introduction texts
Introduction
In
1988-1989 Maria Korporal completed the project “The Song of the
Earth”, which consists of 54 drawings and paintings, each of these
representing a musical work of Gustav Mahler. The Lieder aus “Des
Knaben Wunderhorn” have been expressed in a series of drawings/collages
of small size, while ten larger pastel drawings are dedicated to the Kindertotenlieder
and the Lieder nach Rückert. Ten
paintings, each measuring 100 x 210 centimeters, form the heart of the
project and contain the most remarkable elements. They are inspired by
Mahler's ten Symphonies, although it might be better to speak of nine
and of one unfinished work. The idea of incompletedness has been caught
in the tenth painting.
Gustav
Mahler's musical works have both inspired and influenced some examples
of fine art in the past. But here we have something different. As far as
known this is the first time that Mahler's entire
musical production has been studied and interpreted by another
artist as a reality sui generis
and has become as such the starting point for another artistic
reality, expressed with very different means.
The
starting point of the project goes back to March 1988. Maria Korporal
explains: "I was reading in the newspaper about Mahler's
Titan, which at that time had existed exactly 100 years. This reminded
me of my first encounter with the genius, which had taken place five
years earlier in the Dutch town Breda, where I was a graduate in Fine
Arts at the St. Joost Academy. Out of curiosity I had bought a bargain
record of the First Symphony of Gustav Mahler. I had vaguely heard of
the composers name, but I did not have the slightest idea of the kind of
music he had written. At home, listening to the first movement with
their magnificent so-called Naturlaut, and the transformation of
a childrens song into a utmost tragic funeral march, which happens in
the third movement, I was deeply moved."
Remembering
this experience in the spring of 1988, she bought a brandnew tape of the
First Symphony. But obviously times had changed. Maria Korporal
moved to Italy after graduating and got involved in painting and drawing.
After doing eight large drawings with a literary theme, various
paintings and some bookcover designs she got carried away by Mahler. In
September 1989 she could put the last stroke on the painting-like
construction which would have to represent the Tenth Symphony:
"For
the last one and a half years I've listened to every piece of music left
by the composer and read all I could find in the way of autobiografical,
biographical and musicological analyses; I took long walks in a Mahler
spirit on the Monte Soratte (where I found a studio in June 1988) and
suffered demonic influences. As a result of living and working in this
beautiful landscape north of Rome I was able to make a total of fifty-four
paintings and drawings."
Introduction
Inspiration - Gerrit Van Oord
Marianne Korporal alias Mahlerianne - Ricardo de Mambro Santos
Mahler, Cantor of the "Crisis" - Giorgio Boari Ortolani
Gustav Mahler - biography
Maria Korporal - biography