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City of Illusion, 2006 The title refers to a book by Vardis Fisher, 1955, about a heroine of Don Reich’s, Eilley Orrum Bowers, who was queen of the Comstock silver boom in Virginia City, Nevada. The city dump was first gleaned for artifacts by Reich.

Title Problem

As for titles, Reich always feared that viewers would interpret his pictures on the basis of what he called them. But rather than using cryptic titles like, “XB 13,” as Rothko and others did, he struggled to create uninformative but intriguing or jokey titles, like, “This Painting Has Yellow In It,” or “Teeny-Wienie Squeezetta Pimpolini,” or, “Hop off the Griddle and Straight Out of the Horse’s Mouth,” or “Dead at the Dairy Queen,” or “Ego Autopsy.” Extreme puns like “Get off the wagon -- let’s cook.” He used phrases he had heard and liked that had nothing to do with the picture, e.g. “How Come I Never Get Any dates?” When he found a title he liked, he’d use it many times, driving curators nuts.

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Reich’s attitude toward titles extended to reviews and any other attempt to verbalize his or anyone’s art. Like many others in the art world, Reich expressed mistrust of the word by saying, “The art must speak for itself.”
When Tom Wolfe accused New York artists of obeying the dictates of art critics, in “The Painted Word,” Reich and many others in the little art world, including me, bridled at the accusation that words influence art and music. The arts interact with and dilute one another? Never!
When Melford premiered the piano pieces at the Crocker Art Museum, she did not want the drawings displayed or projected in the auditorium lest the audience try to read the images in the music or vice versa. It would have been too distracting. Instead, the drawings were screened on a monitor outside the hall, speaking for themselves.
The entire show -- music and drawings -- was videographed and broadcast by the Voice of America. Melford has performed the pieces in concerts around the world.

Beyond Category: Myra Melford

"Attic" by Myra Melford

Myra Melford at Piedmont Piano, 'Still Life'

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