Kiki Smith ~ Collaboration with Emily Dickinson and Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

Ray Bradbury once wrote in Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You of the value of reading poetry – it expands how we think and how we see the world. I've taken his advice to read at least one poem a day to heart and have read at least one poem a day since 1982. So this morning I decided to search around for poetry related to Kiki Smith, the artist of the week here at Fifty Two Pieces. Out there on the internet you'll find she has collaborated on at least three books of poetry.

The first, Sampler, is a singularly beautiful and unique publication of Emily Dickinson's poetry published by Arion Press in San Francisco. Sampler is a selection of two hundred poems by Emily Dickinson each paired with a print by Kiki Smith. To prepare for this project, Smith made images of samplers that had been the means young women traditionally used to show their domestic skills . She combed the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to find examples of this work. Arion Press describes Smith's process to create her prints for letterpress.

The artist Kiki Smith has made prints for every page of the poetry, as well as the half-title page and a portrait of Emily Dickinson on the frontispiece, 206 images in all. These are original prints. Kiki Smith has made the matrix for each image. She scratched lines in the emulsion of photographic negatives with an etching needle and other sharp-pointed tools, thus allowing light to pass through them in the making of photopolymer plates for letterpress printing.

And here is a description of the book, a work of art in itself.

The type and polymer plates were printed by letterpress in black ink for the type and red-brown ink for the plates. The paper was made by hand at the Twinrocker mill. The sheets are hand-sewn with linen thread over linen tapes. The binding has a red-brown goatskin spine, with title stamped in gold, the boards covered with tan cloth, the front cover embroidered with red thread for title and author and artist names. The book is presented in a slipcase.

Goodness, my senses are overwhelmed by the elegance of this work. To read more about the collaborative process used to make Sampler visit Arion Press here.

The other two examples of Kiki Smith's collaborative work with poets are two books published with the poet Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge. Berssenbrugge has a Portland connection. She holds a B. A, from Reed College where she graduated in 1969 after first attending Barnard College in New York.


Endrocinology was published in 1997















and Concordance in 2006.


















To round out this post and to add more poetry to your life here is a video of Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge presenting poetry at lunchtime ...

Saint Genevieve Series

Kiki Smith used the idea of Saint Genevieve to produce a whole series of woman and wolf prints. She portrays Genevieve being born of the wolf, taking shelter with the wolf and here it appears the wolf is attacking Saint Genevieve. "Wearing the Skin" and "Rapture" are the titles of two others in the series.
What exactly is Kiki Smith saying? Little Red Riding Hood has been suggested, a tale about gender anxiety, violence and sexuality.
Personally, I like the sculpture of Rapture she made a few years later, in 2001, shown here.

Kiki Smith ~ Saint Genevieve

Want to hear wolves in the city? Take a trip to the Portland Art Museum. Go early before the crowds. Head to the fourth floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art. Exit the elevator and head straight east. You'll soon be walking by wolves, keep walking and go past the female figure staring out at you, and then listen carefully. There it is the sound of howling, baying. What you're hearing are wolves making wolf noises for you as you look back at the woman who is standing confident and listening to the wolves herself.

Made in 1999 by Kiki Smith, this representation of Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, is a print on Nepalese paper. It is part of a series Smith did in the nineties as she explored Saint Genevieve and the relations between humans and animals. By including sound, she has enriched our experience as we examine the wolves, the birds and this embodiment of feminism. When the other sounds from the floor are silent this work of art is haunting.

Kiki Smith lives in New York, was raised in New Jersey and was born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany. She is the daughter of American sculptor Tony Smith. The week promises to be an interesting one as we explore her life and work.

Honoring Louise

Here is one honor Nevelson acheived posthumously: a stamp the U.S. Government issued in 2000,there are five and each has a photo of one of her monochrome sculptures. The city of New York also honored the artist by naming a plaza after her in downtown Manhatten.


And what would she think of this stamp?
Here is a quote from Louise Nevelson by Arnold B. Glimcher:

Once her friend and patron Howard Lipman showed her an early American rocking chair that he had just acquired.
He asked Nevelson's opinion of the chair.
"I couldn't care less about the chair," she said, "but look at its shadow."
She has that same self assured, bold personality in both portraits.
I recently read an essay called "Waiting" by Edna O'Brien, in it she says we do not learn to love, hate or argue any differently as we grow. I think in some cases that is a good thing.

Louise Nevelson ~ Arnold Scaasi, Arnold Newman and Edith Sitwell

If you were friends with Louise Nevelson, you could be fairly certain that any night out with her would include scavenging the streets. Arnold Scaasi, the renowned dress designer who has clothed the very rich and famous, recounts such events in his interviews and books. In his book Women I Have Dressed, he devotes an entire chapter to his client and friend Louise Nevelson. His memories include dining with Nevelson and her companion Diana MacKown at a restaurant near Nevelson's home on Spring Street. While there Nevelson waved to her many Mafia friends, men who made certain she was taken care of in those perilous days of the sixties and seventies near Little Italy. Like with many other dinners and events, including those when they were being driven in Scaasi's car, Nevelson would command that the driver stop the car, she would exit, pick up bits of wood and other detritus. With the help of all of the other occupants including Scaasi and his driver, the bootie would be loaded into the trunk and carried away to Nevelson's Spring Street home.

Scaasi will always remember Nevelson's love of black. In addition to his home on Central Park South, he owned a home in the Hamptons, a natural shingle mansion of sorts. One weekend he invited her and MacKown to spend some time away from the city. Lured by the promise of lobster (she loved that from her days in Maine), she was holding court one afternoon and cheerily proclaimed that Scaasi's house would look ever so much grander if it were painted black. Within the month, Scaasi had implemented that suggestion and became the talk of the neighborhood. He did love his all black mansion though.

Arnold Newman, the world renowned photographer, had a special affection for Louise Nevelson. His photograph of her is on the US Postal Service's stamp honoring her work as a sculptor. The photo on the left was taken at a fundraiser and shows Arnold with Louise's granddaughter Maria Nevelson. Maria is also a sculptor and had met Arnold when she interviewed him about her grandmother. Louise Nevelson's family relations were strained so Newman was able to provide her granddaughter with an insight into her that Maria was unaware of. Especially poignant was Newman's story of the time he photographed Nevelson at the Whitney in 1980. This was the day she learned her brother died. They continued the photo session even though Louise was visibly upset. Maria stated "I had never seen my grandmother cry, always strong and composed." Juxtapose that with "My work is delicate; it may look strong, but it is delicate. True strength is delicate. My whole life is in it...." and you get a clear picture of Louise Nevelson's inner psyche. The photo on the left is of Newman, Maria Nevelson and Newman's photo of Louise Nevelson.






Knowing what someone reads is another insight into their personality. Dame Edith Sitwell was one of Louise Nevelson's favorite poets. Her Façade suite of 1967 was created in homage to Sitwell who died in 1964. It is comprised of twelve prints that involve photography, silkscreen, and collage on paper and acetate sheets, each including a Sitwell poem. To the right is the image that was created for Lullaby for Jumbo below.

Lullaby for Jumbo
Jumbo asleep!
Grey leaves thick-furred
As his ears, keep
Conversations blurred.
Thicker than hide
Is the trumpeting water;
Don Pasquito’s bride
And his youngest daughter
Watch the leaves
Elephantine grey:
What is it grieves
In the torrid day?
Is it the animal
World that snores
Harsh and inimical
In sleepy pores?
And why should the spined flowers
Red as a soldier
Make Don Pasquito
Seem still mouldier?
Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)

A Personality Test

I asked a group of seventh graders where they would live in this city. We were gazing at Nevelson's nightscape as though flying over it. Someone said she would live way up high in the middle of city, in the tallest building of all. Someone else said he would sleep in one of the big empty rectangles, because he thought these were the parks. A girl said she would live way off on the corner, where the city ends.
For me it's like that line in the Woody Allen movie- Vicky Christina Barcelona. Christina's view on life "I know what I don't want" is her mantra as she searches the world. I get that feeling when I try to place myself in a space. I more readily know where I don't want to be. Of all ten seventh graders, only three pointed out their destinations. Maybe I am part of the majority. Those of us that are just not quite sure.

Louise Nevelson ~ White House Appearances with Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama

Check out this shot of Louise Nevelson with Jimmy Carter. Nevelson has been invited to the White House at least twice – the first in person as shown here and the second represented by her art. In 1979 the Women's Caucus for Art presented their first Annual Lifetime Achievement Awards. Recipients in addition to Louise Nevelson were none other than Georgia O'Keefe, Isabel Bishop, Selma Burke, and Alice Neel. If I should ever have a chance to speak with Jimmy Carter or his wife Rosalind, my first question, after telling them what an honor it is to be in their presence, will be what they thought that day when they met Louise Nevelson. My follow-up would be which piece of her work they liked the best.

Following in this grand tradition of innovation, the Obamas have recently added new art to the White House.President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have broken with tradition and have added twentieth century art to the walls of the White House. George Bush did hang a Jacob Lawrence. But the Obamas have moved far past that and have sent word to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female artists for the White House. They are choosing bold, abstract art works including Nicolas de Stael's Nice, Alma Thomas' Skylight, Jasper Johns' Numerals 0-9, Richard Diebenkorn's Berkeley No. 52 and the one on the left by Ed Ruscha...




The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obamas have also selected a work of art by Louise Nevelson although I've yet to find reference to which one. The rules as to what art work can be added vary depending upon where the work will hang. The Obamas are free to hang whatever they want in their residence and offices, including the Oval Office. Work added to public rooms must be approved by the White House curator and the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, an advisory board on which the first lady serves as honorary chair. The rules are even stricter when the work will be added to the permanent collection. Those pieces must be at least twenty-five years old and are generally not from living artist because that could impact the market value of the works.

When I wasn't wandering around Las Vegas yesterday, I was wandering around the internet to do research for this post. In addition to the great photo of the Carters with Louise Nevelson, I did find this beautiful self-portrait Nevelson did in 1938. Although she said she knew she'd be a sculptor when she was nine years old, she didn't actually start creating sculptures until the 1940's and her famous assemblages until the 1950's. In the thirties she was drawing and painting. The black outlines around her eyes could be seen as harbingers of the long fake eyelashes she became famous for later in life.