I call this new painting, 18″ by 26″ on paper, Liebestraum after the title of the famous piano piece from composer Franz Liszt. Liebestraum translates as dream of love and there is a dreamlike qualityto this piece, in the way the two trees intertwine to become almost one beneath a warm dusky sky and in the way the thin white ribbon of a path winds rhythmically through the landscape in a way that seems to mimic the graceful weaving of the musical composition’s melody.
Looking just now, I notice that the two fields in the center, one orange and the other yellow, seem to form a divided heart shape, like one of those pairs of lovers’ pendants where each contains a half of a heart. Interesting that this evaded my eye before.
Yhe Hungarian-born Franz Liszt is an interesting character. He was a phenomenon of his time, a womanizing piano virtuoso whose playing caused an incredibly frenzied response from his adoring female fans. There was such a hysteria over his performances that a term, Lisztomania, was coined by the physicians who studied the effects at the time. We don’t often think of classical performers, particularly of the mid 1800’s, as having the public persona of an Elvis but Liszt may have been the prototype for the modern rock star. For you film buffs, you no doubt recognize Lisztomania as the title of the Ken Russell film from the 1970’s that featured The Who’s Roger Daltrey as the pianist in a slightly twisted telling of his tale.
The painting, Liebestraum, is part of my show which opnes next Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.
Although it is primarily a piano piece, I do like this guitar version. Enjoy.
Redtree Times 