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
forthcoming April 25, 2023 (Copper Canyon Press)
In 2018, 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 now this book.
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 will be published on April 25, 2023 on what would have been Twombly's 95th birthday. Until then, here are links to a few 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
forthcoming April 25, 2023 (Copper Canyon Press)
In 2018, 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 now this book.
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 will be published on April 25, 2023 on what would have been Twombly's 95th birthday. Until then, here are links to a few 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.
- Four poems with accompanying paintings and drawings by Cy Twombly in the beautiful Air/Light Magazine (thank you David Ulin).
- "Studies for Excursis," another poem that talks to Twombly's Fifty Days at Iliam + some cool images in the lovely Canadian journal, Brick (thank you Michael Helm + Allison Lasorda).
- Four poems with the accompanying images by Cy Twombly in the 4th anniversary edition of On the Seawall (thank you Ron Slate).
- "Beyond the Borderless: Dean Rader/Cy Twombly" Two new poems alongside Cy Twombly paintings in Narrative (thank you Michael Wiegers + Carol Edgarian).
- "The Fire that Consumes All before It," a poem that enters into conversation with Twombly's massive ten-part painting Fifty Days at Iliam, accompanied by an interview about the poem, painting, and ekphrasis in Rappahannock Review (thank you Emily Saunders & Julia Manuel).
- "Meditation on Circulation," a poem responding to Cy Twombly's Untitled (1967) in the inaugural issue of The West Review (thank you Despy Boutris).
- "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," a new poem featured at The New England Review (thank you Rick Barot).
- "Unending Octet," a poem from a larger series that enters into conversation with Cy Twombly's Untitled (1969) in Waxwing (thank you W. Todd Kaneko).
- "Octets after Cy Twombly: The Ferragosto Series" in Cherry Tree, issue 5, 2019 (thank you James Allen Hall).
C O L L A B O R A T I O N S W I T H T H O M A S I N G M I R E
- Two unique artist books with calligraphy by Thomas Ingmire and poetry by Dean Rader
E S S A Y S
- "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
- "Goth Tendencies, Cy Twombly, and Turnstile Hearts: A Conversation with Melissa Stein & Dean Rader" in The Kenyon Review.
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