Sex, Art and All That Jazz: Joyce Wieland’s Summer Blues

If jazz can be compared to the likes of sex and then art can be looked at in terms of jazz, it becomes only natural to think of art in relation to sex with jazz as a mediator. In 1961 Joyce Wieland produced a body of work that encompasses all three areas of this pseudo-equation.

It is best to start at the beginning and come to terms with why sex and jazz can be considered within the same train of thought. The meaning of jazz as we know it today did not happen overnight. The etymology of the word is not one hundred percent agreed upon which is the case of many words that originate from slang. The earliest known reference to jazz is attributed to pitcher Ben Henderson of the Portland Beavers. Referring to a pitch, he is quoted saying “I call it the jazz ball because it wobbles and you simply can’t do anything with it.”¹Henderson’s description from 1912 is synonymous with the meaning of jazz at the time, which stood for “full of vigor and energy”. By 1918, jazz was known to be slang for sexual intercourse.

There are theories that suggest that jazz has its origins from another language. Jazz music originated in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century. Many inhabitants of New Orleans were Creoles of mixed French and African origin. The French word jaser, “to chatter” bears an uncanny resemblance to jazz and is coincidentally enough, another slang term for sexual intercourse. At one point, as published in Jazz: A History of America's Music (2000) it was believed that jazz derives from the jasmine perfume that prostitutes wore in the red-light district of New Orleans. Whatever the discrepancies may be, there is quite certainly a link between jazz and sex that cannot be denied wholeheartedly.

Jazz is not alone as a musical term that had origins in sexual slang. "Boogie-woogie" was once slang for syphilis. "Gig" was used as slang for vulva. "Juke" came from "juke house," another term for brothel. And there is of course the term “swing”, the definition of which can refer to the dance form of jazz or its earlier slang meaning, which would have caused great distress in a monogamous bedroom.

This brings us to the second part of the equation that looks at how art can be looked at in relation to jazz. As a musical movement, jazz has unique characteristics. Improvisation is one of these key characteristics. A jazz musician has the ability to interpret “a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same way twice. Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician/performer may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will.”²

This is not unlike the work Joyce Wieland produced in 1961. Wieland’s Summer Blues series is a compilation of twenty to thirty collages that incorporate various materials including flattened cardboard boxes and the backs of placards. While the work itself slides toward abstraction, the titles often offer some reasonable insight into the moods evoked. While jazz itself is a rather abstract art form, the moods and ideas that it has the ability to evoke are quite substantial and concrete. The Kiss(1961), In the Water (1961), Rain (1961) and The Island 1961) are just a couple examples of evocative sub-titles that Wieland incorporates into the Summer Blues series.

Summer Blues, the title of this series, can also be looked at as jazz. Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music that became integrated into different genres of music, most notably, jazz. The early form of blues was style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure. Wieland’s collaged style appears unconstrained by the formality of any particular art genre and lends itself in application to the structure of blues, hence the title of the series.

The colour blue has described melancholy and depression since Elizabethan times but as a musical style the origin of blues can be traced back to the oral tradition of chanting that was brought by the African slaves to the southern United Stated. It was a form of cultural expression that expressed the emotions of slaves working in the cotton fields. The songs took the form of spiritual chants and were often used to convey feelings about daily life and the issues that surrounded it. Blues is a music that has the ability to convey the reality of human suffering but is also filled with redemption and transcendence.The phrasing of a blues melody is something that is felt, and is not easily written. The blues uses an 'ear' scale which is based on the wailing songs of the slave work on the plantations. This vocal style was eventually emulated on musical instruments by sliding, distorting or bending notes.³

This aspect of blues may be especially pertinent to consider when taking into account Wieland’s personal life. Wieland’s husband, Michael Snow, was an artist but also a jazz musician. Iris Nowell in A Life in Art writes...“When Joyce and Michael, now identified as a couple, were not attending openings, they and their artist friends went to pubs and clubs that had live music. Gordon Rayner says jazz more than art drew Michael and Joyce together, at first. Michael often played piano in a quartet with artist friends that Joyce later dubbed the Artists Jazz Band, and the name stuck.”⁴

The influence of jazz was something that Wieland was exposed to on a regular basis and it becomes evident when one examines her art. For Wieland, 1961 was a very productive year, as she not only produced the Summer Blues series but a variety of other works that are variations on the same theme. Jazz pieces and improvisations are similar in that they, much like the individual parts of an art series are pieces, or variations of a larger more overarching theme.

Balling is a very vivid work that was produced in the same year as the Summer Blues series (fig.1). Lauren Rabinovitz offers insight into this piece pointing out that; “as a slang term for sexual intercourse, the title also refers to the painting as a representation of an orgasmic phallus viewed in extreme close-up.”⁵ Wieland’s unique representation of the penis portrays it in erotic terms traditionally associated with female sexuality-delicacy, sensuality, gentle activity (...).”⁶Wieland comments, “I didn’t know what those things were when I made them.” She talks about the importance of subconscious material and adds, “I had this deep necessity to make them.” Much like improvisation in jazz, Wieland allows her art to simply happen, to flow from her own mood and personal experience. She now recognizes the content as “sex poetry” as well as an imprint of her infertile state at the time.⁷It seems that Wieland was struggling to conceive at this point in her life and poured out her frustrations and melancholic sentiments into the art that she was producing. Therefore, Summer Blues may be a reference to the beginnings of jazz blues where desolate feelings were often expressed through song.

Summer Blues-Ball is a rather rhythmic piece (fig. 2).⁸It is oil on canvas that is then mounted on masonite. The canvas itself has creases, wrinkled edges and the top right corner is missing. The collaged piece is composed of several parts that appear to float and almost dance with one another. Some shapes have their own space while others impose themselves on the space of others. The colours in this piece contrast against one other arousing both excitement and action. The background is a mustard shade that appears to have been dabbled with some green to add sweeping movements that cover the canvas. The collaged shapes have been colored red, blue and yellow. The red balls, significantly smaller than the other parts of the canvas, serve as accents that take the eye from the left corner, up and around a larger ball shape. The separation of colors and subsequent patterns can easily be compared to principles of jazz riffs and intervals. The juxtapositions of varying shapes form new structures, which is comparable to the free forms of jazz sequences. There is also a great deal of texture within this work, as none of the forms lie perfectly flat. The canvas itself is undulated and has significant ripples in between the layers. The shapes that appear in this work are not completely innocent. The circles and specks and longer phallic pieces can easily be seen from a sexual standpoint. Perhaps Wieland is depicting a sort of sexual dance that is set to the tune of blues where all the forms dance in and around one another.

Summer Blues-The Kiss is part of the Ensemble exhibition. The colors in this work are more muted suggesting a softer piece in comparison to the previous Summer Blues-Ball and Balling. Although there remains a strong sexual component, it is perhaps a bit different showing a softer, gentler side of sexuality. The palette consists mainly of earthy greens with soft washes of blue and darker brown clusters that are limited to the upper right area. These clusters stand out from the rest of the canvas and their shape bears resemblance to that of pursed lips, ready to kiss. There is a great deal of movement in this piece but it takes place at a very slow, melodic pace. The clustered shapes seem to be directed towards the upper right corner where the bulk of the languid action appears to be taking place. It is a very somber, melancholic piece without the orgasmic explosions that are present in the previous works. Perhaps this work is alluding to foreplay or perhaps it all ends with the kiss.

And it is here that we find ourselves at the end of the equation, drawing links between three areas of interest, sex jazz and art. The work of Joyce Wieland uses the improvisational, melancholic, and often subconscious characteristics of the jazz genre to mediate the sexual nature of the subject matter that is found within her art.