Idris Khan: ‘The Seasons Turn’ at the Victoria Miro Gallery
Sotheby’s recently held an online talk called ‘Colour is the Keyboard’ Music and Art Throughout Modern History. I attended and was surprised by Khans use of sheet music and colour. Each sheet he used was from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, therefore it is of no surprise that the twenty eight pieces of work as show in the Victoria Miro gallery reflect the changing seasons. It’s arguably Vivaldi’s most iconic music and, as Khan describes in the talk, this music deeply resonated with him.
Paintings from ‘The Seasons Turn’ 2020 Idris Khan.
I won’t lie, the biggest reaction from me was ‘Sacrilege!’ But that, in part, was due to my being a classically trained musician. But Khan is not Philip Glass, who, put paper clips, nails and other random and damaging what-have-yous in a Steinway Grand Piano. The painting of sheet music in another colour, okay cool fine. But to then take it further by imprinting words and more music over and over again until the music is hardly recognisable, let along readable?! I was a little displeased. However, despite my displeasure at seeing sheet music ruined, the effect was actually pretty cool. It is clear that the music of Vivaldi means something to Khan and his motives was to create an effect of time passing, the changing of the seasons. The works in and of themselves are multi-dimensional. Lets take for example ‘La Primavera’ the first movement of the Four Seasons and the first four pieces Khan wants us to confront. We have this beautiful blossom pink piece, at the foreground of the piece we have this large white background which is overlaid again and again with music in a light shade of pink. To me this suggests the fact that ‘La Primavera’ is arguably the most famous and popular section of ‘The Four Seasons’; its played at weddings, concerts, when you’re put on hold by customer service- its instantly recognisable. Everywhere. Therefore, this overlaying of printed music again and again and again means that, after a point, you don’t even recognise the music anymore. There’s so much depth to them; too much going on in the picture, you loose a sense of Vivaldi’s meaning making. This is why I was, a first skeptical of these pieces because Khan was essentially taking another piece of artistic work and calling it his own. Okay, so its true, with Vivaldi being dead some 280-ish years, his music is out of copyright and in the public domain. So Khan isn’t doing a Sherrie Levine exactly. And, unlike Levine probably would’ve done, used the entirety of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons sheet music. And, you know, called it her music. What you get is small snippets of the music, a page here and there consisting of a few bars of the music. The overlaying isn’t neat, its freehand, printed on the painting at the artists whim. So you get a stave here, a cresc there, crotchets and minims dotted around the picture so that they float, semi-detached from the original music. It's almost dream like.
The Seasons Turn 2020 Idris Khan
As you move upstairs in the gallery there are more works, now my initial thoughts on these pieces were: “Well, Rothko had ‘Red’, Khan has ‘Blue’”. Sometimes the best works are minimalistic, these works are on gesso backgrounds painted in various blues, Prussian and cobalt blue being, immediately, the most prominent to me. They look like pages of text painted blue, but pages that have undergone immense censure. But nothing with Idris Khan’s work is all that it seems. In interviews Khan notes that the pandemic was a great time for reflection and these reflections are the basis for the text that he uses. His words are all his own. This reason why he chose the colour blue? ‘The works are blue because I feel it has very spiritual and immediate effect on peoples emotions’ and that it does. The Apollo magazine last year released an article on Rothko’s religious pieces that are (covid-19 permitting) on display at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. These works are also in a shade of blue and purple, but that feeling of spirituality resonates.
Left: ‘Burnt Wood’ 2020. Right: ‘Eternity Stays Within Limits’ 2020
Okay, so there are hints of Rothko here, but what about Khan? The main difference between Khan and Rothko is the use of text. The text in these works are layered again and again on top of each other to the point where you can’t distinguish between the words anymore. What is the meaning of the text? Should it even be called ‘text’? Someone call Wittgenstien, he’s going to LOVE this! My personal favourite of these works in the upper gallery is the one titles ‘There are no eyes here’ 2020. Its a solid block of blue and text, not to get too philosophical on the meaning of the title, but wow. What I love about it is the way it absorbs the eyes into the painting. It doesn’t ‘draw’ the eye in because to do so there would have to be ‘perspective’ or something that catches the eye. But no, this one absorbs the eyes, you’re pulled into trying to understand the text, when really what is there to understand?
‘There are no eyes here’ Idris Khan 2020
There is a sense of loss of language in these works, not just the Blue paintings but in the interpretation of The Four Seasons, its like language- be it written or musical- is loosing all its meaning. These paintings pull you in, but the remaining question is, do they let you go?
Idris Khan: The Seasons Turn is on at the Victoria Miro Gallery until the 15th of May. Pre- booking is required.