A journey from Italy to Switzerland discovering the connections between art and music
“Il n’est pas d’art sans émotion, pas d’émotion sans passion“ (“There is no art without emotion, no emotion without passion”) – Le Corbusier
Let me start with some examples…
- “Giselle”, “The Swan Lake”, “La Bayadère”
- Beethoven, the Ninth Symphony, Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Johann Strauss II, The Blue Danube
- Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Sandro Botticelli
When we think about the above, there is no doubt to rate them as “works of art” and “artists”.
Now, let me give you a few other examples:
- Hip Hop, Breakdance, Graffiti, Punk, record covers
…and a question: do you consider these as “works of art” at the same level as those in the first series of examples?
Let me tell you this: I do not trust those people who build walls among different art expressions. Most of the times, these are the same people who, when talking about music, tend to consider it only as “pure entertainment” and not as a form or art.
The purpose of this article is to dispel this myth by trying to answer the following questions:
- Does music belong to art? And does art belong to music?
- What are the limits to define the thin line between “artworks” and “pure entertainment”?
I will try to answer these questions by taking you through a journey between Italy and Switzerland, between Milan, Zurich and Lugano, using the examples of artists who developed or are developing deep connections/interactions between art and music.
STOP #1: Obey Giant: the punk rock spirit
OBEY: the Art of Shepard Fairey – Fabbrica del Vapore (Milan)
“Music has taught me a great deal about connecting with a broad audience. Music is universal. I love the accessibility of music: it is democratic in a way that most visual art is not […] Music, at its best, powerfully combines the emotional and the intellectual.” – S. Fairey
This exhibition is the first stop into this journey, and it is also the most disruptive way to start. In fact, I will start talking about “street art”.
Does art belong to the street? This is insane…No, it is NOT!
Shepard Fairey is one of the most influential, internationally acclaimed street artists. He is also a graphic designer and an activist, founder of OBEY clothing and of studio Number One, his creative agency. In 1989, while he was attending the Rhode Island School of Design for his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, he designed the sticker “André the Giant has passed” which, subsequently, evolved in the artistic campaign “Obey Giant”.
It was one of the highest expressions of “art democratization”, meaning creating art and making it accessible to everybody.
In 2008, his portrait of the democratic candidate Barack Obama became a symbol of hope internationally recognized.
The artist is also known for his global campaign “We the People”, conceived on the occasion of the Women’s Marches in 2017.
Shepard Fairey has created more than 135 public murals, becoming one of the most requested and provocatory artists globally.
One of his main achievements is to have changed the way people talk about art and see the urban landscape.
Music has always been an inspirational force for Shepard Fairey.
It is not surprising to find a whole section of the exhibition dedicated to “music”. Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, Chuck D., John Lennon, Joan Jett and, my favorite, a beautiful, unique portrait of Jimi Hendrix, called “Hear My Freedom”.
The exhibition at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan represents an unprecedented opportunity to explore the artistic universe of Shepard Fairey, an artist who has contributed significantly to the evolution of Street Art and its languages.
STOP #2: All that Jazz
Faith Ringgold – Jazz Stories – Kunsthaus Zürich
“I have spent a lifetime listening to the great music of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and others. Many of these musicians also lived in Harlem, so, even though they were stars, they were also neighbors. I grew up with Sonny Rollins. My first husband, Earl Wallace, was a classical pianist and composer. Our home was lively with musicians, such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Jackie McLean, among others”. – F. Ringgold
Faith Ringgold was a painter, mixed media sculptor, teacher, a major figure in American activist and feminist art, from the struggles for civil rights to those of the Black Lives Matter movement. She also wrote numerous well-known children’s books. Her work links the rich heritage of the Harlem Renaissance with the current African-American art scene. Tar Beach, her first children’s book based on a quilt of the same title, has won over 20 awards including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King award for the best-illustrated children’s book of 1991.
While Faith Ringgold was one of the most important artists in the USA for decades, her works are still occasionally shown in Europe.
The Kunsthaus is providing an insight for the first time in Switzerland into the work of an outstanding artistic figure who has become known above all for her “story quilts” which she has been sewing since 1980s.
It is very sad having to speak about Faith Ringgold using the past tense. Unfortunately, the artist died on April 13th 2024, at the age of 93 years old, shortly after her works were installed in the museum.
Her connection with music started when she was still very young and developed through all her life and her art. “My art is my voice”, this is what she said. During her life, she paid tribute to the artists she loved the most. She even composed the music and the lyrics of the song “Anyone can fly” which gave the name to her foundation.
The four pieces taken from “Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow” are: #1: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart; #2: Come On and Dance With Me; #8: Don’t Wanna Love You; #3: Gonna Get on Away from You.
STOP #3: The pop (and rock) side of art
Oliviero Toscani: Photography and Provacation – Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
“All of us have always felt that music is to be seen and not just heard” – O. Toscani
Of all the exhibitions I visited during my journey, this is probably the one that, more than others, represents the meaning, the essence, the concept of “art” as I am used to think about it.
Oliviero Toscani is the quintessential representative of the concept of “art democratization”.
And what is more accessible than photography nowadays?
One year ago, I visited “OLIVIERO TOSCANI. Professione fotografo”, the biggest exhibition of the great photographer’s work ever organized in Italy, celebrating the 80th year of his birth at Palazzo Reale in Milan. However, I must be completely honest. It is here at this new exhibition: “Photography and Provocation” at Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich that I found the “real” Oliviero Toscani.
The museum is showing the first comprehensive retrospective of his work, in a city, Zurich, where the photographer trained in the legendary photography class of the Kunstgewerbeschule (now Zurich University of the Arts, ZHdK) in the early 1960s.
From the iconic provocatory images for the “United Colors” campaign where, together with Luciano Benetton, embraced the spirit of challenging the system and fight for injustice (AIDS, environment, death penalty, migrations flows etc.) to a whole section of the exhibition – which include more than 500 photographs – completely dedicated to music and to rock/pop icons like Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Bette Ditto, Alice Cooper (unrecognizable in his portrait without makeup).
Embedded in the exhibition is also Toscani’s long term project “Razza umana” with its portraits from people all over the globe.
STOP #4: Le Corbusier – the music architect
The Pavillon Le Corbusier – Zurich
“L’architecture…, touche les instincts les plus brutaux par son objectivité; elle sollicite les facultés les plus élevées par son abstraction même” (“Architecture…touches the most brutal instincts by its objectivity; it solicits the highest faculties by its very abstraction.”) – Le Corbusier, 1930.
The next stop of this journey at the discovery of the connections between art and music is The Pavillon Le Corbusier in Zurich.
The Pavillon Le Corbusier exists thanks to the lifelong commitment of the interior designer, gallery owner and patron Heidi Weber who convinced Le Corbusier to design this museum building in 1960 and financed its construction with her own funds as a single mother, brought the project to completion despite many difficulties and opened it on 15 July 1967 as the Centre Le Corbusier – Heidi Weber Museum.
Heidi Weber directed and curated the museum for 50 years. During this period, she organized numerous exhibitions to convey Le Corbusier’s work and ideas as a total work of art to a broad public.
Since its opening, the Pavillon Le Corbusier has been operated as an exhibition venue for presenting Le Corbusier’s work and the set for other exhibitions. This year’s exhibition is “Lucine Hervé: Built Light”where visitors will be able to admire photographs by Lucien Hervé as well as the work of architect Le Corbusier between 1949 and 1965 and sets it into dialogue with buildings of other architects and periods.
The love and admiration for music by Le Corbusier finds its highest expression in his friendship and dialogue with Iannis Xenakis. In 1956, Brussels was preparing for the 1958’s World Fair, the first world exhibition since the end of World War II, whose theme was “Between Utopia & Reality”. Philips Electronics Company wanted to create a unique, immersive experience for the visitors. The experiential space was created by putting together an international team consisting of an architect, an artist, and a composer to create a pavilion displaying electronic technology in as many forms as possible, serving arts, culture, and the overall betterment of humankind.
Philips commissioned the work to Le Corbusier who accepted by saying: “I will not make a pavilion for you but an Electronic Poem and a vessel containing the poem; light, color image, rhythm and sound joined together in an organic synthesis”.
Le Corbusier designed the interior of the project, leaving the design of the exterior to his protegé Iannis Xenakis, avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer, author of the study: “Musique Architecture”.
In addition, Le Corbusier commissioned the composition of a piece of music for the Philips Pavillon to Edgard Varèse, the “father of electronic music”. The result was “Poème électronique”, an 8-min electronic music piece. Varèse composed the piece with the intention of creating a liberation between sounds and as a result uses noises not usually considered “musical” throughout the piece.
Le Corbusier is also known for the iconic, architectural masterpiece “Cité Radieuse” in Marseille, listed among UNESCO World Heritage sites and created with the desire to offer daily comfort and well-being to the residents. As a tribute to Le Corbusier, the musician Stefano Meneghetti published “Cité Radieuse” in 2019, an album of experimentation and research comprising “an architecture of electronic sounds and various eclectic influences”, with pieces composed by Stefano Meneghetti as well as Giuseppe Azzarelli, Massimiliano Donninelli, and musicians like Yannick da Re and Cristian Inzerillo.
As an additional note, Le Corbusier had also a deep interest for dance and, apparently, even if it is not proven, he madly fell in love with Josephine Baker, after meeting her in Brazil where they both boarded a ship to come back to France.
Since 2019, the Pavillon Le Corbusier is operated by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich on behalf of the City of Zurich.
STOP #5: The photographic journey of Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams – EXPOSED – Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich
“I always knew I’d be in music in some sort of capacity. I didn’t know if I’d be successful at it, but I knew I’d be doing something in it. Maybe get a job in a record store. Maybe even play in a band. I never got into this to be a star”. – B. Adams
Art, in all its forms, including music is based on creating connections. Art has the fundamental scope to unite people and not to separate them. This is a fact. My journey in Zurich had to end after my visit at The Pavillon Le Corbusier but I was advised to visit another interesting example of how art forms are interconnected.
Since 1990s singer/songwriter Bryan Adams, aside from his successes in the world of music, has enjoyed an outstanding parallel career as a photographer, winning several awards for his camera work, among them two prestigious Lead Awards. The inspiration for his work has always been people, and he has dedicated a variety of series to the challenging genre of portrait photography.
In “Bryan Adams – EXPOSED”, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Taylor Swift, Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey, Kate Moss and even Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II are only some of the many celebrities (and friends) from the worlds of entertainment, fashion, politics, and the arts included as part of the exhibition.
Bryan Adams is a clear example of the interactions among different forms of arts. We all know him for his greatest successes like “Summer of ‘69”, “Everything I do, I do it for you”, “Run to you” or “It’s only love”, his duet with Tina Turner, but not everybody knows that, during his parallel career as a photographer, his images have been published in British Vogue, L‘Uomo Vogue, American Vanity Fair, Harper‘s Bazaar, British GQ, Esquire, Interview Magazine and i-D. He has also photographed advertising campaigns for such renowned brands as Hugo Boss, Guess Jeans, Sand, Converse, Montblanc, Omega, John Richmond, Fred Perry, Escada, Windsor, Kaldewei, Jaguar and OPEL.
He is also among the 100 celebrities who are supporting Hear the World, a foundation which partners with local organizations and empowers them to provide high-quality hearing health to children worldwide.
Hear the World is supported by over 100 celebrity ambassadors. Their photos are captured by their longtime supporter, Bryan Adams. Ambassadors – Annie Lennox, Bobby McFerrin, Bruce Springsteen, Joss Stone, Lenny Kravitz, Peter Gabriel, Win Wenders to name a few – are featured with one hand cupped behind their ears, the Hear the World pose for conscious hearing.
STOP #6: Alexander Calder and the electronic/organized sound
Calder. Sculpting Time – MASI Lugano
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), whose illustrious career spanned much of the twentieth century, is the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time. Born in a family of celebrated, though more classically trained artists, Calder utilized his innovative genius to profoundly change the course of modern art. He began in the 1920s by developing a new method of sculpting: by bending and twisting wire, he essentially “drew” three-dimensional figures in space. He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. From the 1950s onward, Calder increasingly devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted steel plate. Today, these stately titans grace public plazas in cities throughout the world.
Calder. Sculpting Time at MASI Lugano is the first comprehensive monographic exhibition in a Swiss public institution devoted to Alexander Calder in nearly fifty years. By introducing movement to the static art form of sculpture, Calder extended the medium beyond the visual into the temporal dimension. Drawing from major international public and private collections, including a large body of works loaned from the Calder Foundation, New York, “Calder. Sculpting Time” features over 30 of the artist’s masterpieces created between 1931 and 1960.
One of Calder’s most important innovations was the incorporation of movement into his compositions, thereby introducing the dimension of time. His mobiles, a term coined by Duchamp to describe these works, are kinetic sculptures whose ever-changing compositions are activated by their environments. The exhibition in Lugano features one of Calder’s most important hanging mobiles, Eucalyptus (1940). The sculpture made its debut in Calder’s 1940 exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York and was later included in almost every major exhibition staged during the artist’s lifetime.
His works can be considered a clear example of the connections between kinetic art and music.
While living in Paris, Alexander Calder became friend with many artists and musicians such as Piet Mondrian, Eric Satie and Edgard Varèse. In 1936, he was commissioned to design the Décor for Satie’s symphonic drama “Socrate: three dialogues of Plato”, a mobile set which was considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century theatre design. Calder recreated the same set in 1975, upon request of Virgil Thomson, the American composer and critic.
Satie’s compositions, as well as jazz and Edgard Varèse’s compositions like “Déserts” or “Etude pour Espace” can be considered as a perfect link to Calder’s art works.
It was a great journey. Attending exhibitions and having the opportunity to talk about how painters, sculptors, architects, photographers found the perfect combination between their art and music, sometimes through their collaborations with composers and musicians, at times being themselves composers, always being the masters of their creative processes or the inspiration for others.
What do these artists have in common? Consciously or unconsciously, they tried to “democratize” art and to make it accessible to the highest possible number of people, using the most democratic of all tools: music.
Think about the meaning that you give to the words “art” and “music” and then take a pause and make a reflection based on these words by Iannis Xenakis, interviewed by Luciano Berio in his program: “C’è musica e musica” (There is music and music) in 1972:
“It is more important the different meaning that everyone gives to the word ‘music’. It could be only a way to spend your time, or to dance, a way to transform yourself or even a mystical push and so on. There are many possibilities”.
THERE ARE MANY POSSIBILITIES…
Special thanks to:
MN Comm and Fabbrica del Vapore for “OBEY: The Art of Shepard Fairey”
Press Office Kunsthaus Museum, Zurich for “Faith Ringgold – Jazz Stories”
Press Office Museum für Gestaltung Zürich for “Oliviero Toscani: Photography and Provocation” and Le Corbusier Pavillon
Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich for “Bryan Adams: Exposed”
MASI Lugano for “Calder. Sculpting Time”
