NOCTURNE

Prince Street Gallery presents “Nocturne,” a group exhibit, from March 29 – April 23. The “nocturne” theme has captivated and challenged artists over time. The 19th-century painter, James McNeil Whistler, used and defined the term in relation to his art. His “definition” encompassed paintings that depicted not only scenes suggestive of night, but also, in his own words, “subjects as they appear in a veil of light, in twilight, or in the absence of direct light.” Later, in keeping with his idea of a correlation between musical notes and variations in color tone, Whistler refined his definition of nocturne to include “an arrangement of line, form and colour first.”

Prince Street Gallery’s “Nocturne” exhibit explores various approaches that resonate with this thinking. Some works are visionary or dreamlike, some poetic, some mysterious, even enigmatic. Abstract works suggest musical analogies, not dissimilar to Whistler’s expanded definition of nocturne.