This brief background offers a number of possible cultural and historical frameworks for considering the transatlantic paintings: as documents of the "intellectual migration" from Europe to America before and during World War II; as evidence of the way an artist deeply concerned with evolution and continuity in his work dealt with displacement and exile; as an important episode in the long dialogue between painting and music in the history of art; or as a major example of the frequent interaction and confusion of "high" and "low" culture in the 20th century.