Neil Chassman; Robert M. Murdock; Lana Davis; Robert Creeley; John Clellon Holmes; Debra Anne Payne

"The intent of the present exhibition is to draw together a multitude of artistic manifestations of a given moment in order to demonstrate the transformational primal ground which they hold in common, and within this moment to distinguish one particularly important current." (from introductory essay, "Poets of the Cities: Levelling of Meaning" by Neil A. Chassman) Published in conjunction with an exhibit of the same title first held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in late 1974, this is a pioneeringly all-encompassing document of the inter-related literary, artistic & musical innovations created during a critical period of American arts & culture in two of its key cities: 1950-1965 in New York City & San Francisco. This period of course coincided with the flowering of the Beat Generation, the New York & Black Mountain Schools & the San Francisco Renaissance; & its most important, primary members are shown & written about here in the mutually influential company of the then most cutting-edge, now canonical artists & musicians: Film director Kenneth Anger; Beat-&-Beyond icons William S. Burroughs, Robert Creeley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, Michael McClure, Jack Micheline, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Rexroth & Gary Snyder; artists Willem De Kooning, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg & Andy Warhol; avant-garde musician-philosopher John Cage & his partner the revered dancer-coreographer Merce Cunningham; Jazz Saints John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk & Charlie Parker; & many more. With an informative, lengthy introductory essay by Neil A. Chassman, Chairman of the Department of Art History at Southern Methodist University, as well as essays by Creeley, Holmes & others; many images of artworks, photos of the ferment in NYC & SF, etc. from this foundational exhibit.… (plus d'informations)