ART | Poetry  

Ekphrasis – Poetry of Seeing   

Artists and poets meet on the last Saturday of each month (from 4pm-6pm)  for CONVERSATION with EACH OTHER about ART and POETRY.  At the foundation of Ekphrasis lies the belief that unique works of art should be approached with uncommon tools of equally expressive power.  Poems inspired by paintings, photographs, or sculptures will be a part of this ongoing Saturday afternoon meetings with poet and art historian – Aleksander Najda.  

Aleksander Najda is a poet and art historian. He earned his doctoral degree by writing a breakthrough dissertation Apocalypse according to Wasyl Kandinsky. His poetry is almost exclusively focused on ekphrasis providing a unique insight into the inner world of visual arts and music.

Everyone attending is welcome to bring their own art and ideas to expand the conversation.

 

Saturday, April 28th, from 4pm-6pm

From Paul Cezanne to Henry Darger, and more.
Review of artists and architects through the centuries as seen through the eyes of poets, writers, art historians and people not familiar with art at all. Everyone is welcomed to read, critique and argue. We will also take a closer look at the current show of Adrian Piper’s works at MOMA.

Please email any questions to Iwona Biedermann at dreamboxgallery@gmail.com           Suggested donation: $5.00

Aleksander Najda is a poet and art historian. He earned his doctoral degree by writing a breakthrough dissertation, Apocalypse according to Wasyl Kandinsky. His poetry is almost exclusively focused on ekphrasis, providing a unique insight into the inner world of visual arts and music. 

 

Saturday, March 31, from 4pm-6pm 

This month we will begin our exploration of the ekphrastic tradition with works by Nobel Prize winners in Literature: Tomas Gösta Tranströmer, Czesław Miłosz and Samuel Beckett. Our afternoon journey will survey the veracity of the Northern Renaissance, the intimacy of the Dutch Baroque and the dynamism of the post WWII avant-garde.

Enjoy a closer look at the pairings of expressions in theater, painting and poetry. The profile of Alberto Giacometti will be at the center of our discussion. Giacometti’s and Beckett’s friendship and their collaboration for Waiting for Godot will provide the stimulus for lively conversation. —Aleksander Najda 

Ekphrasis – Poetry of Seeing is the theme by a group of artists and poets who meet on the last Saturday of each month (from 4pm-6pm) for CONVERSATION with EACH OTHER about ART and POETRY. Everyone attending is welcome to bring their own art and ideas to expand the conversation.

Saturday, February 24th – from 4pm-6pm 

We will begin our new installment of the Poetry of Seeing with a series of ekphrasis dedicated by the African-American painter Romare Bearden to Homeric verse. In his 1977 Odysseus Series, Bearden interprets Homer’s epic as a myth that takes place in … a quite unexpected land.

From the Homeric verse: Circe, The Odyssey, X, 233-235.
“She brought them inside and seated them on chairs and benches, and mixed them a potion . . . but put into the mixture malignant drugs, to make them forgetful of their own country.”

We will also follow Derek Wolcott’s remarkable journey in search of Tiepolo’s Dog and explore the ancient heroism of Cy Twombly’s sculptures. There will be more haikus about the photography of Georgia O’Keeffe and Seurat’s paintings as a nod to Lidia Razmus for sharing her beautiful presentation on haikus last month.

Aleksander Najda is a poet and art historian. He earned his doctoral degree by writing a breakthrough dissertation Apocalypse according to Wasyl Kandinsky. His poetry is almost exclusively focused on ekphrasis providing a unique insight into the inner world of visual arts and music.

Poem by Aleksander Najda

 

Saturday, January 27th, from 4pm-6pm  – Special quest: LIDIA ROZMUS  

The impact of Japanese aesthetics on the work and life of Georgia O’Keeffe, and her art as an inspiration for haiku poets.

While Georgia O’Keeffe is not known to have composed haiku, she certainly knew of them. Japanese aesthetics infused her work from the outset, and its evidence can be found not only in her paintings but in her studio and living spaces.  

Lidia Rozmus presents a series of O’Keeffe paintings, each paired with a haiku poems inspired by O’Keeffe’s visible connection to nature through color, forms and rhythms. 

Painting by Georgia O’Keeffe (“Pelvis IV”) and haiku poem by Charles Trumbull, A Five-Balloon Morning  (2013)

Lidia Rozmus was born in Poland and studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where she received a master’s degree in the history of art. In 1980 she made her home in the United States. She works as a graphic designer, paints sumi-e and oils, and writes haiku. She has written and designed several portfolios and books of haiku, haibun, and haiga, including Sumi-e and Haiku (Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award for Design – 1996); Twenty Views from Mole Hill (1999); My Journey (Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award 2004 Honorable Mention for Haibun); Hailstones, Haiku by Taneda Santôka (2006),  The Moss at Tokeiji (Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award 2011 Honorable Mention for Best Anthology), In silence  静けさに w ciszy – haiga and The Republic of Mole Hill. Her paintings have been exhibited and her haiku published in the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Poland. Lidia is art editor of the journals Modern Haiku and Mayfly and art director at Deep North Press.

 

At the foundation of Ekphrasis lies the belief that unique works of art should be approached with uncommon tools of equally expressive power. Many writers have drawn on this power of seeing and we’ll explore as many as possible: Miłosz, St. John Perse, Seferis, Charles Wright, Strand, Bachmann, O’Hara, Zbigniew Herbert, Homer, Katullus, Pindar, Rilke, Auden, Zagajewski, Cavafy, Walcott, and many more… including our own inspirations, whether in poetry or art.

 

QUESTION? Please contact Iwona Biedermann –  dreamboxgallery@gmail.com               

Suggested donation: $5.00