Arthur Boyd from Stalin's Piano by Sonya Lifschitz & Robert Davidson
Arthur Boyd talks about how visual art is a less precise form of communication than written language, accompanied by the piano in a way to enhance perception of the melody in his speech. Interview by Hal Missingham, 22 September 1965, London. National Library of Australia, used by permission.
Tracklist
| 13. | Arthur Boyd | 1:21 |
Lyrics
So, um, I think that what happens with paintings, it… Painting’s a very ragged business, it’s not, ah…it has no neatness in it. And the meanings are very arbitrary, always…painting could be just about, be about anything at all, whereas in a way you can’t write about just about anything; what the words you say just have certain meanings, although they’re certainly very fuzzy, and you can be tricked completely by what people say, but on the whole, words have precise meanings. Whereas there’s nothing in painting that is precise, it’s just you get good and bad writing, but it’s always precise. It’s precisely bad, it’s precisely good, whereas in painting it’s just not the same at all. It has meaning for a lot of people, and no meaning for other people, or awful for some, rotten for others, so you never get it right.
Credits
Robert Davidson, composer, engineer, editor
Sonya Lifschitz, pianist
License
CC BY-NC 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.
Sonya Lifschitz' bold adventurousness & unparalleled musicianship, described as “a life force of extraordinary density and capacity” see her active as soloist, collaborator, artistic director, educator, radio personality and arts advocate.
Robert Davidson has been making music from language since childhood. With his ensemble Topology he explores a wide range of cross-genre collaboration.