“My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of myself. It is who I am.” - Joan Jett.
0, 3, 5, 0, 3, 6, 5, 0, 3, 5, 3, 0. These are a sequence of numbers that most will know. You probably learnt it by passing a battered up Valencia 100 Series Classical Guitar around the classroom, positioning your tiny fingers on the fretboard to the rocking tablature and receiving the buzzed feedback of the steel strings from the lack of pressure. Maybe you discovered it through watching the movie classic School Of Rock or you’re an old school friend from ‘72, picking up Deep Purple’s Machine Head and immediately being drawn to the hero riff of ‘Smoke On The Water’. It’s become a bit of a meme in the guitar world but alas the power of the tab speaks to a collective cultural experience.
Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar
- When: From 12 October – 2 February
- Where: Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat Central, VIC 3350
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The guitar is not only a leader of the instrument and music world, it’s a pivotal piece of history, culture, education and evolution traced back to medieval times. From the four-string oud, the European lute, to the Spanish originated guitarra latina and the guitarra morisca introduced before 1200, there was always someone serenading crowds with the stringed instrument, perhaps with the medieval equivalent of ‘Wonderwall’.
With the modern guitar taking form in the 1850’s by the hands of Spanish craftsmen Manuel de Soto y Solares and, perhaps the most significant guitar maker of all, Antonio Torres Jurado, the sound of music multiplied as new genres emerged. Then came the introduction of electric guitars, patented in 1937, along with all of its accessories that would follow including the pick, the amplifier, pedal boards, whammy bars and more. As the musicians became drawn to the chest-guard instrument, the type, sound, shape, techniques and players continued to evolve. There are at least 15 types of guitars to choose from, not to mention the brands that have made their mark on the instrument including big-guns Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Jackson, and in Australia, our very own Maton. Let’s not even get into the world of bass guitars…
The instrument is single-handedly credited for the development of new genres, contributing to the sound structures of blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, ska, mariachi, metal, punk, funk, reggae, rock, grunge, soul, acoustic music, disco, new wave, new age, adult contemporary music, and pop, and all of their sub-branches. It also plays a part in hip-hop, dubstep, and trap music, being one of the most diverse instruments and one upheld by some of the world’s greatest musicians and songwriters.
That’s just scratching the surface of the way in which the guitar has developed and the way in which it continues to impact both the music world and modern culture. This is all being put under the microscope, as the Art Gallery of Ballarat tracks the history of the guitar through their exhibition, Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar.
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From Saturday 12 October, the oldest and largest regional gallery in Australia will be displaying 40 iconic guitars procured from the world’s first guitar dedicated museum, National Guitar Museum in the US, alongside a curated assemblage of photographers, paintings, drawings, illustrative designs and objects. The exhibition is a celebration of the stringed-instrument in all of its forms.
“Often when there have been guitar exhibitions in the past, they might focus on the artist who owned the guitar rather than the design of the guitar itself. I think that is one of the different aspects of this show is that it is about art and design,” explains Art Gallery of Ballarat Director and Medieval to Metal exhibition curator, Louise Tegart.
“Each of the 40 guitars has a piece of text which explains the design and the company that made them. It’s more about the guitars as objects. It means that you can track how it has changed over a long period of time – so you have the really early guitars like the oud and the lutes right up to guitars that are being manufactured in the last couple of years. You can really trace the design and style changes over time and also across different manufacturers as well. We have a number of Fender guitars, there’s a number of Gibson guitars so you can see that style change.”
The collection boasts guitars from across time periods including early Spanish guitars through to unique modern designs including a guitar made out of licence plates. For Tegart, her favourite piece in the collection is the most accessible and lightweight of the instrument’s form.
“My favourite is actually the empty case which is the air guitar,” she laughs. “We’ve developed an interactive as well where people can take a selfie with them playing the air guitar.”
Whilst the collection has been internationally acquired, the recognition of Australia’s rich guitar history and the relation to Ballarat’s music scene has been incorporated.
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“There will be two booths in the exhibition where people can play guitars and one of those will be a Maton. One of the other guitars that we felt was missing from the show was the flying V. It’s such an iconic guitar so we’ve actually commissioned a group of Indigenous artists in Ballarat called The Pitcha Makin Fellas and, in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix who painted his own flying V guitar, they have painted three flying V’s and created extraordinary artwork. It features in a section which is about the history of music in Ballarat because that was an important thing for us. Whenever we bring in a show from elsewhere we have some local flavour or connection to the gallery or our collection, so there is a bit about the history of the Gold Fields through to today, featuring a video which is being put together by a local video producer which features footage of gigs that have taken place in Ballarat across the past 50 years.”
Elevating the museum display, Art Gallery of Ballarat will make the exhibition an immersive experience, intertwining the art experience into the impressive collection. A photographic display of images by English-born Australian rock and music photographer Tony Mott will transport you to the stage. Works have further been borrowed by The National Gallery of Victoria, and other galleries throughout Australia to world-build the art exhibition.
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Adding to the guitar’s grand history, Art Gallery of Ballarat will partner Medieval to Metal with their live music series Art Late, featuring gigs from Rose City Band (USA) on 19 October, RVG on 2 November and CIVIC on 30 November. Additional public programs will complement the exhibition including Art Classics, which celebrates the Medieval origins of music with displays of classical performances from an internationally acclaimed lutenist, classically reimagining Cold Chisel classics, and Art Talks will bring music experts to Ballarat to discuss the guitar’s position in art history and popular culture. Jane Gazzo and Stewart Coupe will lead a talk called Writers Who Rock, discussing music journalism and documentation.
That’s just within the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The business community of Ballarat have also rallied behind the exhibition, staging gigs and events as part of the show.
You will be buzzing after experiencing Medieval to Metal.
Find out more about Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar via the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s website.
