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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Classical KC have joined forces to create a multi-sensory experience when viewing artwork in the museum's permanent collection. Take a listen!

Virginia Jaramillo's 'Quanta' // 'Metastaseis' by Iannis Xenakis

Virginia Jaramillo (Mexican American, born 1939), Shaman’s Dream, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 81½ x 69½ inches, Courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery and Pace Gallery. © Virginia Jaramillo. Image courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery and Pace Gallery.
JSP Art Photography
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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Virginia Jaramillo (Mexican American, born 1939), Quanta, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 144 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery and Pace Gallery. © Virginia Jaramillo. Image courtesy of the artist and Hales Gallery and Pace Gallery

The lines in Virginia Jaramillo's "Quanta" can easily be followed with your eyes across the painting, but when stepping back and looking at the collection of them as a whole, it can be chaotic, seemingly random. How do you feel when looking at those lines up close? Far away?

Composer Iannis Xenakis was an architect and used math and graphing for many of his works. "Metastaseis" was his first major orchestra work and uses 61 players - all playing their own graphs. This piece is based on time, warfare and mathematics, and the original score looks more like a blueprint than musical notation. When listening, how do these separate, but concurrent parts meld together? How do they balance each other out, or crash into each other?

Want to explore more music inspired by Virginia Jaramillo's artwork? Listen to our Spotify playlist for full pieces.

Find more information about 'Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence' on the Kemper's website.

You can find out more about Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art at kemperart.org.

View the full Kemper Museum Permanent Collection here.