Lots of Grey Hair

Aleksander Gabrys/Iannis Xenakis

For classical music, as I did with John Cage last week, I juxtapose performer and composer for the double portrait series. I can't believe how much grey hair I painted for these series. I too, for that matter, am getting grey. Aleksander Gabrys, a cellist from Poland, has still color on top but the beard hairs are grey. The hairs on top have thinned out compared to earlier photos. Iannis Xenakis, the storied Greek/French composer, died in 2001 in Paris. The composition Theraps for Double Bass was composed in 1976 and peformed by Gabrys in Bern in 2013.

Terrie Ex/Jon Langford

When Jon Langford produced, and the Ex recorded, Bouquet of Barbed Wire for the album Tumult in 1983, neither of them had gone grey yet, but I chose 21st century images for both Terrie Ex (Terrie Hessels), a founding member of the Dutch punk band The Ex, and Jon Langford, member of the British (post) punk band the Mekons. The Ex were formed in 1979 in Amsterdam and are still active today. Jon Langford too, is till active with the Mekons who formed in Leeds, England in 1977. Langford is also an accomplished artist.