Program Notes

état d'âme is one half of a project created in conjunction with Charlie Richardson, with his half entitled Three Colors of Preemptive Processing. He suggested we write two separate pieces that respond to the same prompt— we each select a visual artist we admire and examine their process, which we would attempt to replicate in a composition. The first artist that came to mind was Frantisek Kupka, an early abstract and cubist painter from Czechia.

The first painting of his I saw was The Yellow Scale (1907), which is housed in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. In this self- portrait, Kupka sensually gazes towards the viewer, reclined in a lounge chair and holding a half-smoked cigarette. Although the subject’s visual personality is fascinating, the true intoxication of this work is the use of a single color— yellow. Kupka’s legacy is defined by his philosophical exploration of the nature of color and how it affects perception of art. In works such as The Yellow Scale, Kupka uses a singular artistic tool and expresses its entire range.

In état d'âme, I have used Kupka’s approach to a self-portrait to create my own. The piece is comprised of very few materials, with the pitches rarely extending past a whole step in relation to each other. Pure air noise from the flute is the only sound for the first minute or so, and my portrait grows from there—highlighting my prides, insecurities, and wishes.

"Atmosphere in a painting is achieved through bathing the canvas in a single scale of colors, thus one achieves an état d'âme (state of being) exteriorized in luminous form." – Frantisek Kupka