Publications and Research
Document Type
Review (of Book, Film, Etc.)
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
It is hard to believe that curators and scholars still find something to say about the relationship between music and art of the twentieth century. Still, in recent years there has been a relentless boom of exhibitions, scholarly studies, and books dedicated to this topic. This interest, to be sure, is due, in part, to the prestige that modernist art commands among wealthy collectors and institutions, but also to its immense popularity among the general public. Less popular in appeal, though equally revered among the happy few, is modernist music. When both manifestations – art and music – are brought together in a major, international exhibition the result is optimal: while audiences flock to see the art, underappreciated modernist composers are able to reach new audiences – the perfect symbiosis, it would seem. Analogías musicales: Kandinsky y sus contemporáneos is an admirable interdisciplinary formula since it promotes music taking advantage of well-known art, but it fails to present any new perspective on a thoroughly explored corner of the art history world. Geared more to the average viewer (as it should be, one presumes) than to the inquisitive mind or the scholar, it is, nevertheless, a delightful, occasionally brilliant, show to see.
Comments
This review was originally published in Music in Art, available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/41818792