t h e c y t w o m b l y p r o j e c t ( s )
BEFORE THE BORDERLESS:
DIALOGUES WITH THE ART OF CY TWOMBLY
Published April 25, 2023 (Copper Canyon Press)
In 2018, just a few months after my father died, I visited a retrospective of drawings and works on paper by the American artist Cy Twombly. Gorgeously presented at the Gagosian's New York galleries, the exhibit, a life’s work, bore the title: In Beauty It is Finished: Drawings 1951-2008. The title of the exhibit--"in beauty it is finished"--refers to a Navajo prayer, but to me, it signified the end of my father’s life. That evening, I exited the exhibit, walked on the High Line, then went back to my hotel and began working on a poem about Twombly, my father, art, and mortality. That poem led to another poem. And to another. And then another, and then another and many more.
And then right after I completed the final version of the manuscript for this project, my mother passed away in 2022 due to complications from COVID-19.
But, the book, like art, survived.
Over the past several years, I have worked closely with the Cy Twombly Foundation to be able to bring this project to fruition. An innovative visual and textual book, Before the Borderless features a Twombly image on the left-hand page, and then the poem I wrote about/in response to/inspired by that Twombly piece, on the right-hand page. So, in almost every instance, you are looking at Twombly and Rader simultaneously. Spoiler alert: he is always better.
Before the Borderless marks the first time the estate of a major U.S. artist has collaborated with a poet and a press to produce a book like this. Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly was published on April 25, 2023 on what would have been Twombly's 95th birthday. Here are links to two of the poems that are part of this project as well as other writings.
P O E M S
DIALOGUES WITH THE ART OF CY TWOMBLY
Published April 25, 2023 (Copper Canyon Press)
In 2018, just a few months after my father died, I visited a retrospective of drawings and works on paper by the American artist Cy Twombly. Gorgeously presented at the Gagosian's New York galleries, the exhibit, a life’s work, bore the title: In Beauty It is Finished: Drawings 1951-2008. The title of the exhibit--"in beauty it is finished"--refers to a Navajo prayer, but to me, it signified the end of my father’s life. That evening, I exited the exhibit, walked on the High Line, then went back to my hotel and began working on a poem about Twombly, my father, art, and mortality. That poem led to another poem. And to another. And then another, and then another and many more.
And then right after I completed the final version of the manuscript for this project, my mother passed away in 2022 due to complications from COVID-19.
But, the book, like art, survived.
Over the past several years, I have worked closely with the Cy Twombly Foundation to be able to bring this project to fruition. An innovative visual and textual book, Before the Borderless features a Twombly image on the left-hand page, and then the poem I wrote about/in response to/inspired by that Twombly piece, on the right-hand page. So, in almost every instance, you are looking at Twombly and Rader simultaneously. Spoiler alert: he is always better.
Before the Borderless marks the first time the estate of a major U.S. artist has collaborated with a poet and a press to produce a book like this. Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly was published on April 25, 2023 on what would have been Twombly's 95th birthday. Here are links to two of the poems that are part of this project as well as other writings.
P O E M S
- "Meditation on Absolution," a short poem in response to this Twombly painting at SFMOMA, is featured on the Website for Bennington Review. Another poem, a golden shovel for Sappho and Breonna Taylor, appears in the print edition and is featured on Verse Daily.
- "Meditation on Circulation," a poem responding to Cy Twombly's Untitled (1967) in the inaugural issue of The West Review (thank you Despy Boutris).
- "This is No Time for Poetry," featured in The Cincinnati Review.
C O L L A B O R A T I O N S
- Two unique artist books with calligraphy by Thomas Ingmire and poetry by Dean Rader
- "Troubled by Thoughts About Infinity and Oblivion, I Exit the Twombly Retrospective at Dusk and Walk the High Line with the Ghost of My Father" set to music by the British composer Kevin Rodgers. Vocals by Niki Ihnatovitz (Soprano); music by the Guildhall Session Orchestra.
E S S A Y S
- "The Aesthetics of Inscrutability: On Cy Twombly: Inscriptions" in Zyzzyva.
- Before the Borderless Process Note for Periodicities: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics
- "Poetry, Painting, History, Hermeneutics: On Cy Twombly: Making Past Present" in Jacket2.
- "Notes on Williams, Abstraction, and the Line," an experimental essay on William Carlos Williams, abstraction, poetry, and Cy Twombly in The Kenyon Review.
I N T E R V I E W S A B O U T T H E B O O K
- "Ten Questions for Dean Rader" from Poets & Writers Magazine
- Hear Dean talk about Before the Borderless on KALW 's excellent New Arrivals series with Lisa Morehouse.
- "“What Makes a Life?” Michael Dhyne and Dean Rader Discuss the work of Cy Twombly, Fathers, and Loss"
- In conversation with Paula J. Birnbaum at The Booksmith in San Francisco
- Poet of the Week Feature: Brooklyn Poets
- "N10" - Ten Questions from Narrative Magazine about Before the Borderless
- "In Conversation with Paisley Rekdal for High Country News
- "Goth Tendencies, Cy Twombly, and Turnstile Hearts: A Conversation with Melissa Stein & Dean Rader" in The Kenyon Review
P H O T O G A L L E R Y F R O M T H E B O O K R E L E A S E
The official launch of Before the Borderless was held at the legendary Firehouse at the Fort Mason Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Twombly's 95th Birthday
R E V I E W S
- Before the Borderless included in a list of 10 "mesmerizing and formal modern poetry books" by Chris M. Arnone in Book Riot
- Publishers Weekly feature of Before the Borderless with Terrance Hayes, Airea D. Matthews, Courtney Faye Taylor and others
- Cindy Juyoung Ok reviews Before the Borderless for the Poetry Foundation
- "Masterful Mourning: On Dean Rader's Before the Borderless," by Elena Karina Byrne in The Los Angeles Review of Books
- Fabulous review of Before the Borderless in Publishers Weekly. "Prismatic and experimental?" We love it here at BtB HQ
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