Release Date: February 2, 2006
National Gallery of Art to Premiere Unique Version of Dada Film Score
A crowd gathers to witness a fully robotic performance of George Antheil’s “Le Ballet mécanique” at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, in honor of the Dada exhibition, performed at 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. weekdays, and 1:00 p.m. weekends through May 7, 2006. © 2006 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Photo by Ric Blanc.
Washington, DC – Excerpts from the rarely performed music for the well-known
Dada film, Le Ballet mécanique (1924) will be premiered in
a fully mechanized format at the National Gallery of Art, March 12 through
May 7, in conjunction with the Gallery’s Dada exhibition,
on view from February 19 through May 14, 2006. When American George Antheil
(1900–1959) composed the score
for the film he envisioned it as being performed with 16 player pianos and
other mechanical devices and two live pianists, but that proved impossible
with the technology that existed in his lifetime. With the help of computers
and electronics, a fully mechanized performance is now possible with the help
of robotically controlled instruments, designed and installed by Paul D. Lehrman
of Tufts University and Eric Singer of the League of Electronic Musical Urban
Robots (LEMUR). More information about the music for Le
Ballet mécanique can be found at www.antheil.org and www.lemurbots.org.
An orchestra of automated musical instruments, including 16 baby grand player
pianos with Pianomation® systems provided by QRS Music Technologies, Inc.
of Naples, Florida, will be installed on the East Building mezzanine, programmed
to play a portion of the original 27-minute score for the film Le
Ballet mécanique. The installation will be activated for a ten-minute performance each weekday
at 1:00 and 4:00 pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 pm. The 16-minute film
was directed by artist Fernand Léger with cinematography by Dudley Murphy
and Man Ray and may be viewed in the exhibition, without sound, in Gallery
13.
Dada is the first major museum exhibition in the United States to explore in-depth this influential avant-garde art movement. Responding to the disasters of World War I and an emerging modern media and machine culture, Dada artists led a creative revolution that profoundly shaped the course of 20th-century art. Nearly 500 works will be featured in a dynamic media installation that includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, collages, prints, and film and sound recordings by over 40 artists. To learn more, visit www.nga.gov.
Exhibition Support and Organization
Dada is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation and the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation. Additional support for the exhibition has been provided by the Annenberg Foundation and Thomas G. Klarner. The brochure is made possible by Aaron and Barbara Levine and Pro Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
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