About this Event
What does a painting sound like?
Join composer and pianist Robert Hitz for an afternoon of live music created in response to the paintings of Jessica Damen and the literary sources that move through the exhibition Off the Page.
Improvisation is central to Hitz’s practice. Rather than beginning with a fixed score, he responds to what he encounters—to an image, a gesture, a color, a line of poetry, or the energy of the room. For this performance, Damen’s paintings become points of departure for music made in the moment.
The program extends a process already at work throughout Off the Page. Damen’s paintings often begin with reading: a poem, story, myth, or other text stays with her and gradually finds another form in paint. At other times, her paintings have prompted writers to create poems in response. The exhibition follows this movement from one medium to another—from word to image, image to word, and now image to sound.
During this special afternoon at The Peale, Hitz will bring that exchange into the present tense. Visitors are invited to listen while looking, moving between the paintings and the music as each changes the experience of the other.
The performance asks us to consider interpretation as an act of making. A painting does not need to be translated into music. Instead, it can become a provocation: something to listen to, respond to, and carry somewhere new.
About Robert Hitz
Composer and pianist Robert Hitz works across composition, improvisation, performance, and collaboration. His practice includes performances in which visual art becomes a starting point for music, allowing sound to develop through close observation and response.
About Off the Page
Off the Page explores the role of literature and the written word in the work of painter Jessica Damen. Through painting on canvas, linen, and paper, Damen responds to poetry, literature, myth, memory, and research. The exhibition also considers the reverse exchange: poems and other creative works made in response to her paintings.
Come spend an afternoon looking and listening - and experience what happens when a painting becomes the beginning of a performance.
Event venue & nearby stays
225 Holliday St, 225 Holliday Street, Baltimore, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.