The Visualisation of Music in Czech Art of the Inter-War Period

• Authors: Pastyrikova L.
• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The work of a few distinctive Czech artists from the inter-war period offers stimulating material for research on select aspects of the broad theme of the relationship between the visual arts and music. The case of Frantisek Kupka was the first to expand the understanding of the musical quality of artwork of that time. It drew attention to the need to distinguish between the popular musical comparisons in the writing of the period treating art, on the one hand and the actual intentions of artists on the other. The artwork and theoretical texts of Arnost Hosek (1885-1941), Miroslav Ponc (1902-1976) and Zdenek Pesánek (1896-1965) bear on the question of the conscious attempt to implant musical structures in abstract artistic styles. The musical-artistic projects of the pianist Ervín Schulhoff (1894-1942), which came out of his collaboration with visual artists, are also relevant. Their views and working methods developed in the context of analogous international trends and were also connected with historical traditions such as the correspondence of colours and tones, synaesthesia and colour instruments. Confrontation with the poetist theory of the synthesis of art also revealed points of contact between their endeavours and the avant-garde, in particular on the issue of film as a systematic solution to the connection between the visual arts and music. These artists did not create a homogeneous artistic movement; they worked in isolation, although there were personal contacts and exchanges of ideas between them. In the context of Czech art of the inter-war period, they represented a characteristic tendency to unite artistic genres. The trend as they conceived it, however, did not gain much currency and hardly even attracted the attention of Czech scholars. Nonetheless, Hosek's musical aquarelles and elaborate theoretical system of setting art to music, Ponc's constructivist compositions, Pesánek's concept of kinetic art and Schulhoff's experiments constitute interesting examples of the application of music in art, thus far neglected in the international context.

Keywords

EN

THE AVANT-GARDE

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Umění (Art)
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 336-352
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Pastyrikova L.

• L. Pastyriková, c/o Faculty of Philosophy & Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04CZAAAA0017365