Museum Music

Step right into the museum, ladies and gents, and as you make your way through the exhibits, be sure to keep your personal soundtrack turned up in your headset. As you get closer to the Kandinsky — whoa, not that close — the multi-hued chamber-pop of the Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow” should put color theory into a whole new light. Get a good look at Edward Hopper’s lonely, shadowed cityscape “Nighthawks” with the cool, nocturnal bebop of Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight” as your flashlight. And a stroll past Basquiat’s intimate array of symbols and scenes might offer an excellent answer when mixmeister supreme DJ Shadow asks “What Does Your Soul Look Like?”

In Next Steps, sax sojourns and moody, mysterious ballads blow through our museum tour.

The further our museum tour takes us, the more the tracks you’re tuned into will come in handy. For instance, the harder you stare at Picasso’s cubist classic “Three Musicians,” the more the searching strains of Coleman Hawkins’ solo sax journey “Picasso” seem to be coming from inside the painting. Moving down the corridor, you’ll find that the sleek, space-age surfaces of Stereolab’s “Diagonals” seem strangely appropriate as you’re passing the modernist masterpieces of Paul Klee. And by the time you’re finished marveling at some of Monet’s more watery works, you’re likely to wish you were wearing the moody-but-moisture-proof “Famous Blue Raincoat” that came from the darker corners of Leonard Cohen’s closet.

In Deep Cuts, bebop masters will make you see art in a whole new light.

Nothing helps bring out the beauty in abstraction like the open-ended expressions of bebop. The elegant but action-packed intertwining lines of Oscar Peterson and Benny Green’s piano summit-meeting “Jitterbug Waltz” are the ideal companion for poring over the densely detailed dream world of Pollock’s paintings. And the bright, bold splashes of sound streaming from the fingers of Red Garland on “Blues In the Closet” can make the sassy surrealism of Miró spring to life like you wouldn’t believe. But if it’s the old-school saints of the paintbrush you prefer, rev up for Rembrandt with the stately, cello-led charms of orchestral-pop genius Brian Wilson’s “Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine.”

Sometimes it’s good to get away from the script. For your next museum visit, instead of strapping on a headset with some spoken-word guide telling you what to think, bring along a pair of headphones and plug into the coolest art-appreciation soundtrack you’ve ever heard. From jazz giants John Coltrane and Miles Davis to classic-rock godheads David Bowie and the Rolling Stones — not to mention some stellar contributions from the worlds of classical and electronica — these are the sounds bound to make art come alive. Whether you’re melting into the far-out fantasies of Salvador Dali or being absorbed by the vivid visions of Van Gogh, we’ve picked the perfect tunes to accentuate your adventure into the mysterious, undeniably musical world of art.