Visual Improvisation Hits Upstate New York - Review

A cluster of well-known 20th-century artists whose work was influenced by the agency of jazz is the focus of a of recent origin exhibit at the Katonah Museum of Art. Entitled "Jazz and Visual Improvisations," the exhibit features 36 mixed-media works by dint of 18 artists, including Romare Bearden, Jackson Pollock Stuart Davis, to leeward Krasner, Radcliffe Bailey, Larry Rivers, Ouattara and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Highlights include Bearden's "Soul Three" Krasner's "Burning Candles," Ouattara's "Homage to Miles Davis" and Rivers' "The Drummer" The exhibit remains upon view through April 15.

The theme of improvisation is lock opener to the exhibit. "The thing perceiveds in this exhibit testify to the puissance of improvisation as a visual proces that incorporates multiple stories and historical accounts and transforms them into personal and social narratives," said Professor Catherine Bernard, who organized the exhibit. Many of the realitys also include cultural and political references

While the heyday of jazz is many times associated with the early part of the 20th hundred it was after World War II that the genre had the greatest in quantity noticeable effect on the visual arts. Jazz's emphasis upon creation and performance was embraced by means of a new generation of visual artists who oft-repeateded jazz hot spots. Sometimes their work was inspired by dint of a particular musician and at other times by the agency of historical and political currents.

"In the late 1940 as the novel York School of Abstract Expressionism was emerging, jazz was also undergoing significant changes of diction and structure," wrote Bernard in the catalog. "Bebop became a quintessential urban music, just as the fresh York school came to symbolize American urban tillage in the eyes of the art world.... The importance of jazz in the creation of a fresh aesthetic was recognized by the artistic community of the time."

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