University Daily Kansan, November 29, 1984
ENTERTAINMENT
Page 7
November
30
Claude Frank, pianist in residence, will be teaching a master class at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. The public is invited to observe.
June Millington will be appearing in a solo performance at 3:00 p.m. in The Room Downward, 701 Massachusetts St. Tickets are $5 in advance and $6 at the door.
The opera workshop class will present "Hansel and Gretel" at 8 p.m. in the Inge Memorial Theatre in Murphy Hall. The opera will run through Dec. 7. Tickets cost $3 for the general public and $1.50 with a KU ID.
The University Dance Company is presenting its fall concert. The performance begins at 8 p.m. in 240 Robinson Gym. It will be performed again Dec. 1 at 2 and 8 p.m.
December
1
The Missouri Repertory Theatre will present "A Christmas Carol" through Dec. 3. Performances will begin at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall, 4944 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo.
Violistin Itzk Perlman will perform at 8 p.m. in Hoch Auditorium. His performance is the last in the Concert Series fall schedule.
More than 50 works from the Jones Road Print Shop will be on display at the NelsonAtkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., Kansas City, Mo. The pieces will be on display until Jan. 20.
2
The Ric Averill Players are having auditions for their dinner theater production "Crimes of the Heart," will begin 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Arts Center, 9th and Vermont streets.
A display showing nativity scenes will open at the Hellen Foresman Spencer Museum.
3
Auditions for the University Theatre opera. "Susannah," will begin at 7 p.m. in Murphy Hall and will continue through Dec. 4. Auditions are open to all students carrying more than six hours.
Playing by old rules not in modern game plan
By ERIKA BLACKSHER
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Playing chess without knowing the rules could be a difficult task. In fact, a frustrated participant might quickly discard it as a possessive, incomprehensible board game.
Only a player who knows the rules would be the opponent's king in check with a deft move.
Much of modern art requires the same
methodic process as timothy Mitchell.
associate artist at art library.
With the 20th century came a lot of art that had its own rules, Mitchell said. And many people do not understand or appreciate more abstract modern art because those rules do not directly apply to their everyday living experiences, he said.
"It's like a football game," he said. "When you know the rules you don't have to think about them."
"WHAT MOST modern artists, 20th century avant-garde artists, want to do is create some kind of visual experience that will stretch you a little bit — that will make you think or feel or react in ways that are unexpected."
"Dunes," which part of the collection at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art and was painted by Hans Hoffmann in 1943 with a good color for color, is a good example he said.
The abstract painting has no easily recognizable central figure, but rather, is a balanced composition of pleasant colors, he said as he pointed to the painting.
"You have to take each one for what it does and look at the work and say to yourself. What's happening in the work? or, in other words, that part of game is being played?" he said.
Mitchell contrasted the pleasant colors of "Dunes" to the colors of Peter Saul's 1962 work, "Business Man No. 2," which is filled across the aisle from Hofmann's work.
THE UGLY GREEN, orange and purple colors and the cartoon-like figures do not
"You can't force both paintings into the same rules," he said.
"The life of color is dynamic," he said. "It expands. It contracts. It comes out at you. It moves back away from you. So what he's there is playing with the dynamics of color."
With the rules of art being played with and changed, the role of the spectator was also changed. Before the 20th century, viewers were drawn to paintings as a way of setting settings of paintings. Their role was more
"Dunes," left, by Hans Hoffman and "Business Man No. 2," right, by Peter Saut are both in the modern art collection at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art.
usually fall into the fine arts category, he said. It has subject matter but the colors are
"Dunes," on the other hand, exhibits pleasant colors but no subject matter, he
passive. Mitchell said.
"PART OF THE ROLE of the spectator now is to unravel the game," he said.
Benton is known for paintings of the West and Midwest.
Thomas Hart Benton's work, for example, is 20th century art, yet it was created to be contemporary.
"That kind of painting does not require as much of you as a viewer because you know the rules of the game," he said.
Nick Vaccaro, professor of art, whose work has been displayed in exhibits across the nation, said that he wanted his art to stir the viewer emotionally.
"I'm trying to connect with them," he said.
"Art was made by humans for humans."
Yet, Vaccaro isn't interested in affecting people with similar settings and scenes.
"I'm interested in needed, rather than predictability," he said. "I'm interested in producing something that has never existed before and nature has never made before."
VACCAHR AND MITCHELL agree that appreciating art doesn't require an art history education. And, wandering through a modern art gallery doesn't have to be a boggling expedition, Mitchell said. An open mind and sensitivity will get many people through the corridors and out the door. And they might learn something, he said.
"Nobody comes into a museum ignorant," he said. "Some people know a little bit. Some people know more. Nobody knows every day that they has experiences that they bring with them."
"If you're close-minded or narrow in your taste, or you don't like surprises, then obviously a modern art gallery isn't the place for you to go."
Pianist says playing 2nd fiddle to violinist OK
By THERESA SCOTT Staff Reporter
When he works, he plays.
When he works, he plays.
When he plays, he plays the piano.
Samuel Sanders, pianist and professor at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, began playing the piano when he was about 6. He graduated from college with a violinist'sUtah Perlman on worldwide tours
Perlman and Sanders are performing at 8 p.m. Saturday in Hoch Auditorium. The concert closes the fall semester schedule for the University of Kansas Concert Series.
Sanders didn't always want to be a pianist, he said. When he was young, his mother started him on the piano to distract him from a heart defect that prevented him from playing music. Sanders said, if he did not have the defect, he probably wouldn't have been a musician.
"MUSIC IS a wonderful profession for me because my handicap doesn't stop me," he said.
not seeing more of it.
Their love of music and their physical defects are two of the common bonds that Sanders and Perlman share. Perlman, who had polio when he was 4, is permanently crippled and performs from a wheelchair.
And besides, playing the piano for Perlman has given Sanders some rare opportunities that he wouldn't have had otherwise. He has played at the White House six times for four presidents, he met mets of state and he has traveled the world, although he regrets
Sanders said he did not mind playing second fiddle to Perlman. "I don't mind not getting the personal recognition because I have a warm, personal affection for Izakh." Sanders said. "He's lots of fun. He's extremely nice, has a great sense of humor and he is very demanding. We get along really well."
"I GET TO GO to many beautiful cities," Sanders said. "Unfortunately, I often see little more than their airports."
The two musicians met when they were students at Juilhard. They started playing together.
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Although the two have been playing together a single concert really taught it in Sanders' mind.
adjustments, but I like little, unexpected things to happen because the unexpected makes it more exciting."
"But I do remember our first concert together because a kid lost his lunch, so to speak, in the middle of the concert. I started giggling," he said. "Even now I try never to look at Itzhak during a concert because he will make me laugh." Sanders would not tell how Perlman makes him laugh. It is one of "professional secrets," he said.
The audience also makes a difference during a concert. "Part of performing is the audience," he said. "I can really notice if they're tuned in. I can't articulate it, but I feel a general warmth and openness which is part of the ambiance. I just sense it."
SANDERS SAID that a concert was an accumulation of years of training. "It is the result of a lifetime's work," he said. "During live concerts, you have to make constant
PUTTING ON a concert is a team effort, Sanders said. Yet, they still have to give and take when playing together, and they have to develop their own ideas and their own careers.
In addition to accompanying and teaching, Sanders also directs the masters program for accompanies at Juilliard, coaches singers and directs Musa Ccamert, a chamber ensemble. He also started the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival that occurs every summer.
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