The jazz movement brought a whole new emphasis on self-expression for musicians as well as many other artists ("About Jazz," par. 5). Charles Mingus, a famous jazz musician states:

Since the Elizabethan era, people have associated the word 'blue' with the ideas of melancholia and depression (Baker, par. 2). Originating from blues, jazz music expresses intensely personal feelings. Not surprisingly, lyrics of blues as well as jazz music deal with the pain of betrayal, joblessness, hunger, bankruptcy, and loneliness as well as the longing related to desire and tenderness. Jazz musicians' ability to express themselves honestly allows them to exhibit unrestrained use of notes and emotionally inflected vocal sounds to convey what they feel (Baker, par. 12-15). Musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie use "furious tempos and intricate heads played in unison" to keep the beat, "using the cymbal, bass and snare drums for accents" ("Biography," par. 1). This creativity and variety of tempos demonstrates the jazz movement's freedom.

The jazz musical movement deeply influenced every form of art, including painting. Art analyst, Herschel Chipp asks, "what will the aim of future painting be? The same as that of poetry, music, and philosophy: to create previously unknown sensations," showing the combination of every form of art into one general archetype (Chipp 397). Thus, artists incorporated what they saw in jazz music into their own paintings and drawings. Consequently, different forms of art that developed during the same time share similar characteristics.

Surrealism, the visual end of the jazz movement spectrum, exhibits many of the same ideals of jazz music. A gathering of artists and writers during 1924 in André Breton, Paris initiated the surrealist movement, just as the jazz movement developed around the 1920s. Surrealism depends upon inspiration instead of rules, and it values the free play of imagination rather than societal or historical ideals (Chipp 366). Jazz musicians often use improvisations, just as surrealist artists use "free play of their imagination" to create their artwork, which shows the similarity between the two movements in their uninhibited manner of artistic expression (Chipp 366). Additionally, many surrealists use the imaginative paranoia-critical method, where the artist attempts to freeze many unconscious thoughts on canvas to allow the viewer to comprehend the overall picture (Sanchez par. 5). Again, jazz music shares similarities with this aspect of surrealism because musicians often combine a variety of melodies (thoughts) into their songs, allowing the listener to understand the song as a whole. Finally, surrealist style often uses objects to portray the main idea, comparable to jazz musicians' use of melody and pitch to symbolize an overall thought or feeling (Sanchez par. 5).

Specifically, Gertrude Abercrombie reflects her surrealist style as well as her jazz music background in Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting, stating that "I like to paint simple things that are a little strange" ("Gertrude Abercrombie", par. 2). Gertrude Abercrombie creates Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting in 1946 to interpret 1930s and 40s jazz music into visual art. Throughout her life, Abercrombie made her house a gathering place for unconventional artists as well as jazz musicians, who influenced her work drastically (Morgan 6). Dizzy Gillespie, a well-known jazz musician, called her "the bop artist [who] has taken the essence of our music and transported it into another art form" ("Gertrude Abercrombie," par. 1). Thus, Abercrombie combines her jazz music knowledge as well as her painting talent. Abercrombie names her painting after Charlie Parker (1920-1955), who "changed the face of jazz and shaped the course of 20th-century music," but also who professed the painting his favorite while visiting her art studio ("Biography," par. 1).

Despite the oil painting’s current title, its original name, Design for Death, describes the painting’s suicidal atmosphere more precisely, but still leaves out an important interpretation. Although Abercrombie's noose portrays suicide, the body’s absence suggests a more optimistic idea: the person discarded her gloves, as well as her sorrows and left without ending her life, pointing viewers in the positive direction. Additionally, Abercrombie's uses of creative artistic techniques suggest optimistic interpretations. Her blue hues contrast with neon colors, suggesting competition between colors as well as moods. The black/blue sky as well as the gray/blue ground creates a sense of gloominess, of helplessness. As with blues and jazz music, Abercrombie’s color choice of a blue background displays coldness, and cruelty. The painting’s blue-hued setting also presents a connotation of sadness and weakness (Fox, Gammond, Morgan, and Korner 249). However, Abercrombie's bright, neon-colored objects draw attention away from the grim background and suggest optimism and happiness. Just as the painting has a contrast in ideas and feelings, jazz music also exhibits a contrast in emotions. Often, musicians change tempos and pitches many times throughout a song, varying the feelings that they wish to portray, similar to the variety of moods Abercrombie suggests (Baker, par. 9).

The fluorescent pink and neon green optimistic colors draw attention to the discarded objects and emphasize that the suicidal person improved her outlook on life. The suicidal person discarded excess clothing, symbolizing her abandoned plans, and departed in a more free and uplifted state. She abandoned unnecessary and bothersome objects as well as her suicidal thoughts. The scattered gloves and handkerchief demonstrate Abercrombie's paranoia-critical method. This surrealist style of scattered clothing articles parallels how jazz musicians scatter their thoughts and ideas. Jazz musicians fluctuate between different ideas, just as they fluctuate between various moods, using diverse tones and tempos, and allowing for an overall picture of what their song conveys (Fox et al. 249). Not surprisingly, surrealists as well as jazz musicians allow for an overall interpretation from the many dispersed objects.

Abercrombie also specifically positions the black cloud and the moon to show the suicidal person’s fate. The high, light moon contrasts with the low, dark cloud. The dark cloud has almost fallen out of the painting, while the moon looms overhead. The moon has risen high over the cloud, dominating the setting, and showing that the suicidal person has chosen life over death. Abercrombie’s emphasis on the beaming moon instead of the gloomy cloud demonstrates that the suicidal person has let go of her bad feelings. The suicidal person's ability to let go of these bad feelings and actually develop a new point of view relates to jazz musicians' unrestrained music style that emphasizes self-expression (Baker par. 9). Jazz musicians discern, understand, and even change their feelings, just as Abercrombie's suicidal person evaluated and changed her suicidal intentions.

In addition to contrasting color and positioning, Abercrombie also contrasts light to portray the gladdened fate of the attempted suicide. The blue-gray background not only opposes the florescent pink and green colors, but also contrasts with the moon's light. Because five of the seven tree branches reach up and to the right, directly towards the moon, the painting overall emphasizes light. The focus on the only light source suggests that the suicidal person has also reached towards the light, grasping higher hopes as well as stronger morals, which explains her absence. Similarly, Charlie Parker often emphasizes a song’s higher and happier notes with his saxophone just as Abercrombie accents the moon’s height and light with her painting techniques (Fox et al. 252).

The moon motif persists throughout other surrealist paintings as well. The moon symbolizes a power that watches over the world, protects people, and has the ability to change moods (Ad de Vries 54). Surrealist, Roberto Matta Echaurren’s Le Journal de Séducteur depicts a confused scene with many shapes, lines, and blended shades, but paints one complete white circle near the top of the painting. The circle’s precision, whiteness, and position near the top of the page suggest that it represent a full moon. In this painting, the moon seems to make concrete and organized sense from the otherwise chaotic scene, showing its ability to change moods from chaotic to organized. In Abercrombie's painting, the moon's ability to change moods could explain why the suicidal person transforms her thoughts about committing suicide. This moon motif demonstrates how surrealism has seized the ideas of jazz. Jazz music also has mood swings. True, the choruses of songs have repetition, but the melody often varies from slow to fast and the pitch often shifts from low to high (Fox et al. 250).

Abercrombie's uses of contrasting colors, distinct shading techniques, and specific object positioning in her simple but strange painting demonstrate the relationship between surrealism and jazz music. Jazz musicians' freedom to "run around the room" and dance "around their instruments" shows the freedom and improvisational mood swings associated with the jazz movement (Gray par. 1). This freedom exhibited during the jazz as well as the surrealist movements as they persevered during the 1920s most likely helped cause the overall unrestrained expression of the "flappers" and society in general at this time. In fact, not only surrealism and the jazz movement, but also every type of movement, artistic or not, has had its own influence on the world.
 
 

Abercrombie, Gertrude. Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting (Design for Death). The Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina.

"About Jazz." About Jazz. 1999. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet. 2 Dec. 1999. Available http://afgen.com/aboutjaz.html
Ad de Vries. Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery. London and Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1974.

Baker, Robert M. "A Brief History of the Blues." The Blue Highway For the 'Buked and Scorned. 1999. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet. 29 Nov. 1999.

"Biography." Parker, Charlie. 1999. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet. 29 Nov. 1999.

Chipp, Herschel B. Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics. Los Angeles: U of California Press, 1968.

Echaurren, Roberty Matta. Le Journal du Séducteur. The Art Gallery University of California. California.

Fox, Charles, Peter Gammond, Alun Morgan, and Alexis Korner. Jazz on Record: A Critical Guide. New York: Hutchinson & Co., 1960.

"Gertrude Abercrombie." Gertrude Abercrombie. North Carolina: Chapel Hill, 1997. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet 16 Nov. 1999.

Gray, Danielle C. "Mingus Speaks." Mingus Speaks. Durham, 1997. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet. 2 Dec 1999.

Morgan, Ann Lee. "Abercrombie, Gertrude (1908-1977)." North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biological Dictionary. 1995 ed.

Sanchez, Monica. "Surrealism: The Art of Self Discovery." Surrealism: The Art of Self Discovery. 1997. Online. Electronic Text Center. Internet 16 Nov. 1999. 
 

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Rosemont, Penelope. Surrealist Women. Austin: U Texas Press, 1998.