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| Rivers, Larry. Washington Crossing the Delaware. 1953. |
Ab-Ex on MOMA site: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/abexny/
Related Film Showings: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1144
Though its practitioners are not being studied in-depth this semester, Abstract Expressionism should be noted, at least, as a formative influence on New York School Poetics and the film-making styles of many of the auteurs we are studying. We have already discussed these influences in abstract and applied them, briefly, to Jonas Mekas. Still, to recap:
1) A poem or film can detail its own process. Meaning, then, is brought forth in the history of its making.
2) A poem or a film can perform a statement without making a statement.
3) A poem is a product of the poet's collaboration with language. A film is a product of an auteur's collaboration with vision.
4) A poem or a film originates not as a realized thing but comes-to-be in engagement with its medium of expression.
As was Tibor de Nagy's exhibit on New York School Painters and Poets, it is by serendipity alone that we are presented with another unique opportunity to gain insight into the interests and influences of the artists that we are studying. Until April 25th, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is showing a massive exhibition (it is spread out on three or four floors) on Abstract Expressionism. This exhibit has to be one of the largest retrospectives of its kind that I've ever seen -- to the point where it's almost daunting. I was, in fact, exhausted after maneuvering the whole exhibit.
Below you'll find three new portfolio opportunities that concern this exhibit, which is free to all CUNY students as long as your CUNY ID is stamped with a Spring '11 validation. You may do all three for credit toward the portfolio opportunity requirement. Also, I'd recommend tagging along on one of the Gallery Talks, where an exceptionally smart person leads around a small group and teaches a basic class on the Abstract Expressionists (it takes about 45 min, and it's totally worth it). Here are the dates and times for those:
The Opportunities (All due on 4/29)
#7: Automatic MOMA
Let's take the first tenet stated above and see if we can put it into practice by rephrasing it as such:
Writing can detail its own process. Meaning, then, is brought forth in the history of its making.I want you to write as you move through the museum. You can write prose, you can write verse, you can write notes -- however you feel comfortable.
So, for instance, when you first step foot into the museum, stop. Write for a minute. Go get your ticket, hand it to the ticket taker, and walk into the foyer. Stop. Write for a minute. When you're wandering through the exhibit, and there's a painting that strikes you, stop. Write about the painting.
What you write, doesn't have to be an analysis or something formal -- I'm looking for more of a gut reaction than anything else. Think of how the Surrealists practiced writing through automatism, avoiding conscious interference and writing "automatically" from the sub-conscious. Just let whatever wants to come out to do so. You'll be surprised what kind of language will occur to you when writing this way. Still, as easy as it may seem, this can be quite difficult to just let go and write whatever comes to mind. So, don't worry if it takes a little while to warm up. To start, focus either on the internal (how you are, in relation to things) or the external (how things are, in relation to you).
The only requirement that you must adhere to when wandering and writing is that a room of paintings that you are particularly drawn to must appear at some point in the writing. Of course, a single painting can become a focus at a certain point, but you are only required to note your experience within a specific room of paintings.
In polishing this writing before you hand it in, comb over what you've written. Unlike the Surrealists, I want you to revise, pick and choose what you want to be part of your final product. Polish the writing, use what you have, and don't be afraid to add and subtract. You can chop it up and turn it into a poem or a series of poems. You can organize it by room and present it as several vignettes. Revise into a short narrative of your experience walking through the museum. Make it into a short expository analysis of a given painting or paintings.
Lastly, write an additional short page or two on your experience writing while in the museum, centering the response around the aforementioned tenet. Did you, in retrospect, feel that the tenet mentioned before has any credence? Did you sense any sort of relationship between yourself and the paintings while practicing one of Abstract Expressionism's salient precepts? Through this participating in this exercise, was anything made clear about the work that you were viewing?
#8: On Seeing Larry Rivers' "Washington Crossing the Delaware" at the Museum of Modern Art
As all of us know, O'Hara had a thing for Larry Rivers -- and vice-versa. Yes, they were part-time/full-time lovers and friends, but possibly their strongest connection was in their reverence for each others' work -- their work running into and spilling over into each other. An example of this spillover can be discretely perceived with Meditations in an Emergency in-hand, standing in one of rooms on the fourth floor (or is it fifth?) that is one in a bunch of grapes.
Larry Rivers' Washington Crossing the Delaware, although pictured above, needs to be viewed in-person, and, thankfully, it's hanging in the MOMA as a part of the Ab-Ex exhibit. For this opportunity, bring Meditations in an Emergency to the museum, find Rivers' Washington Crossing the Delaware, look at the painting, mull it over, read the appropriate poem in O'Hara's book, and look at the painting again. Write some notes if needed.
Next, either right there -- in the gallery -- or when you get home, Write an imitation of "On Seeing Larry Rivers' 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' at the Museum of Modern Art." By imitation, I mean that I want you to give the same title to your poem, mimic the structure of the poem (five stanzas of five lines each -- in other words, five cinquains), and write in reaction to the painting (this will happen naturally, I think).
Lastly, write a page or two about the relationship that you perceived between the painting and the poem, your process of imitation, and how the perspective of your imitation may differ from O'Hara's perspective.
BUT, first -- before you go to the museum -- I recommend reading the short articles on this page: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/ohara/rivers.htm. Believe me: These will help, a lot.
Also, if you're interested, the original "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze -- the painting that Rivers imitated -- is currently hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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| Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, American, 1816-1868 George Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851 Oil on Canvas; 12 2/5 x 21 1/4 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm) |
#9: Abstract-Expressionist Films
In association with the Ab-Ex exhibit, MOMA is showing a handful of films that are inspired by or are a part of Abstract Expressionism. For this opportunity, please attend one or both of the following showings (they are different) and consider, as you watch the films, the tenets described above.
Saturday, March 19, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 9, 2011, 5:30 p.m., Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building
Please write a three to five pages (double spaced, Times New Roman), after viewing the films, on how one or more of the films prescribes to one or more of the tenets gleaned from Abstract Expressionism. Your thesis should include the understanding that revealed itself through the course of a film and how this came to you via the a discrete application of the tenets. For example, if meaning can be brought forth by way of the history of making meaning, and you are viewing this history through the film, what is revealed to you? What Image is brought forth? What is the purpose of this Image? How is Image in these films constituted or given significance through an understanding of the tenets?
There are also two other film showings that might be of interest, and I'm happy to entertain ideas for a portfolio opportunity concerning either of these:
An Evening with Ken Jacobs
Monday, April 11, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Films Inspired by Beat Poetics
Saturday, April 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m., Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building
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