Arts Complementing Each Other - Essay Example

Arts complementing each other Though sculpture and music are two entirely different areas of art, some times each can be seen as complementing the other. One can easily recognize that Edward MacDowell’s music complement Ed Kienholz’s sculpture in more ways than one. As Americans, both of them have been naturally influenced by many factors that are unique to American culture. Mac Dowell’s Indian Suite amply illustrates this complementary nature. The composer himself acknowledged the source of his themes for this to be Amerindian Folk songs.

However, it was not an imitation or just a restating of Amerindian music exactly. The treatment is quite Mac Dowellian, so to speak, as he maintains a unique identity and character to his work. Potent and vigorous, the theme is unusual, and at times bordering on bizarre. This characteristic is amply echoed in Kienholz’s sculptures like John Doe. The vast, empty spaces of Amerindian country and the exhilarating sense of freedom the musical piece suggests has its counterpart in Kienholz’s sculptural form and architectural space.

While the Amerindians are characters of a social milieu, the sculpture also falls within a similar one. The themes of both the music and the sculpture in general do not reflect realism but function as generic type of folk very similar in attitudes. Kienholz lays strong emphasis on the environmental aspect of aesthetics while the music echoes the pure, unadulterated environment of the vast empty expanses where the American Indians roamed. Mac Dowell’s musical piece consists of four piano sonatas.

In the first sonata entitled The Tragica, there is directness and dignity, qualities that are evident in the sculpture of the American Master. Kienholz’s pieces almost always take up the form of tableaux and in a wider sense the musical suite also chimes a similar note. Both artists depict tragedy as the fact of human life and it can be seen as a common thread that runs through the creations of both artists. In the Norse Sonata, some of the passages are primitive and vigorous in character, qualities which could be laid at the threshold of Kienholz’s sculpture also.

While the suite is hauntingly beautiful, the figure of John Doe is hauntingly eccentric, a quality attributed to the American artist. And if one looks at John Doe closely his resemblance to an Indian chief will not be easily lost. Thus it can be stated that though many characteristics distinguish the works of Edward Mac Dowell and Ed Kienholz’s works, their creations do have some traits that make them complementary to each other. Therefore arts in different genres and forms can be seen as sharing the same aesthetic of other qualities.

Work Cited Doe, John. Kienholz, Ed. The Artchive 3 Mar. 2007 .