Multimedia experiments are everywhere in contemporary art, but the collaboration and conflict between the various arts has a long history. From opera to the symphonic poem, to paintings inspired by music, many attempts have been made to pair sounds with pictures and to combine the arts of time and space. Counterpoints: Dialogues between Music and the Visual Arts explores this artistic evolution from ancient times to the present day.
Philippe Junod's main focus is music and its relationship with painting, sculpture and architecture. He draws on theoretical and practical examples to show how different art movements throughout history have embraced or rejected creative combinations. The Renaissance, Neoclassicism and certain brands of modernism tried to claim the purity of each mode of expression, while other movements such as Romanticism, Symbolism and Surrealism called for a fusion of the arts. Counterpoints is a unique cultural history that provides a critical understanding of a popular but unheralded art form.
