Episode 048: View from the Window

In which we discuss rules, Vienna, and meaningful donations

We’re not ones for lots of rules around the house. Keep your room clean. Do well in school. Be polite. The real basics. Nothing over the top or militaristic.

We do, however, have what we call The Three Things: 

Do your best. Feed your brain. Be kind. 

These three things are not rules. They are sacrosanct, immutable truths. They are repeated as a family mantra every day when we leave to drive to school and work, and they are discussed each night at the dinner table when all three of us take turns recounting how we tried hard, how we learned something, and how we were kind to someone. 

That said…I do have one kinda hard-ass rule. When our son and I drive to and from school each day: no phone. We are driving together. I am not a chauffeur and neither is he.

• We can talk, that's great. We talk all of the time. Politics, philosophy, books, religion. 

• We can listen to music, that's cool too. 

• Or, even better, we can just stare out the window. 

There's something to be said for just staring out a window with an open, clear mind. A car window is great for that. A window at work is good too, maybe, if you are a little bored. 

Even your front window at home. When it’s snowing. In Vienna. Like in Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky’s beautiful little 1925 masterpiece View from the Window, Vienna.

View from the Window, Vienna, Von Motesiczky, 1925

I was planning on writing a beat for this painting weeks ago, but then life took over and we went on our little jaunt to London. While at the Tate Modern to see the El Anatsui installation I wrote about a couple weeks back, I stumbled upon this very painting. I had no idea it was at the Tate Modern and that I would see it in person! Serendipity. 

It’s just a perfect little work. From the Tate’s write-up:

“This painting depicts a view of roofs and facades seen from the artist’s fourth-floor flat in Vienna, where she lived during the first half of the 1920s. The cupola in the upper centre of the painting is part of the Johann Strauss Theatre, famous for its performances of light opera.”

Bonus! A little Strauss namecheck. The waltz king!

I love how this reduction came together. On around my third or fourth version, when I felt I couldn’t take anything else out, it somehow started to look more and more like the original painting. Maybe it was one of those rare works I didn’t have to strip down to get to its essence. It’s already right there in front of us.

View from the Window, Vienna - Reduction

There needed to be something hypnotic about this beat. A short little phrase that repeats over and over. Imitating the snowflakes, perhaps. Or maybe how all the rooftops look the same when you look out a city window from some height? 

The trance you go into when you aimlessly stare out a window. Man, is that good for you!

The very first thing I wrote in this beat was the repeating guitar line. Just two notes, over and over. There were no drums yet. No bass line. No little piano trinkle, tinkles. Just the guitar. I was in a trance, just listening to the guitar lick repeating repeating repeating. 

And then, before you know it, some groovy drums and bass appear. A couple of backward pads and some reverbed-up piano, and suddenly we are staring out the window on a snowy Saturday afternoon.

“If you could only paint a single good picture in your lifetime, your life would be worthwhile.”

That is what Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky had to say about the importance of art. Agreed. 

Of course, she painted over 300 works spanning more than seven decades. This one is most definitely NOT the only “good picture”.

One last thing I found out on our visit to the Tate: In 2019, The Archive Gallery at Tate Britain was renamed in perpetuity as the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery, in recognition of a gift from the charitable trust in her name. 

It is the largest gift from a private trust ever made to Tate Archives. To help us all look out the virtual window at art through the centuries. Thank you.

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Until next week, thanks for reading Polyester City. If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment by clicking the link above. If you know anyone who likes Music and Art and Stories [and not too many rules], which is pretty much everyone, please consider sharing by clicking the link below.