Painting and Music: Peter John Voormeij (Part 1)
November 10, 2007 by VinceL
I saw this picture on the Elliott Louis Gallery (Vancouver) Web site.
This picture really struck me. I want to share it with you. (I promise we’ll relate this to classical music.)
By itself it seems an abstract representation of a physical object like ice-cubes or glass. But, the title provides meta-data that creates context and suggests a game: interpretation.
A Man’s Voice
30 x 36 Inches
acrylic on canvas
Opening observation: The title (”A Man’s Voice”) would seem to refer to vocal qualities such as timbre, pitch, tone, volume, and tenor (either of a particular man or men in general).
1) In what way do the colors, shapes, and textures strike you as a description and commentary on “a man’s voice”?
2) Which contexts into which a man (or men) speak does this picture best describe, which contexts does it miss?
3) What attitude toward a man’s voice does this painting portray (e.g. critical, adoring, dispassionate analysis…)?
In the second post, we’ll look at an interview with Voormeij and find him building a parallel between abstract art and classical music.
[...] 10th, 2007 by VinceL In “Painting and Music: Peter John Voormeij (Part 1),” we looked at a painting by Voormeij. Now that you’ve had a chance to appreciate his [...]
Seven Reactions to Peter John Voormeij’s “A Man’s Voice”
The following responses (lettered A-G) arose from an e-mail discussion I facilitated about Voormeij’s painting…here are the “anonymized” reactions from our group:
A) It made me think of a traffic jam. glass and honking and metal and yelling. My very first impression was definitely that I was looking at a lot of cars, like a downtown intersection. There’s music, but I’m not sure what kind.
B) One of the common complaints of women about men is the tone of voice used when having a conversation or discussion and after thinking about the title and looking at the picture . . .since the picture is done in cold and harsh colors, I would think the context is anger or detachment. It obviously misses any warm or tender or soft colors. The colors and shapes say to me that the person speaking is rather 2 dimensional — it is hard to see any depth in the picture. The splash of red would also indicate cruelity.
I suppose a positive view would be the colors are strong, bold, confident (not fading or shrinking back) — the speaker is focused not distracted and intent on the subject. Also because of the sameness of the pattern, it would indicate dependability.
The overall first impression is not very complementary but after consideration a positive interpretation could go with it. So much of the viewpoint reflects the attitudes and beliefs of the viewer rather than the artist — the glass is half full/half empty personality.
C) I see an expression of tone. I saw the squarish shapes as hardness - a hardness that can be cool (blue) and attractive or sharp and harsh (hence the whiteish blues with splashes of red). I suppose the red could be peeking through, as if to indicate that the blues and whites were a facade above a warmer core, but I’d seen it as blood from the scrapes caused by the voice.
D) I see sharp, confused, uncoordinated images. But mostly it conveys a cold appearance, like ice…perhaps speaking to the generally un-nurturing, non-soothing character of a man’s voice?
E) I think the painting would be rather nifty if it was featured on the cover of a Naxos album!
F) A garbage heap, discarded Pepsi bottles - confusion, cold as ice.
G) Bold, confident, strong, 2-dimensional, cold, like a person in a character doing a voice over. A critical comment on a man’s voice because it is cold as ice.
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