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Painters and Poets Together: The Folder Story

Masquerade

Kite Flying Party

Hartigan, Rivers, and O'Hara

"Meditations in an Emergency"

Painters Pay Tribute to Frank O'Hara

Continued Interest in the New York School

Painters and Poets Collaborate

An Explosion of Magazines

Biographies

Selected Bibliography


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Imagination: The 2006 Syracuse Symposium

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Painters Pay Tribute to Frank O'Hara:
In Memory of My Feelings

Frank O’Hara died after being struck by a vehicle in the dunes on Fire Island, New York, in 1966. The Museum of Modern Art published In Memory of My Feelings in 1967 to honor its late curator. Poet Bill Berkson, who edited the book, invited thirty artists who had known O’Hara to “illustrate” a selection of his poems. The selection of artwork in this case shows the variety of  styles within the New York School of artists.


Joan Mitchell with an abstract illustration for “Meditations in an Emergency.”



Jane Freilicher’s sketch-like portrait of O’Hara and a city scene. The New York School did not paint in a single style; they were associated more by their close personal relationships.


O’Hara’s “Poem” was illustrated by Lee Krasner, who was married to Jackson Pollock. Her illustration calls to mind Pollock’s famous “drip” paintings, and testifies to Pollock’s influence over the New York School.


Jackson Pollock


Grace Hartigan’s contribution for “The Day Lady Died,” one of O’Hara’s most famous poems, which dealt with the death of jazz singer Billie (Lady Day) Holiday.


In Memory of My Feelings

Willem de Kooning created seventeen charcoal drawings on sheets of plastic to illustrate O'Hara's "Ode to Willem de Kooning" for an O'Hara memorial volume published in 1967 by the Museum of Modern Art. Only three of the drawings were used for this book entitled In Memory of My Feelings. In 1988, the Limited Editions Club published the complete suite of drawings, with a selection of poems by O'Hara, in an edition of five hundred and fifty copies. De Kooning's drawings were transferred directly by Benjamin Shiff from the Mylar sheets to lithographic plates. O'Hara's poem "Autobiographia Literaria" was first published in Harper's Bazaar in October 1967. It is one of O'Hara's earliest works, having been written before 1950. The last line points to the theme of this exhibition.

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Last modified: June 09, 2012 12:35 PM
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