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A comprehensive look at a memorable period in the celebrated painter and printmaker's life and career, Robert Kipniss: Paintings and Poetry, 1950–1964 is the result of his many arduous months revisiting his more-than-half-a-century-ago writings and peoms that were stashed away and essentially forgotten. "Some of the poems are straightforward, some are infused with surreal irony, and some are angry," says Kipniss in his candid and honest preface. Thoughtful and articulate from conception to completion, his never-before-published poems are choreographed with his early paintings in this monograph's contemplation of these influential and foundational fourteen years. "When I stopped writing [in 1961] my vision was no longer divided between word-thinking and picture-thinking: these approaches had merged and in expressing myself I was more whole," reflects Kipniss in his retrospective musings.
This written and visual account of previously unpublished poems and critically acclaimed early paintings includes two astute and illustrative essays that further engage the reader in the evolution of the artist's prolific oeuvre. His prints, drawings, and paintings are remarkable for their eloquence and refinement, earning him international recognition for his expansive landscapes and small town vistas, as well as quiet interors and intimate still lifes.
Readers of this seminal volume are all the richer for catching a glimpse of an intensely personal segment of this accomplished artist's private history. In an unambiguous assessment, Kipniss elaborates, "The most significant insight that arose in this undertaking...came when I began to collate reproductions of my paintings of the 1950s. I could clearly see that my work in the two mediums were from very differing parts of my psyche, and that while they were both in themselves completely engaged, they were not in any way together."
"In 1982, new York Times art critic John Caldwell praised Kipniss' brutal realism, which conveys 'alienation, isolation, even despair.' This can be seen in his sparse wintry landscapes, with simple houses devoid of human presence, trees with long skinny branches and angular leaves painted in monochrome. Caldwell went so far as saying Kipniss' 'world appears to exist without direct sunlight,' as his scenes nearly exclusively take place in the peculiar glow of dawn or dusk.'"
—Justin Piccininni, The Berkshire Eagle
Robert Kipniss' work can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The British Museum, London, the Albertina, Vienna, Austria, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Morgan Library, New York, among others.
Marshall N. Price is Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Duke University's Nasher Museum of Art. He was formerly curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Academy Museum, New York.
Based in Santa Fe, award-winning poet Robin Magowan is the author of 10 books of poetry as well as travel collections, an autobiography, and books on bicycle racing.
Preface
Comments by the Artist and Poet
Robert Kipniss
Introduction
Ut Pictura Poesis: The Coming of Age of Robert Kipniss
Marshall N. Price
Paintings & Drawings
Remebrance and Prophecy: The Journey of a Poet-Painter
Robin Magowan
Poems
Selected Chronology
Collections, Exhibitions, and Awards
Acknowledgments
Photography Credits