THE MUSEUM 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho
Tue–Fri, 10am–5pm Sat, 11am–4pm
HAILEY CLASSROOM 314 Second Ave South, Hailey, Idaho Scheduled Class Times
SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART P.O. Box 656, Sun Valley, ID 83353 208.726.9491 svmoa.org
COVER: Brad Johnson, Lost in Deep Time 2022, multiscreen digital installation, courtesy the artist
INTRODUCTION PANELS:
Daniel Mullen with Lucy Cordes Engelman, 80-49 2019, acrylic on linen, courtesy Paul Kyle Gallery from the Collection of Jane Young and Ricky Li
Anne Patterson, Star Spinning Through Spring (Copper), 2018, piano wire, steel, resin, courtesy the artist
BACK PANEL: Mary Ellen Bute, still from Rhythm in Light 1934, courtesy Center for Visual Music
INTERIOR, TOP TO BOTTOM:
Brad Johnson, Lost in Deep Time 2022, multiscreen digital installation, installation views, courtesy the artist
Daniel Mullen with Lucy Cordes Engelman, Between Two Centuries 2018, acrylic on linen, Collection of Diamond Zhou and Paul Kyle
Vance Kirkland, Mysteries Near Mars oil paint and water on linen, Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver
The Color of Sound
he Color of Sound explores the relationship between art and synesthesia, the neurological phenomenon that allows some people to experience one sense through another. It features artwork by artists who are synesthetes as well as work by artists who, though not synesthetes, seek to create multisensory experiences for viewers. Synesthesia can take a wide variety of forms (perceiving letters or numbers as
colors, for example, or associating a word with a scent or taste), but perception of sound as color or as shape has been particularly powerful for artists seeking to translate music into visual artform. The artwork in the exhibition ranges from paintings, drawings and sculptures inspired by the synesthetic experience of music to film projections and an immersive installation.
JANUARY 13–MARCH 18, 2023
The Color of Sound
Artist Brad Johnson has long been interested in creating multisensory experiences for viewers and listeners. SVMoA commissioned Johnson to create an immersive installation that envelops visitors in light and sound. Lost in Deep Time blends composer Andy Akiho’s 2017 piano quintet Prospects of a Misplaced Year with digital environments derived from photographs and scans Johnson has made in different Pacific Northwest landscapes. The installation engulfs visitors in light, pattern, imagery, and music.
Two films by pioneering animator and director Mary Ellen Bute (1906–1983) attempt to translate the aural experience of musical compositions into visual animations. Rhythm in Light (1934) and Color Rhapsodie (1948) illustrate Bute’s creative range and development. The first she filmed in black and white using objects like paper models, eggbeaters, and jewelry to create abstract patterns paired with music by Edvard Grieg. The later film features Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and animated imagery Bute created using drawn animation cels in color and other techniques.
The exhibition also includes three bodies of paintings, drawings and sculptures by artists who draw on the experience of synesthesia as inspiration for palette, composition, and imagery. The prolific Colorado-based painter Vance Kirkland (1904–1981) only publicly discussed his experience of synesthesia toward the end of his life. Throughout his career, Kirkland, a classical music enthusiast, saw color when he listened to music. He spoke of “transposing sounds into colors” in his work—allowing the music to determine his palette—with a preference for unusual tonalities or the bright notes of vocal classical music. The exhibition includes seven of Kirkland’s paintings, from early watercolor paintings based on landscapes to late, abstract canvases.
The exhibition features three works by the painter Daniel Mullen, who collaborated with artist, writer, and filmmaker Lucy Cordes Engelman on a series of paintings that seek to convey Engelman’s personal experience of synesthesia. Made with thin layers of paint on exposed linen, these hard-edged geometric paintings use pattern and color to give viewers an experience that is optically kinetic. Titled Future Monuments, the series “attempts to assign visual corollaries to the amorphous experiences of sound, movement, light, and shadow.”
Artist Anne Patterson’s practice ranges from works on paper to large-scale installations. A synesthete who sees shape and color when she
hears sound, Patterson incorporates multisensory experiences into her work, combining architecture, sculpture, light, video, music, and scent in her most immersive and interactive projects. The exhibition includes three bodies of Patterson’s work: a set of her process drawings, which combine her notes with quick sketches; two sculptures made of steel, resin and piano wire that become kinetic when hung in space; and a month of small watercolor drawings inspired by Clemency Burton-Hill’s book Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day. A listening station accompanies Patterson’s Year of Wonder installation, allowing visitors to hear the music that inspired each of her drawings.
EXHIBITION OPENING CELEBRATION
Fri, Jan 13, 5:30–7pm
The Museum, Ketchum
FREE
Join us as we celebrate the opening of The Color of Sound Brad Johnson will speak about his installation at 6pm.
ART BREAK
Every Thu, Jan 19–Mar 16, 12:30–12:45pm
The Museum, Ketchum
FREE
Join SVMoA staff and docents for fifteen minutes of conversation about a single artwork in the exhibition.
EVENING EXHIBITION TOURS
Thu, Jan 26, Feb 23, and Mar 16, 4:30 and 5:30pm
The Museum, Ketchum
FREE
Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with SVMoA’s Curator.
GALLERY WALK
Fri, Feb 17, and Mar 10, 5–7pm
The Museum, Ketchum FREE
ARTIST TALK WITH BRAD JOHNSON
Sat, Mar 18, 4pm
The Museum, Ketchum
FREE
Join us for a conversation with artist Brad Johnson about Lost in Deep Time, his five-chapter immersive installation inspired by the landscapes of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest and composer Andy Akiho’s 2017 piano quintet Prospects of a Misplace Year
JANUARY 13–MARCH
18, 2023
