorded on Mar 3, 2023 via voice memo at a private residence in New York, NY. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room there.
Here is a poem to describe my audio sketch. Try reading it while the music plays, and occasionally glance at the painting. Ekphrasis.
A touch of nostalgia, I plucked into my strings,
And melodies flowed, like forgotten things,
Her palm extended in the breeze,
A gentle wave, as if to appease.
A hand held up to the sky,
To catch the evening star up high,
A scene from daily life,
Mostly gray, but not in strife.
For in those quiet moments still,
When the sun sets and time stands still,
We feel the most, emotions raw,
A touch of beauty in what we saw.
So let the strings play on and on,
A symphony of life's sweet song,
And let us grasp those fleeting things,
Like a touch of nostalgia, plucked on our strings.
Does it make you feel anything? It was written by the large language model known as ChatGPT. When I was writing out a description of this audio sketch, my articulated feelings were much too poetic (god forbid I actually write a poem), so I figured what better way to obfuscate my heart than hand it over to an AI.
The Arbor
This one evoked quite a bit in me. It reminded me of when I used to love the Summer, when I was unaware of the burden of life, and found so much pleasure in the sun setting on a warm day, surrounded by blossoms, trees, and running water. There is a lightness and freshness in this painting which I feel as if I no longer have. Or rather, perhaps, it’s buried deep within my spirit, waiting to be uncovered again.
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Gaston La Touche's ‘The Arbor,’ recorded on April 13, via voice memo at a private residence in Boston, MA. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room there.
In this audio sketch you can hear the influence of the baroque, particularly elements of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. This feels like an apt musical translation of what La Touche has painted here in The Arbor. He has broken with the impressionists and his background in realism in order to harken back to the rococo aesthetic of the 18th century and its decorative style. In any case, I want the music to remain light and airy, indicative of what one might find if they were actually participating in a 17th century fête-galante.
That’s all for now.
Most Sincerely,
Niles Luther
That afternoon, after visiting Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Museum, I strode past the Washington Monument to the George Peabody Library where I would begin work on the first mirror entry in this series. I have gratitude that everywhere I turn, there is novel beauty. Thanks for making it this far, I appreciate your support.
