Details

Title

Echoes of Bach

Artist/Maker

Katherine Dreier (American, 1877–1952)

Date

ca. 1930

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

28 1/2 x 36 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from the Walter and Frances Bunzl Foundation, Carol Kelley, Joan N. Whitcomb, Jean and Glenn Verrill Foundation and the American Art Collectors

Accession #

2006.62

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 3, Gallery 301

Born in Brooklyn to German émigré parents, Katherine Dreier contributed to the reception of modern art styles in the United States in many ways, as artist, collector, and curator. In 1916 she cofounded the jury-free exhibition forum Society of Independent Artists followed by Société Anonyme in 1920. Dreier was inspired by artists like Wassily Kandinsky who saw abstract art’s potential to communicate the sonic properties of music, and she attempted to visually translate compositions by Beethoven and Bach herself. Here the triangular forms striking and ricocheting around a circular plane suggest the vibration of a cymbal.