Jim Barber, historian at NPG, discusses a portrait of Thelonious Monk by Boris Chaliapin.
Jim Barber, historian at NPG, discusses a portrait of Thelonious Monk by Boris Chaliapin. A leader of the postwar jazz revolution, Thelonious Monk--along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker--sparked the "bebop" movement, a jazz style faster and more frenetic than the swing that had held sway since the thirties. Monk's piano style has been called eccentric: "his melodies were angular, his harmonies full of jarring clusters." Jim Barber, historian at the National Portrait Gallery, discussed this portrait of Thelonious Monk by Boris Chaliapin at a Face-to-Face portrait talk. The portrait was created for Time magazine and appeared on the cover of the February 28, 1964, edition. The work is displayed on the museum's third-floor mezzanine, in the exhibition "Bravo!" Recorded at NPG, February 19, 2009. Image info: Thelonious Sphere Monk / Boris Chaliapin, 1964 / Oil on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, gift of Time magazine