Music, Art abstract at museum

Art and jazz shake hands on the IU Art Museum's first floor in a new exhibit that displays the two art forms of symphony. \n"Visual Improvisation: James McGarrell and the Art of Jazz" is on display at the museum until August 6 by IU professor of Painting James McGarrell. \nThe exhibit features what it advertises: jazz and paint, melded into one frame. It runs along-side the Jazz in July free concert series held by the Art Museum each Friday in July. \nMcGarrell's paintings show no famous figures, or definite environment, but instead depict abstract human forms, pianos, electric skies and cloudlike floors. Furthermore, no particular songs are represented; this is not how he uses jazz. Rather, the mentality behind jazz, the core basics that make jazz special; these are what get put into and emanate from his work. \nAn accomplished artist, he was the youngest entrant of the time to ever participate in a 1959 Museum of Modern Art show, where he displayed his painting, "Divers." Years later, the same painting appeared at the 1968 Venice Biennale international art show. \nBut for McGarrell, jazz came first, before art. He had been an avid listener and enthusiast of jazz since he was small. \n"I had been extremely enthusiastic about jazz since I was very young," McGarrell said, "long before I began painting." \nHe turned towards radio to slake his interest, and eventually had a radio show on an IU station. It could well be within the library, however, where the visual arts first sparked his interest. \nFor one who knows little of jazz, its presence in paintings can be difficult to discern. Jazz can thrive on a relative lack of planning, making the genre unique: structure isn't vital. Jazz musicians can easily collaborate during a show and come up with a format and set of chords within seconds. Having had no prior knowledge of the particular song they have just composed, they can compose a riff (a musical idea or phrase) which will be varied upon to serve as the melody and then quoted or expanded upon during improvised solos. \nIn particular, the Two Part Inventions series of McGarrell's, consisting of 15 total works, each show a different variation on the same general theme. Background content will change from piece to piece, but certain critical figures remain consistent. In jazz, this is something a soloist, or multiple soloists, can do. The soloist presents an idea, builds on it, changes it, creates tension and then -- depending on the soloist -- releases the tension. \nMcGarrell takes the impulsive, raw creativity of jazz and puts it into his artwork. Conveniently, the principles of art and jazz generally carry through, or logically reflect one another. Texture in jazz can be considered rhythm in painting, for example. The eye can be trained to read rhythms in artwork, waverings, syncopations, separations and broken cadences. \nHis artwork is indeed improvisational. Nanette Brewer, the curator of the exhibit, and McGarrell both said he uses no pre-conceived narrative and almost never uses preparatory drawings. What he does use is rhythm and spontaneity to expand on the general conception he has for the subject of the painting. \nIn recent news, McGarrell plans on creating a new series of jazz-inspired art, each paying tribute to a famous jazz musician; musicians including Coleman Hawkings and John Coltrane. The paintings will not include the subject musicians, but incorporate their personal style, or music fingerprint. Essentially, the colors, textures, rhythm and other details of the paintings will all reflect what McGarrell believes to be characteristic musical styles of the particular musician. He expects these to be even more abstract than any of his previous pieces. \nHis improvisation shows all the skill of a seasoned jazz musician, sans horn. His works don't just display random thought, but develop ideas, elaborate on themes. \nHe ain't just whistlin' Dixie, but he may as well be playing it on the trombone.