From July 8 – September 6, The National Gallery has commissioned musicians and sound artists to choose a painting from their collection that resonates with them and to compose a new piece of music or sound art in response, channelled through multiple speakers in their new exhibition entitled Soundscapes. The exhibition has 6 artists all representing various genres from classical music to contemporary art (Susan Philipsz) and electronic dance music (Jamie xx).‘The Wilton Diptych’ is the chosen painting of Nico Muhly and was designed as a portable altarpiece for the private devotion of Richard II from 1377 to 1399. He describes his musical response as a ‘slow look at all four panels’, guiding the viewer round the diptych. The infinite sound installation is played on a Viola da Gamba. Garbriel Yared, the Oscar - winning film composer, has created a multi-channel sound installation lasting 4 minutes in response to Bathers, one of a series of three monumental canvases made during Cezanne’s last years. The composition consists of four instruments, cello, clarinet, soprano and piano. Each of the speaker plinths represents a different instrument allowing the viewers to ‘open their ears in order to be drawn into the painting, creating their own story and interpretation’. Soundscapes is part of the ‘National Gallery Inspires’ programme of exhibitions. The exhibition takes a fresh view of the National Gallery collection inviting you to experience paintings in a different way, encouraging visitors to both ‘hear’ the music and ‘see’ the sound, investigating how much sound concentrates vision. ‘Not a single room is a let-down. The sound artists have been chosen superbly, each offering something very different, with the soundscapes creating new rhythms and interferences in the painting that set the pace of it, and guides the way to a new reading of the work’. Emily GoslingPerformance DetailsDate: July 8 – September 6 2015Daily 10am-6pm Fridays 10am-9pmArtists: Nico Muhly, Susan Philipsz, Jamie xx, Gabriel Yared, Chris Watson and duo Janet Cardiff and George Miller. Venue: Sainsbury Wing Exhibition, The National GalleryFor more information, see here.
