Sketches of sound
Painting and music are sister arts, one says. Not twins, which could replace each other with no difference. But so close to each other that you could believe to recognize one in the other. A rhythm of lines and areas, colours and movements turn into a harmonic rhythm of sounds, staccato like or tunes, or the lovable tunes of the music like onomatopoeia actually appear in a picture.
The family ties between painting and music seem to become most apparent if they are based on atmosphere when they are impressions and imagination. It becomes more difficult if the motive of the painting itself is a “musical” one. Then the relationship often looks posed, seems intended and constructed. Ralf Walraff’s music paintings which are paintings of (jazz) musicians are different.
Based on photo series made by Walraff at concerts, where like few other photographers he is allowed to get very close to the protagonists emerges from a contemplative process that is from a condensed, intensified process a sort of scenic collage. Walraff composes practically from his photographic concert recording a picture which has the musician in his music as the main theme…
… it is about the moment when the musician forgets everything around him, when the music reaches him physically, when he becomes one with the tunes, which are formed by his hands, his breath, to which he listens sometimes sad, sometimes enthusiastically, which he sends out to the world in an absorbed, affectionate sometimes almost caring dialogue with his instrument.
I have never met a musician who, when following his profession, turned into a pillar of salt. Maybe some less than others but all show physically the music and the enthusiasm of what they are momentarily doing. And this is exactly what Ralf Walraff conveys.
Stefan Skowron, Aachen