SPEAKING OF ART

ARTSPEAK

If Art would only talk it would, at last,
reveal
itself for what it is, what we all burn to
know.
As for our certainties, it would fetch a
dry yawn
then take a minute to sweep them
under the rug:
certainties time-honored as
meaningless as dust
under the rug. High time, my dears, to
listen up.
Finally Art would talk, fill the sky like
a mouth,
clear its convulsive throat while
flashes and crashes
erupted as it spoke — a star-shot
avalanche of
visions in uproar, drowned by the
breathy din
of soundbites as we strain to hear its
august words:
“a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w
 x y z.”



COMING TO THAT: POEMS BY DOROTHEA TANNING (Graywolf Press, $15) is a second poetry collection by a painter and sculptor who celebrated her 100th birthday last year. Ms. Tanning was married to the artist Max Ernst and is often taken for a Surrealist, though she went her own way with art that’s dreamlike but also firmly reality-based, socio-politically attuned and bittersweet.

 - Roberta Smith

 

 

From the New York Times article Holiday Gift Guide For Art Lovers, Volumes meant to Awe and Inspire.  November 25, 2011