The Cooper Gallery

Kottbusserdam Pictures and Turkish Music: Karakus Doner Havada. Eduardo Paolozzi 

This print in muted green, blue and beige ink in an off white background shows a variety of different shapes, lines and patterns. Parts look almost like tubes and cogs in a diagram for a machine. Music is referenced in the title of the work, with this in mind each shape and line could represent a different sound or note. For example the circles could represent the beat of a drum and the wavy lines the melody

A lute is leaning against the wall in the corner of a room. The main body of the lute is central and leans towards the right-hand side of the picture. The floor is brown with a light brown wall on the right of the lute and a grey one to the left. The lute itself is yellow with a selection of browns making up the fret board. The style of the work is like early sketches within Cubism; this is especially apparent on the right-hand edge of the instrument where the underside can also be seen even though it’s a 2D piece of work. Showing multiple angles of an object or subject was a common feature of the Cubist artists. The instrument, leaning against the wall on its own, invites the viewer to want to pick it up and play it.

Pan. Gertrude Spencer Stanhope. Bronze sculpture

This sculpture of Pan features an array of textures that depict his hair and the rocks he is sat on while he plays his pipe. The expression of his face and the angle of his head and body suggests a playful and frivolous nature to his music. His fingers only hold on to the instrument lightly and are positioned so that they are dancing over the holes in the pipe which further suggests a quick paced tuned is being played. You can almost imagine other mythical creatures dancing around him

An elderly woman can be seen walking through a doorway. She’s wearing a dark red jacket and skirt featuring a delicate white ornate pattern and has a small pale handbag over her arm. Her hair is short and white and tucked behind her ear and on top of her head she’s wearing a lilac and black hat. A hearing aid is visible on her exposed ear. The doorway that she’s walking through is dark with a wrought iron gate and is surrounded by the white walls of the building. The white walls frame the image and the woman’s white hair in the centre of the image draws the viewer in to the doorway with her. The darkness of the doorway surrounding the woman could be seen to symbolise the isolating nature of hearing loss.

A group scene is shown with a woman in the centre and two children at either side of her. There’s a boy on the left who is sat on a blanket on a wall playing a recorder. On the left is a girl sat on the step that the woman is stood on, leaning against the wall with her back to the viewer. The girl is playing a string instrument. The building they are all in resembles a rustic house and definitely not something lavish and inhabited by wealthy occupants. It’s quite dark and bare, although there are corn cobs on the ground and a ceramic jug on a ledge on the right. However, despite being clearly quite poor, the painting suggests being creative, cultured, and musical. By having the boy sitting on a blanket, rather than on the cold stone, a warmth of family is suggested. Whilst we can’t be sure of the relationship of the woman to the children, her interested gaze at the girl playing the instrument suggests that she could be their teacher or possibly just enjoying the sound of the music.

Allegories of The Senses by The Cooper Gallery