Arts come together for ‘Pictures’ concert

BANGOR – What does beautiful music look like? What does an inspired work of art sound like?

When the Russian composer Modest Moussorgsky wrote “Pictures at an Exhibition” in 1874, he was moved by the art of his friend, architect Victor Hartmann, and the experience of viewing his paintings.

In a case of art imitating art, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra called on Maine artists to create paintings, photographs, drawings and prints inspired by the piece, which will be featured in the BSO’s March 9 concert. It was a call they answered enthusiastically – the resulting exhibit, which is on view now at United Kingfield Bank in Bangor – includes 73 works by 35 artists from around the state.

“To me, what the show does is it marries the two [visual art and music],” said Suzanne Brightbill, public relations specialist for United Kingfield Bank, the show’s sponsor. “It’s not this battle between arts and music. It brings both together.”

While each of the artists drew from Moussorgsky’s score, the imagery was diverse – from photographs of reflections on rippled water to a painting of a piano on a blueberry barren.

“I think the artists really responded to the idea,” said Catherine LeClair, marketing director for the BSO. “We’ve got multiple pieces from most. … Personally, I’ve been astonished by the range of things.”

Some artists, such as Marni Lawson of Temple, responded literally. Her whimsical watercolors depict the gnomes in “Gnomus,” and “Baba Yaga’s Ride” is a wild, whirling tour inspired by “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs.” Other pieces are more abstract, such as Nina Jerome’s richly layered, color-driven acrylics. In her statement, she writes, “I selected these paintings for their structure, which were reminiscent to me of the deep, low tone of the music, woven and punctuated with higher notes.”

Moussorgsky’s piece, initially written as a series of brief sketches for the piano, depicts drawings, watercolors and architectural designs exhibited in a memorial show after Hartmann’s untimely death. It is tied together with a “Promenade” in uneven meter that depicts Moussorgsky himself shuffling through the exhibition, leisurely taking in one painting and then hurrying off to the next.

“His musical work was actually inspired by an art exhibit,” LeClair said. “This is kind of the inverse of that.”

The show will be on view through March 6 at United Kingfield Bank, then it will move to the Bodwell Lounge at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, just in time for the BSO’s March 9 performance. Throughout the performance, images from the show will be projected behind the orchestra. After the concert, the works will move to the Bangor Public Library, then the BSO will auction most of them off as part of its annual spring auction.

In addition, the show will be juried by Bruce Brown of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, Chris Crosman of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, and Wally Mason of the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor. The first-place entrant will receive a $2,000 prize, and the BSO will feature the winning piece in future marketing materials.

The BSO hopes to make the juried art show an annual event, and if the response this year is any indication, it will be a successful collaboration.

“I think what was so important about it was the musical community recognizes the arts community, and vice versa,” Brightbill said.

The art exhibit is free and open to the public. It will be on view through March 6 in the lobby of United Kingfield Bank on Exchange Street in Bangor. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. It will open in the Bodwell Lounge at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono on March 9. It will move the week of March 10 to the Bangor Public Library and will be on view there through the end of March.