Painter Jane Freilicher’s First Solo Exhibition in Chicago
Poetry Foundation Hosts Painter Among Poets
CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation presents the exhibition Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets and features a portfolio of the artist’s work in the January 2014 issue of Poetry magazine.
Jane Freilicher was a prominent figure in the New York School poetry scene of the 1950s and ’60s. Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets explores Freilicher’s pivotal role among the poets of the New York School, particularly John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara and James Schuyler. The exhibition comprises paintings, including landscapes, cityscapes, interiors and still lifes, as well as works on paper and a selection of original letters, book covers and photographs.
Freilicher, who painted in the era of abstract expressionism, pursued a painterly realism distinct among her contemporaries. “My poet friends didn’t influence me directly with their work,” she once said. “There’s a sympathetic vibration, a natural syntax—a lack of pomposity or heavy symbolism—and something to do with intimism, an intimate kind of expression.”
The New York School poets—Ashbery, Koch, O’Hara and Schuyler—were influenced by Jane Freilicher in their poems and in their daily lives due to her artistic camaraderie and legendary wit. Kenneth Koch remarked that James Schuyler “passed one test for being a poet of the New York School by almost instantly going crazy for Jane Freilicher and all her works.”
What: Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets
When: Dec. 17, 2013–Feb. 21, 2014; weekdays, 11am–4pm
Where: Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior St.
Cost: The gallery is free and open to the public.
More info: poetryfoundation.org/programs/exhibits
The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine gratefully acknowledge Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, for making this exhibition and portfolio possible.
Related programming: Valerie Carberry Gallery at 875 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 3860, presents the exhibition Jane Freilicher Paintings from Jan. 17–Mar. 15, 2014.
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About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit poetryfoundation.org.
About Poetry Magazine
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—works by virtually every major contemporary poet.
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