Monday, February 2, 2015

Monday Muse: Poetry-Related Exhibitions

Monday Muse gathers information about three poetry exhibitions in the United States and three related exhibitions in Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

✭ With Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York City, the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation opened "Trevor Winkfield's Pageant" on January 6. Winkfield, who has created covers for numerous New York School poets' collections, will be showing original drawings and paintings for collaborations with John Ashbery, Kenward Elmslie, and Harry Mathews, among others, as well as portraits of Douglas Crase, Peter Gizzi, and Ashbery, and the tableau The Poet and His Muse. The exhibition runs through March 13.

Last winter, Winkfield published How I Became a Painter (Pressed Wafer, 2014), a conversation with Miles Champion. (See cover image at left.)



Thomas Devaney, "Relentless Complexities: Trevor Winkfield's Art Writing", Hyperallergic, November 23, 2014

Jarrett Earnest, "All Our Perverse Pleasures" (Interview), The Brooklyn Rail, May 6, 2014

Past Exhibitions at Poetry Foundation

✭ Valentines, holiday cards, birthday cards, and other objects are featured in "Winter Wedding: Holiday Cards by Poets", continuing at Poets House, New York City, through March 21. On display are more than 40 items by Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Seamus Heaney, Langston Hughes, Ted Hughes, Kenneth Koch, Paul Muldoon, Alice Notley, and Sylvia Plath, among other poets. Images of three items are shown at the exhibition link above.


Joanna Scutts, "Poets' Holiday Greeting Cards: An Intimate Glimpse Into Genius", Review, The Guardian, December 9, 2014

✭ The University of Arizona Poetry Center, in Tucson, has scheduled its opening of "Shame Every Rose: Images from Afghanistan" for February 23. Courtesy of the Poetry Foundation, the exhibition will showcase photographs by Seamus Murphy that illustrate Pashtun women's oral poetry, known as landays. The exhibition will continue through May 22. An artists' talk will take place March 5.

This exhibition earlier appeared at the Poetry Foundation. The Pulitzer Center sponsored Murphy's reporting project, which involved poet Eliza Griswold.


"Landays: Poetry of Afghan Women" at Poetry Foundation

Notable Exhibitions Abroad

✭ The Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, is host to "A Token of Concrete Affection", continuing through March 1. Drawn from the personal collection of Professor Stephen Bann, the show marks the 50th anniversary of the first international exhibition of concrete, kinetic (interactive), and phonic poetry held in 1964. Featured are exchanges between Cambridge and Brazilian poets in the 1960s. A symposium about concrete poetry from the 1960s is planned for February 14. 


Example of Concrete Poetry
Photo © Julie Coimbra

Also in Cambridge, at Kettle's Yard, is "Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay", continuing through March 1. The show, also drawn from Bann's collection, features Finlay's folding poems, prints, cards, emblems, and inscriptions, among other items. Bann was a student of and became an expert on Finlay (1925-2006), who is a master of concrete poetry.


A second, related exhibition, at Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, is "Graphic Constellations: Visual Poetry and the Properties of Space", on view through February 21. The show features work by Liliane Lijn, Ann Noel, Edward Wright, and others to show the relationships between text and image and poetry and graphic design. A Frank Malina (1912-1981) kinetic artwork from the 1964 exhibition is also included. (Malina was an aeronautical engineer and a painter. See his page on Tumblr.)

1 comment:

drew said...

Ohhh, I'd love to see the holiday cards exhibit at Poet's House. Wish I lived nearby!