Music for Strings 1949

Dorothy Dehner made this music for strings on a sheet of paper with pencil and watercolour. I imagine Dehner listening to music and channeling it directly onto the paper. See how she uses these elegant thin lines that shoot out in every direction—it’s almost like she’s mapping out the vibrations in the air. The whole thing is a kind of controlled chaos, right? I love the way she’s got these geometric shapes kind of floating in the background. They remind me of musical scales or architectural forms. The watercolour washes create this ethereal atmosphere that makes the lines pop, giving the whole composition a sense of depth and movement. It’s like she’s capturing the invisible energy of music. Painters are always in conversation with each other, and I wonder what other artists she was looking at when she made this. I love how artists can take something as ephemeral as music and turn it into something so concrete and beautiful.