When Art Dallied With Poetry

“Pyrography: Poem and Portrait of John Ashbery II,” a 1977 Larry Rivers portrait of the poet John Ashbery at Tibor de Nagy Gallery.



On J’s latest ad client outing, he had the chance to spend a few hours sleeping at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, Georgia. They give out complementary newspapers there, so he asked for the New York Times (once a New Yorker, it stays in the blood). The WeekendArts section led with an article entitled When Art Dallied with Poetry on 53rd Street. Beautiful. He immediately sent it my way.

In 1950, a group of artists and poets started up a little gallery on 53rd Street, a few blocks away from the center of the New York art scene, and started doing something crazy––pairing poetry alongside artwork. Just to name drop for a sec, the Tibor de Nagy Gallery group consisted of a few artists who made a name for themselves: John Ashbury, Frank O’Hara, Grace Hartigan, Larry Rivers, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Guest, etc. But whether you’re impressed by the gallery’s lineup or not, the point is, if it worked once, why not make it work again? Maybe better.

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