Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy
In this essay I demonstrate how Barbara Guest’s experiments in visual poetry were influenced by Frederick Kiesler’s architectural designs: both artists, inspired by Surrealist poetics, sought to build visionary structures that took shape on the page but moved beyond it. Following Kiesler’s 1965 deat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/5/113 |
| _version_ | 1797472876047106048 |
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| author | Susan Rosenbaum |
| author_facet | Susan Rosenbaum |
| author_sort | Susan Rosenbaum |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this essay I demonstrate how Barbara Guest’s experiments in visual poetry were influenced by Frederick Kiesler’s architectural designs: both artists, inspired by Surrealist poetics, sought to build visionary structures that took shape on the page but moved beyond it. Following Kiesler’s 1965 death, Guest published a poem in 1968 inspired by Kiesler’s “Galaxy” structures, titled “Homage”, and included a shortened version in <i>Durer in the Window</i> (2003). Kiesler composed a number of works under the name “Galaxies”, all of which shared an interest in merging architecture with other art forms, including sculpture, mobiles, drawing, and painting. In “Homage”, Guest was less interested in describing Kiesler’s “Galaxies” than in building a commensurate architecture of the page, dependent on the spatial arrangement of lines and stanzas, the visual impact of white space, and the reader’s imaginative navigation of both. Putting Kiesler’s “Galaxies” and Guest’s “Homage” in dialogue illuminates a model of inter-arts reception as co-creation or what Kiesler called “Correalism” that depends on the spatial dimensions of the poetic imagination. Both works can be understood as open, mobile, “museums without walls” that anticipate the future by inviting dynamic collaboration and future transformation. Finally, I argue that the relationship between these works models the kind of affiliation important to experimental women artists and poets such as Guest, affiliations that helped form an En Dehors Garde “in the shadow” of the avant-garde. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:08:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-07bb5e1bf5644cd9a69588bc924b7802 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:08:21Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-07bb5e1bf5644cd9a69588bc924b78022023-11-24T00:24:37ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872022-09-0111511310.3390/h11050113Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the GalaxySusan Rosenbaum0Department of English, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30606, USAIn this essay I demonstrate how Barbara Guest’s experiments in visual poetry were influenced by Frederick Kiesler’s architectural designs: both artists, inspired by Surrealist poetics, sought to build visionary structures that took shape on the page but moved beyond it. Following Kiesler’s 1965 death, Guest published a poem in 1968 inspired by Kiesler’s “Galaxy” structures, titled “Homage”, and included a shortened version in <i>Durer in the Window</i> (2003). Kiesler composed a number of works under the name “Galaxies”, all of which shared an interest in merging architecture with other art forms, including sculpture, mobiles, drawing, and painting. In “Homage”, Guest was less interested in describing Kiesler’s “Galaxies” than in building a commensurate architecture of the page, dependent on the spatial arrangement of lines and stanzas, the visual impact of white space, and the reader’s imaginative navigation of both. Putting Kiesler’s “Galaxies” and Guest’s “Homage” in dialogue illuminates a model of inter-arts reception as co-creation or what Kiesler called “Correalism” that depends on the spatial dimensions of the poetic imagination. Both works can be understood as open, mobile, “museums without walls” that anticipate the future by inviting dynamic collaboration and future transformation. Finally, I argue that the relationship between these works models the kind of affiliation important to experimental women artists and poets such as Guest, affiliations that helped form an En Dehors Garde “in the shadow” of the avant-garde.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/5/113Barbara GuestFrederick KieslerSurrealismpoetryarchitectureekphrasis |
| spellingShingle | Susan Rosenbaum Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy Humanities Barbara Guest Frederick Kiesler Surrealism poetry architecture ekphrasis |
| title | Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy |
| title_full | Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy |
| title_fullStr | Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy |
| title_short | Visionary Architects: Barbara Guest, Frederick Kiesler, and the Surrealist Poetics of the Galaxy |
| title_sort | visionary architects barbara guest frederick kiesler and the surrealist poetics of the galaxy |
| topic | Barbara Guest Frederick Kiesler Surrealism poetry architecture ekphrasis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/5/113 |
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