Out of the World of Patchen: A Centenary Exhibition
January 17 - April 11, 2011
Kenneth Patchen, one of the 20th century's leading experimental writers, produced over two dozen volumes of poetry prose, along with painted poems, silkscreen prints, drawings and other graphic works. Patchen's books, such as The Journal of Albion Moonlight (1941), gained widespread attention and notoriety; his readings of poetry with jazz were a phenomenon in the 1950s. His writings and recordings continue to intrigue and inspire lovers of modern literature and art worldwide.
Patchen, born in Niles, an Ohio steel-mill town, worked mainly on the East Coast until 1950, when he and his wife Miriam moved to San Francisco. Living in North Beach, he created his well-known "painted books" and began performing "poetry-jazz" in the City's avant-garde clubs. A crippling back injury restricted his activities in the late 1950s; the Patchens moved to Palo Alto, where Kenneth continued to write and paint until his death at age 61. Printer and photographer Jonathan Clark, who as a young teenager befriended the Patchens in the 1960s, arranged for the transfer of his archives to the UC Santa Cruz library special collections. Clark's own extensive collection of Patchen material, acquired directly from the writer and his wife, is the source of this exhibition at The Book Club of California.
Jonathan Clark presents an illustrated lecture entitled Out of the World of Patchen at the exhibition closing party on Monday, April 11.
For more information, call The Book Club of California, (415) 781-7532 or contact info@bccbooks.org. |
