Terry Nilssen-Love: Making Tracks in Barcelona, painting exhibition @ Stavanger kunstforening

Terry NL is the father of free jazz drummer Paal. He is a drummer himself, but somehow he handed it over to his son to develop it further, and went on with the painting instead. It seems that it worked quite well...

Terry's paintings are abstract and painted on canvases from about 1 by 1m to 1.5 by 4m. He uses acryl paint. He decided to have a background theme: the city of Barcelona (where his other son, Carl, lives). For some paintings, he magnified some parts of the city map, so that it gives a recognizable structure, and for others, he just followed his impressions of the city atmospheres. Like going free mapping. Carl walked around plaza Real in Barcelona centre, recording as he walked. The tape is played at the exhibition.

A few words for a general impression: colors, movements, layers, structured/unstructured, ensemble/details, ENERGY. Terry listens to music while he paints, mainly free jazz. No wonders. To the question if he could paint without music, he answered that while he would manage one painting, he was very unsure if he could manage several big canvases...

Watching the paintings while having free jazz from my iPod is a real kick. First i tried with The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (with amongst others: Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor, Carla Bley, Steve Lacy...). The energy of the music ensemble was matching the color explosion of the paintings. During the quiet parts, i could hear the street sounds of Barcelona taped by Carl in background, reminding me the paintings' common theme. I came in front of the big canvas "Raval", after having watched three smaller street structured canvases. Wow. Being a cartographer myself, i pretty got the notion what means "going free mapping": Terry went beyond the map limitations to paint his own version of "Raval". A mental map based on feelings and intuition. The street network becomes broken tracks of blue paint, the map elements are transfigured into complex layers and patterns. Still one has the feeling that the painting can be viewed like any map: one can search for the spaces one wants to explore.

Today i went again to the exhibition, and this time i listened to the last solo cd of Paal "27 years later". The name of the cd is referring to a solo concert that Terry gave 27 years ago in Molde. In 2002, Paal was artist in residence of the Molde International Jazz Festival, and gave a solo concert, which was recorded and released on cd... I was standing in front of the painting "Barceloneta", when i started the record on my iPod. Immediately i got caught by the details of the painting, the small movements of the brush matching the ultra rapid drumming of Paal. This strike on the cymbal matching a strike of Terry's brush. The green transverse stripes matching energyfull sequences of Paal. I walked close to the painting to have a detailed view of a very color intricated part. Impossible to tell in which order Terry applied the colors and the pattern mix. The exact same feeling while trying to perceive all the sounds played by Paal: something which can't be solve with reason only. One has to open his/her mind and let the information flow in, and let intuition act as guide...

Terry and Paal connections are giving an extra dimension to their artistic expression...

Terry's exhibition is going until 26th of February at the Stavanger kunstforening. Paal is touring in many different projects, mainly in Europe and USA.

More about Terry, Paal's webpage.

(picture by Heiko Purnhagen)