A quick note for anyone within range or visiting San Francisco.
Paule Anglim Gallery(15 Geary St.) has a current show of works by Jess
(Robert Duncan's partner) - including both collages and paintings.
The California Historical Society has a wonderful show(curated by the Poetry
Center's Director Steve Dickinson) of works(photographs, paintings,
collages etc.) by artists associated with poets - and some poets who paint,
etc.
Both wonderful and related shows for a variety of reasons. Of the high
points - at least for me - is a visual and felt sense of the dynamics, the
conversation going on among artists and poets of the late fifties (Duncan,
Jess, Bruce Connor, R Bladen, Fields(?), etc.) One can sense the level of
argument, collaboration and camaraderie. The varying focus on nature and
urban vernacular versus the domestic and autre world of dreams, séance,
tarot, medieval and folk literatures. It's all very rich and riding an
underground world in the process of becoming visible.
Norma Cole's recreation of a Library circa 1959 is brilliant and gives the
period context a working view - perhaps not too dissimilar from Robert
Duncan's space and materials, let alone those of many others of the time
(let alone those among in the Fifties who were at small liberal arts
colleges then shoulder deep in the "Great Books" craze!)
Stephen Vi
Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
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