The place of musical instruments in 20th century western painting and their visual interpretations

This research is a comprehensive study analyzing the representation of musical instruments in 20th-century visual arts within their aesthetic, historical, and intellectual contexts. The relationship between music and visual arts has created a profound realm of interaction, not limited to mere formal similarities or superficial inspirations, but extending to philosophical questions about the nature of art. This interaction has manifested in various forms throughout the 20th century, depending on the aesthetic orientations of different art movements. The study questions the place of musical instruments in art not through isolated examples, but by grounding these representations in their cultural and theoretical contexts. The convergence of two distinct artistic expression forms, such as music and painting, is not merely a matter of visual depiction. On the contrary, through the transfer of musical elements such as rhythm, tempo, and harmony into the plastic language, an inter-sensory transitional domain has been created. In this context, the instrument has found its place in artworks as both a visual motif and a plane of sensory association. In the art of painting, the function of instruments often transcends mere object representation; they become symbolic building blocks that determine the overall meaning of the work. In this study, while examining the works of artists who focus on music and instruments throughout 20th-century art, ten paintings were also produced in an effort to explore contemporary forms of the relationship between music and painting. The interpretation of the plastical language of these newly produced paintings has enabled new analyses of the approaches of an artist who paints with musical imagery. As a result, the study has enabled the evaluation of musical instruments in the context of 20th-century art not only by their formal or objective characteristics, but also by the intellectual, critical, and aesthetic functions they undertake in the conceptual construction of art. Thus, instruments have become meaningful signifiers within the content-generating capacity of visual language. Key words: Art, Painting, Music, 20th Century, Instrument