Mahler, paintings after his music
Around 1985 I took up fascination for Gustav Mahler. At first by his remarkable looks and after that his first symfony. And yet, step by step by his entire oevre and biography. His music created the very beginning of an increasing interest : The relation between music and visual art.
dated 1985 until 2006
(click on an image to enlarge an artwork)
send a message
Mahler I, 1e symfonie, intro
1985The first watercolor I made inspired by the looks and music, his first symphony , of the composer Gustav Mahler , is Mahler I . The portret of Mahler struck me ,even before his music did . His remarkable head and face invited me to painting ; his first symphony did the rest . More than any music of other composers ever did , caused Mahler 's 'first' imaginations ; not like an illustration , but as a 'performance' in images recalled by the feelings this music raised .
Mahler II , 1st symphony , 3th movement ,
1985In this painting Mahler's head was based on a picture made in october 1909 in Amsterdam , when Mahler was there to conduct his 7th symphony with the Concergebouworkest .Of the three known pictures , taken en profile by Alfred Roller , probably in the Concertgebouw , is the second one the starting-point ; Mahler , seen from the left , is sitting in front of an occasionally hung up piece of tapestry . His extremely high forehead and relatively short backhead are profoundly emphasised by this pose . The Vaterjakob-theme of the thirt movement is performed by a band of coloured , geometric fields , that runs along the bottom of the picture . Also : Gilbert Kaplan : The Mahler Album , photo nr. 112 .
Mahler III , 1th symphony , 2nd movement
1985Mahler III is inspired by the second movement of his first symphony, Der Titan. The powerful baseline is represented by the dark blocks in succession . The head of Mahler is based on one of the pictures made during the 1907 session by Alfred Roller in the Vienna Court Opera .
Mahler IV , the Italian .
1985Mahler IV , surnamed 'The Italian' because of the colordesign of his suit of which gave me an Italian impression : The yellow ocher combined with cinnabar and green , against the white of the collar , one is involuntarily inclined to think of the Italian flag .Wenn Imade this painting I was'nt aware of the trips Mahler and his family used tyo make to Milan ( Mailand ) .Alma Mahler recalls that once ,because they had to return in time to Vienna , they had to take the airplane , but above the Alps they got into bad weather . Looking at the painting you can recognise a geometric landscape and in the air you see arabesc-like lines ,that could be interpreted as the drifting about tracks of a plane . Mahler's head is based on a series of photographs Alfred Roller made in 1907 in the Vienna Court Opera House during Mahler's final year as a director and intendant .Mahlers face speaks , not without reason , of the upmost weariness . Also : Gilbert Kaplan : The Mahler Abum , photographs 79-91
Mahler V , Bomansmahler
1985Mahler V , surnamed 'Bomansmahler ' , makes the first one in portrait size of the Mahlerseries . By means of clothing and other ornaments is tried to render melody like lines and modi and chords in combinations of colored little fields and blocks . For instance , the feeling a melody can recall , is transformed in an image providing a resembling mood . The resemblance with the dutch author Godfried Bomans the painting showed afterwards , was remarked first by my brother in law Dick Bruin . Also : information pages .
Mahler VI , Flower Mahler
1985Everything looks ok , Mahler is playfully and somewhat recklessly leaning over to his left-side . He is composing the nrs. 2 and 4 of the 'Kindertotenlieder ' as , in 1904 , his wife is pregnant of their second child ; she thinks , it is tempting the gods , but Mahler is doing good business and he is very creativ . He completes his 6th symphony and starts his 7th , conducts , among other places , in Amsterdam and New York and his 'Kindertotenlieder ' have their first performance in Vienna . Also : Gilbert Kaplan : The Mahler Album , page 44 and 45 .
Mahler VII , 1907
1986About the disastrous year 1907: had to resign from the Wiener Hofoper, his daughter died of diphtheria and he himself came out to suffer from serious hartdiseasev .
Mahler VIII , The Agony
1986Mahler VIII is , like Mahler VII , inspired by the disastrous year of 1907 ; Mahler, totally surprised and in agony, spies around angrily , looking for what did struck him from behind . Also Mahler VII
Mahler IX ,A Breakthrough
1986Like Baron von Münchhausen but not on his hair , Mahler is pulling himself out of the morass , a driving to madness grief . Up to the light , where harmony gently rules . Redemption . As a guestdirector at the Metropolitan Orchestra in New York, first on 1 january 1908 , he gets to know the more easy-going American way of life and it's influence on Mahler is unmistakable : 'Be disobedient ! ' , he shouts at his daughter Anna , wenn she fears to indulge freely like a child . Also : Alma Mahler-Werfel : Mein Leben. Fischer, Frankfurt, 1981. ISBN 3 596 20545 X
Mahler X
1986Mahler X makes after the rather dramatic Mahlers VII , VIII , and breakthrough in X , a more apolinical Mahler . Harmony and peace , attainment after crisis . Ground , landscape , Mahler 's dress , they all form as design the counterparts of their musical equivalents : key , mode , time , rithm , melody and haormony . and last ut not least : Composition , which holds every element in design as in music together in a characteristic frame , created by the artist or composer .
Mahler XI , in musical landscape 2
1986
In Mahler XI the protagonist becomes aware of the source of music itself ; he stands right in it and sees what he hears : imagination and inspiration in a joyful dance of scores and colors above a moutainlike landscape ; however staves , mountains and clothes metamorphose into geometrical design .
What is said about Mahler X also applies to all Mahlers of the socalled Mahlerseries of 1986-1987.
Mahler XI , in musical landscape 3
1986
Mahler XIII , The Chassidim Rabbi
1986Strictly speaking Mahler XIII , surnamed The Chassidim Rabbi , again is a musical landscape . Methamorphosis of animal shapes to a horselike creature , that , being in gallop , almost seems to fly but is due to touch earth with one hoof at least .Next to it , a birdlike creature is actually released , lifted by its special shape and dynamics of the surrounding colors . Geometrical patterns as musical antipodes reflect the organic above . Below , the chassidim rabbi in a characteristic air ; to the chassidim jews , dance is ritual , warshipping the spiritual world . This watercolor is the only one which refers to the jewish roots of Mahler ; He however , probably in making a director's carreer at the Vienna Court Opera possible , chose to be baptized in the roman catholic church . Also: Wolfgang Schreiber: Mahler. rororo Bildmonographien, Reinbek 2003, ISBN 3-499-50181-3 (a short , illustrated and surveyable biography ) page 71.
Mahler XIV , The Symphonic ship 1
1986In my work the 'ship image ' regularly returns ; like a primal vision of time and as an outstanding example of musical form . Just as in architecture , the older ship's form and balance can be called a shape of harmonical mesures . Also : informationpages and Mahler XV
Mahler XV , The Symphonic Ship 2
1986Mahler seems to stand on a gigantic vessel ; looking at his backside ,obviously his left hand pulls , lifts forces out of the dark , along his corpus to his right , direction hand . Symphonic ship' as an image orginates from it'sshape ; the shape of a ship reminds me of music, especially the older ones. Just as cathedrals , they give the impression of coagulated music .Now the symphony is like a vehicle , like a seaship among the musical forms . This ship comes into existence and sails as long as the piece of music sounds ; after the apotheosis , she vanishes with unknown destination , yet continues in memory . Also : 'Mahler' or 'The Symfonic Ship' , a poem .
Mahler XVI , Adieu Mahler , Mahler Adieu
1987
Mahler XVII , Das Lied von der Erde
1986