Happy New Year! National Gallery Talk & Tea: Music for Mondrian with me!

Good morning !

Wishing you all a happy and most importantly, healthy, New Year! I hope you all stay safe and well.

2020 brought real challenges through a myriad of ways..... and it looks like, certainly for a time, this will continue into 2021. I hope it all works out for everyone, you all stay safe and well and, somehow, some way, our present challenges prove positive in the long run.

Art and culture is largely online for now. I miss working in person but on the other hand there are huge pluses to the broad accessibility of online events across the world and of all abilities and disabilities.... So here are two current online projects that might be of interest to brighten up your January!

1.

Mondrian at the National Gallery of Ireland

Last autumn The National Gallery offered me a commission to respond to the work of artist Piet Mondrian. An amazing and not undaunting privilege and opportunity! I've been asked to produce a podcast, host an online Talk & Tea event and create a Special Project: Music for Mondrian. !!

So, I'm delighted to announce the first of these events, happening next week online, and all are welcome. Please find information here:

Talk & Tea Online Event next Tuesday, January 12th at 11 am (via Zoom)

I have to say that over the months and through the challenges of Covid, I have found solace and inspiration in researching this artist, his work, and the art and music surrounding his work. Mondrian managed to live and work through two World Wars and the Spanish Flu Pandemic so when he said and believed to the end that, "life is always right," it could be no facile philosophy, my curiosity was piqued!

Mondrian's (1872-1944) journey from living and working in Holland during World War 1 to Paris in the roaring 20's, the Jazz Age, Les Années Folles, to New York in the 40's, Boogie Woogie and Bebop, a hive of a city stirred up after the Harlem Renaissance, the end of Prohibition, heaving and thriving with artists from the New World and those fleeing war torn Europe, where he lived, like his work, charts a journey through the major modern art movements of the twentieth century, impressionism, cubism, fauvism, expressionism, futurism, Dadaism, surrealism.... What is fascinating about Mondrian's work is that you clearly see the impact and his engagement in all of this up to the point, and arguably after, when he made very specific decisions on his life's work......(piquing your curiosity ! selling the sizzle, not the sausage!)

What makes Mondrian unique among his peers, except for perhaps Kandinsky, is his connection to music and its impact on his work. This is what particularly interests me as a jazz artist. The major developments in art are paralleled by the major developments in 20th century music through Schoenberg, Satie, Stavinsky, Boulez, to, of particular interest to me and Mondrian, the transformative sound and impact of Jazz! Enchanted by the new sound, the infamous Cocteau described jazz as "an improvised catastrophe" and "a sonic cataclysm”. Arriving in New York City on a cold Winter's night in 1940, and hearing real Boogie Woogie for the first time, Mondrian cried, "Énorme!!"

But let me save the rest of the story til next Tuesday, when, If you can, please join me and the National Gallery online for Talk & Tea at 11am. If we can't travel physically, at least we can travel imaginatively, artistically and musically! If you miss that, a podcast is coming and there will be a performance as soon as restrictions allow. The National Gallery has a host of online programmes for you to enjoy here

2. Dublin City Council Culture Company's National Neighbourhood programme.

As facilitating artist on this programme, over 10 weeks, the group and I were treated to cultural delights presented by Dublin's cultural institutions like the National Concert Hall, the Hugh Lane Gallery, etc. I have to mention in particular an enlightening presentation on Irish Jazz by Irish Times jazz critic, Cormac Larkin! As most participants in my group had a visual impairment, there was great enthusiasm around novel ways of making culture more accessible. I'm very excited and hopeful about progressing these ideas, since as you know, disability and accessibility is a subject close to my heart.

DCCCC's cultural programmes are all online at the moment and for anyone interested in art and culture, or learn more about our city, I'd highly recommend them. Please see here: Join The National Neighbourhood or Get Involved: Full List of DCCCC's Engagement Programmes

Take care folks and hopefully see you, at least virtually, soon!

With every good wish for the New Year,

Emilie

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Emilie Conway
+ 353 87 7748 303jazz singer | composer | lyricist | artist | art therapy

www.emilieconway.ie | www.facebook.com/emilieconwaymusic | Emilie Conway on SpotifyTwitter:@emilieconway | Instagram: www.instagram.com/emilieconwayartNational Gallery of Ireland Special Project: Music for Mondrian Albums: The Secret of a Rose & Dear World: Emilie Conway Sings Alec Wilder available in stores & online.