Words and Pictures Across Cultures - Essay Example

?Running Head: WORDS AND PICTURES ACROSS CULTURES Words and Pictures across Cultures Words and Pictures Across Cultures While therepresentatives of the New York School are known to have worked within the domain of the avant-garde, in their poetic and artistic works certain characteristic features of the avant-garde are dominated by the use of popular imagery typical for the 1960s’ movement of Pop Art. This paper explores how popular imagery and references to popular culture rather than focusing on mere abstractions and iconoclasm prevail in the poetry of Frank O’Hara, the leading representative of the New Yorks School of poets. To achieve the set goal, the paper has been divided into four meaningful parts. The introduction provides the overview of paper’s focus and structure. The first section contains an overview of New York School of poetry and painting, with comments of its stylistic peculiarities. The second part explores the differences between Avant-garde and Pop Art. The fourth one is devoted to discovering pop imagery in O’Hara’s poems. The conclusion sums up the major ideas examined in the paper. New York School: Overview In his seminal study of the poetry of the New York School, Silverberg observes that the very existence of the latter has been a subject of hot debate. (Silverberg, 2010, p. 9). The name appeared thanks to John Myers, an editor and the then gallery director. It was coined as a commercially driven move. Myers, himself in charge of an artistic gallery, hoped to draw the public’s attention to paintings of Abstract Expressionism through the works of poetry, which were to serve as advertisements (Myers, 1969, p. 9). The New York School poets, who worked in 1950s-1960s, were greatly inspired by the works of the artists Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko, with whom they were friends (“The Artists and Poets of the New York School”, n.d., online). Also, some of the poets, namely O’Hara and Schuyler were employed at the Museum of the Modern Art; addionally, Guest, Schuyler, and Ashbery worked as critics for the magazine Art News. The specific characteristics of the New York School Poetry have been articulated by Thom Donovan, a professor of School of Visual Arts. They may easily be used as a recipe for creating a poem within the tradition of the New York School. Some of the twenty three ingredients identified by Donovan are: 1) One or more addressees to whom the author might want or might not want dedicate the poem; 2) The use of particular names of places, as well as dates (including time, day, month, also year) 3) Lots of proper names used 4) One or more reminiscences, anecdotes, asides, also digressions 5) At least one quotation, for example of what people mentioned while having a conversation or in the mass media 6) A point at which the author calls into question one or more things he/she has already said/proposed in the previous lines of the poem. 7) Something which the author finds amazing even if it hardly makes any sense to him/her 8) References to Pop Culture 9) Consumer goods and services 10) Natural phenomenon reference (so that the natural phenomenon is purposefully represented as not “natural”) (Harriet Staff, 2012, online) Avant-garde Vs Pop Art To begin with, let us identify what is Avant-garde. Historically, the term ‘Avant-garde’ with reference to the arts became popular at the beginning of the previous century. In relation to the arts, it was first used by Saint-Simon who wanted to describe artists’ contribution into making up “the vanguard of the social process for progress” (Salemink, 2007, p. 446). Since the onset of the 20th century, “Avant-garde” has been used to denote modern art. Influenced by the social upheavals, including the World War I, of the first decades of the 20th century avant-garde painters wanted to launch new art and build a new man in a totally new society. They also focused on the new worldview and relied on mystic inspiration. To illustrate, Murphy in his “Theorizing the Avant-Garde: Modernism, Expressionism, and the Problem of Posmodernity”, observes that the avant-garde artists aimed at dismantling the apparatus of traditional culture and blur the divides between art and life. In their attempt to fully integrate art into life, they intended to work out new art, which would become the new basis of the new social practice (Murphy, 1999, p. 11). Those changes were quite revolutionary and affected not just the language of paintings, but the spiritual domain and values (Salemink, 2007, p. 447). Specifically, Avant-garde turned into social and spiritual revolution rejecting the established worldview and aesthetics, as well as religion and the church. Even more, it intended to occupy the place that was not occupied by the religion and replace it with its own spirituality. That spirituality was based on rejection of the traditional values and elevation of art to the status of an idol, so that museums became new temples of people’s respect. Rejecting the traditional perception of God and breaking the traditional worldview, Avant-garde became a new iconoclasm. Specifically, painters were breaking traditional ways of portraying God and produced some blasphemous images such as Christ on the Cross with the head of an animal, or with a body of a woman. So, old images were destroyed, not just replaced, by the new reality. That reality was secular, materialistic, and had its own icons. Abstract Expressionism is known to have many features of the Avant-garde. Its iconoclasm and will to abstraction are noted. Specifically, Abstract Expressionism is believed to be rooted in surrealism. Its focus on abstraction and spontaneity produced works which were often hard to interpret and sometimes could be understood only by insiders. So, it was an aesthetically advanced trend which expressed self-denial, rebellion, nihilism, anarchism and was largely idiosyncratic (individualistic) (Shapiro, 2000, pp. 189-190). It emerged in the post-war period in America and was prevailing well up to the 1960s. Pop Art is known to have arrived in the art scene of New York at the beginning of 1960s. In visual arts, it was represented by paintings of Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, and Tom Wesselmann. Pop Art came after a long period of rule of Abstract Expressionism in visual arts with its focus on alienation, various abstractions, and anguish. The change was readily welcomed by the general public and press, who had already got tired of New York School Paintings Style (Diggory, 2010, p.392). In fact, the rise of the new trend was a huge reaction against the high elitism as well as good taste of Abstract Expressionism through reference to mass media and pop culture. Specifically, the Pop Art’s realism focused on plain outlines of consumer goods or mass media images (Smith, 2000, p.175). Pop Imagery and Abstract Expressionism in the New York Poetry: Case of Frank O’Hara While Pop Art came as opposition to Abstract Expressionism in the visual arts, in poetry it did not. Poets, such as Frank O’Hara, closely collaborated with the painters who experimented with integration of pop imagery found in ads, entertainment, politics, and merchandising. Indeed, O’Hara and his friends from the New York School of poetry have been recognized to pick the subject matter and poem’s language from everyday life, as well as popular culture. Let us closely analyze the works of some New York School poets with regard to their tendency to pop art despite positioning themselves as abstract expressionists. In O’Hara’s works, one may find the extensive use of the concepts of Expressionist Abstractionism, which are overwhelmed with references to Pop Art. As for Abstract Expressionism, its key concept of the use of contrasting elements that influence each other mutually is important for O’Hara. Myers & Wojahn observe that relying on this concept O’Hara was able to create poems that “indeed, spill one into the other, creating one immense canvas which displays in all its parts O’Hara’s character engaged in all the business of living – alternately joyful, petulant, obtuse, tired, awed” (Myers & Wojahn, 1991, p. 146). At the same time, O’Hara extensively used pop imagery, which might seem inappropriate to integrate into academic verse, to express his associations and meanings. These were the camp icons of the actors and actresses starring in the movies of the 20s and 30s, observations of everyday social activity found in Manhattan, friends’ phone calls, jazz music, and any other material which seemed appropriate for inclusion in a certain order (Myers, & Wojahn, 1991, p.145). O’Hara’s poem “To the Film Industry in Crisis” has numerous references to pop culture, particularly to film imagery. It starts with denouncing some performance art forms that are generally considered elite and characteristic of the high class (e.g. Grand Opera or experimental theater) because of their “pomposity”. Similarly, literary publications done by scholars are the object of denunciation: “Not you, lean quarterlies and swarthy periodicals / with your studious incursions toward the pomposity of ants” (O’Hara, 1957, online). At the same time, the film industry of Hollywood is praised for “heavenly dimensions and reverberations and iconoclasms” (O’Hara, 1957, online). Probably, in O’Hara’s view the merits of the film industry are its capacity to produce a long-lasting impact on the viewer. In addition, O’Hara underlines the worth of the film industry for contradicting a range of art notions that he believes to be preconceived. Plus, O’Hara praises movie characters that are timeless and create relationships on screen that stay with the audience for a long time after the end of the film. The poem contains lots of references to films. For example, the references to “Miriam Hopkins dropping her champagne glass off Joel McCrea's yacht / and crying into the dappled sea, Clark Gable rescuing Gene Tierney / from Russia and Allan Jones rescuing Kitty Carlisle from Harpo Marx” (O’Hara, 1957, online). O’Hara’s references, typical for the avant-garde, refer to personal experience in relation to the mentioned characters (as in the ones provided above) since O’Hara seems to hear them talking. Apart from personism, a range of other references are character-specific with the author stressing some characteristic that impacted him strongly. For example, in the following lines: “Mae West in a furry sled / her bordello radiance and bland remarks” and “Myrna Loy being calm and wise, William Powell /in his stunning urbanity” (O’Hara, 1957, online). Last but not least, the films are mentioned in a great variety and of different types. Moreover, O’Hara namedrops the actors who best suit the idea of pop icons rather than renowned elite actors. To illustrate, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Marx Brothers, and Clark Gable were the pop icons of their time that everyone loved and was eager to see at the cinema. Interestingly, the choice of these actors may have been the way to address the audience who were most likely to identify with the actors mentioned above. Just as we think of the New York School of poetry as the one that follows the visual arts, we may deduce that O’Hara’s use of many pop icons is done with the same aim as the artists do within the Pop Art movement. Specifically, placing recognizable pop culture figures into the domain of what is believed to be high art, such representatives of Pop Art as Warhol or Lichtenstein meant to draw viewers’ attention to these images, as well as the art forms which typically exclude them. In the poem, O’Hara stresses the pop nature of pop icons who he writes about and emphasizes their mass character. To illustrate, “Ginger Rogers with her pageboy bob like a sausage / on her shuffling shoulders.” (O’Hara, 1957, online). Here one can easily see that rather than finding out some new unique feature about Rogers and her personality, O’Hara observes the features that are recognizable and also iconic. It seems as if the poet were challenging the idea that poetry is bound to include just elevated images or images that are really personal. In the poem which starts with the words “O sole mio”, the references to pop culture have been used by O’Hara to convey excitement through banging. The poet thrusts his memorable pop art experiences at the very beginning of the poem, which does not have a title. (O’Hara quoted in Koestenbaum, 2010, online). Here one may find references to a 1935 movie called “Go into Your Dance” and actors starring in it: Glenda Farrell and Helen Morgan, also a reference to a Neapolitan song (o sole mio), American hot slang (hot diggety), imitation of Kay Francis speaking in an aristocratic manner (I rather think I can). These references are thrust as a mass into the reader from the very opening and they create the feeling of banging. The poems collected under the title “Lunch Poems” include many references to pop culture and lots of pop images, too. Also, one finds references of New York locations, friends of the poet, certain figures from the world of literature. Banes, for example, writes that O’Hara used pop imagery to celebrate the city (Banes, 1993, p. 26). Let us explore three poems from the collection in terms of their relation to pop art. To begin with, “The Day Lady Died” starts “It is 12:20 in New York a Friday/three days after Bastille day, yes/it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine” (O’Hara, 1995, p. 325). The poem features mentions of Brendan Behan (Irish writer), Paul Verlaine (French poet), specific locations in New York (Ziegfield Theater and the Golden Griffin), also New World Writing, and plays by Jean Genet entitled ‘The Balcony’ and ‘The Blacks’. Just as we approach the poem’s end, the author finds out that American jazz singer Billie Holliday had died and recalls how she sang: “she whispered a song along the keyboard...and everyone and I stopped breathing.” (O’Hara, 1995, p. 325) Another poem from the collection “A Step Away From Them” starts with the following words: “It’s my lunch hour, so I go/for a walk among the hum-colored/cabs.” (O’Hara, 1995, p. 257) It features such personalities as Edwin Derby (dance critic and poet), Pierre Reverdi (French poet), as well as Federico Fellini (Italian film director), also containing a reference to the Armory Show (Exhibition of Modern Art) and such locations in New York as the Manhattan Storage Warehouse and Juliet’s Corner. Besides, O’Hara mentions his late friends Bunny Lang, Jackson Pollock, and John Latouche. One more poem I would to mention from the collection “Lunch Poems” is “Personal Poem”, which starts with the words “Now when I walk around at lunchtime/I have only two charms in my pocket.” (O’Hara, 1995, p. 335) This poem also contains features of Pop Art with its plainness and simplicity. Specifically, O’Hara presents a conversation with LeRoi Jones, an American poet and critic. The conversation centers around Miles Davis (American jazz composer and musician), Herman Melville (19th century American novelist), Lionel Trilling (a leading literary critic of the 20th century) as well as Henry James (19th century American writer). Thus, while O’Hara’s poetry exhibits certain features of Abstract Expressionism, such as the employment of contrasting elements with mutual influence on each other, impact of surrealism, certain anarchism and decentering the authority, spontaneity, and recognition of an exhaustion of both art and language (Tursi, “Interrogating Culture: Critical Hermeneutics in the Poetry of Frank O’Hara”) his poems incorporate lots of features of Pop Art. They are full of pluralism, not individualistic but appealing to the mass audience, they use pop imagery and are adamantly “human” and accessible. As Tursi observes, “O’Hara’s realm is popular culture and his medium is the language that constructs that culture.” (Tursi, “Interrogating Culture: Critical Hermeneutics in the Poetry of Frank O’Hara”) Conclusion To conclude, the poetry of New York school is not confined to the realm of Avant-garde and Abstract Expressionism. Instead, it actively explores the images and ideas of Pop Art, which let it be accessible and at the same time sophisticated. Rather than filling their works with mere abstractions and iconoclasm, New York School poets, as it has been demonstrated on the case of Frank O’Hara’s poetry, included numerous references to popular culture and its spectacles. Rather than being written only for insiders, O’Hara’s poems appeal to the general public without succumbing to its vulgarity. Thus, the idea that pop imagery in the New York School of poetry dominates the will to abstraction and iconoclasm typical for Avant-garde rings true. References Antin, D. (1972) “Modernism and Postmodernism: Approaching the Present in American Poetry,” Boundary 2, 1.1 (Autumn, 1972): p. 111. Ashbery, J. “My Philosophy of Life.” Poets. Org. Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15460. Banes, S. (1993) Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-Garde Performance and the Effervescent Body. Duke University Press. Diggory, T. (2010) Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets. Infobase Publishing. Harriet staff writer (2012) “New York School Poem Ingredients”. Harriet. Retrieved on June 10, 2012 from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/02/new-york-school-poem- ingredients/ Koestenbaum, W. (2010) “Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!': Frank O'Hara's Excitement”. Poets. Org. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22632. Murphy, J. (1999) Theorizing the Avant-Garde: Modernism, Expressionism, and the Problem of Post-Modernity. Cambridge University Press. Myers, J. & Wojahn, J. (1991) A Profile of Twentieth Century American Poetry. SIU Press. Myers, J. (1969) The Poets of the New York School. Graduate School of Fine Arts: University of Pennsylvania. N.a. (N.d.) “The Artists and Poets of the New York School.” Poets. Org. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5941 N.a. (N.d.)“A Brief Guide to the New York School”. Poets. Org. Retrieved on jUne 7, 2012 from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5668. O’Hara, F. (1957)“To the Film Industry in Crisis”. Poets. Org. Retrieved on June 13, 2012 from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20380. O’Hara, F. (2008) “Why I’m Not a Painter”. Poets. Org. Retrieved June 13, 2012 from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20422. Salemink, T. (2007) “The New Iconoclasm, the Avant-garde and the Catholic Church”. In V.J. van Asselt, Paul van Geest, Daniela Muller (Eds) Iconoclasm and Iconoclash: Struggle for Religious Identity. Brill, pp. 445-471. Shapiro, D. (2000) “Abstract Expressionism. The politics of apolitical painting”. In Frascina, Francis (Ed) Pollock and After. The critical debate. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Silverberg, M. (2010) The New York School Poets and the Neo-Avant-Garde: Between Radical Art and Radical Chic. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Smith, H. (2000) Hyperscapes in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara: Difference, Homosexuality, Topography. Liverpool University Press. Toussaint, S. (2011) “Funny Howe’s Revelation”. Retrieved on June 10, 2012 from http://jacket2.org/reviews/fanny-howes-revelation. Tursi, M. (n.d.) “Interrogating Culture: Critical Hermeneutics in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara.” Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://nieveroja.colostate.edu/issue4/ohara.htm. Read More