‘Qu4rtets’ Show is a Multimedia Response to T.S. Eliot Masterpiece

RONOAKE TIMES
By Mike Allen

Detail from “Spring” 2012, by Bruce Herman. Oil and alkyd resin with
23-karat gold, silver and moon gold leaf on wood; 97 inches by 60 inches.

NEW YORK---T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” a long poem in four parts by the Nobel Prize-winning author that explores time and Christian spirituality, most of it written during World War II. “It imitates in musical fashion the human experience of being bound in time, with eruptions of eternity,” said Roanoke College English professor Robert Schultz. Four friends — two artists, a composer and a theologian — have created a 21st-century response to Eliot’s masterpiece. Their efforts culminated in a traveling exhibition called “Qu4rtets”, which will open at Roanoke College on Jan. 17. The show includes large paintings by Makoto Fujimura and Bruce Herman, as well as a new classical composition by Christopher Theofanidis. That piece will be performed by the college’s resident chamber musicians, the Kandinsky Trio, along with guest musicians. [link]