The New York School
The New York School refers to a community of painters and poets that collaborated intensely in the 1950s and 1960s to produce disobedient art. Their works juxtaposed dissonant imagery to generate "unexpected harmonies," a process emblematic of a collage. Jenni Quilter, the author of New York School Painters and Poets, describes their art as disobedient because it defied viewers' expectations and subverted artistic norms.
We can divide the New York School into two generations. The first generation of New York School artists included John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and Kenneth Koch. The defining characteristics of their art included a willingness to bring art into the realm of the everyday; Frank O'Hara oft referred to his friends, other New York School artists, in his poetry. The second generation - the most famous of whom are Joe Brainard and Ted Berrigan - "expressly inherited a tradition" from the first. Joe Brainard in his memoir I Remember and Ted Berrigan in his work The Sonnets both reference first generation writers such as Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery.
We can divide the New York School into two generations. The first generation of New York School artists included John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and Kenneth Koch. The defining characteristics of their art included a willingness to bring art into the realm of the everyday; Frank O'Hara oft referred to his friends, other New York School artists, in his poetry. The second generation - the most famous of whom are Joe Brainard and Ted Berrigan - "expressly inherited a tradition" from the first. Joe Brainard in his memoir I Remember and Ted Berrigan in his work The Sonnets both reference first generation writers such as Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery.
"They are . . . interested in making
distinctions that accumulate rather than simplify." - Jenni Quilter
Brainard and Berrigan similarly displayed a resistance to traditional forms and a desire to expand the possibilities of what art could be; Brainard’s I Remember is composed entirely of statements beginning with “I remember,” a transformative gesture for a memoir. The latter shares its title with Shakespeare’s “The Sonnets,” an audacious connection to make, especially given it was Berrigan's first work. Moreover, many of Berrigan’s poems are not sonnets at all; they shorn any rhyme scheme, do not possess volta’s, and avoid to an extent Shakespeare’s tropes of love, beauty, and nature.
Joe Brainard and Ted Berrigan, Untitled (Poem for Annie Rooney), 1962.
The above is a collage by Joe Brainard and Ted Berrigan that embodies the disobedience of their artistic endeavors. The portrayal of an American flag and the displacement of its stars is an excellent example of New York School artists' penchant for making familiar images unfamiliar. The juxtaposition of the stars and the boxes of text produces a dissonance that's balanced by the striped lines - an overlaying of disorder on top of structure.
Our Project
This website aims to identify and understand the techniques by which Berrigan and Brainard embody the New York School - that is, create works that are dissonant but retain a sense of wholeness - and gain a better appreciation for their effect.
works of Discussion
The Sonnets |
I remember |
Ted Berrigan Born in Rhode Island, Berrigan's works were significantly influenced by his precursor, Frank O'Hara. He encouraged the advancement of poetry, but was initially reluctant to accept the idea of being labeled as a New York School artist. From childhood, Berrigan was raised in a Catholic Christian environment, and would have attended a Catholic university had he not enlisted in the army. In the military, he was stationed in Korea, and eventually came back to Oklahoma and enrolled in the University of Tulsa, pursuing his master’s thesis. He began to do more poetry, but made it clear that he was “the master of no art”, saying that he was a poet because he made poetry, not because he mastered it. |
Joe Brainard Brainard was born in Arkansas, but was raised in the same city Berrigan studied university - Tulsa. Years later he moved to New York City and integrated with the artists of the New York School. The majority of Brainard’s work reflects his witty personality, and always plays on the trends of popular culture. Much of his work was in collaboration with artists like John Ashbery, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan, and Frank O’Hara. Some of the artwork that Brainard produced includes collages, paintings, poems, and books. |
Ted Berrigan reads Sonnet XXXVI from The Sonnets, a poem about the late Frank O' Hara.
Thesis
Ted Berrigan's book of poetry The Sonnets and Joe Brainard's memoir I Remember both deliver a collage of ideas through the repetition of thematic imagery, juxtaposition of compositional blocks, and the use of parallel grammatical structures. Using these techniques, Berrigan and Brainard produce a sense of wholeness in their predominantly dissonant works.
