Frank O'Hara

Francis Russell O'Hara (* June 27, 1926 in Baltimore, † July 25, 1966 in Long Iceland ) was an American poet. He belongs to the first generation of New York School of Poets, like John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler and Barbara Guest. O'Hara was introduces and translated in 1969 by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann.

Life

Frank O'Hara, the son of Russell Joseph O'Hara and Katherine Broderick, grew up in Massachusetts. He studied from 1941 to 1944 playing the piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston. O'Hara served during World War II in the South Pacific and Japan as a naval radio operator on the destroyer USS Nicholas. Then he visited with the soldiers fellowship at Harvard University, where he lived with the artist and book illustrator Edward Gorey. He majored in music, also composed some pieces, but took only irregularly attend classes. At this time he also wrote his first poems, though he was more interested in contemporary music and art. As models he admired Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Boris Pasternak and Vladimir Mayakovsky. At Harvard, O'Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love of music, O'Hara changed his major and left Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English. He went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he acquired an MA in 1951 That same autumn he moved into an apartment in New York City. He lived the next eleven years, with Joe LeSuer, who was sometimes also his lover. Soon after arriving in New York, he took a job in the reception of the Museum of Modern Art and wrote serious.

O'Hara was very active in the art scene. He wrote reviews for the magazine Art News in 1960 and curator assistant for painting and sculpture exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, he was friends with many artists such as Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers and Bill Berkson. O'Hara died in 1966 as the result of an accident on Fire Iceland. He was run over by a beach buggy, while he made a night walk with friends.

Works

O'Hara's early works were considered provocative. His works were written very quickly and directly, a point that his critics often complained about. The collection Lunch Poems received its name because he wrote during his lunch break. Two of his works are part of any anthology: " Why I Am Not a Painter" and "The Day Lady Died", in which the death of the singer Billie Holiday is being taken.

O'Hara was very disorganized. The story goes that that O'Hara's publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti from San Francisco to New York had come to look at all his coat pockets for the poems. It is unknown how many poems were lost. O'Hara's handling of the artists Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns, both important protagonists of the New York School, became a source of inspiration for his extraordinary poetry. He tried to put into words what these artists had captured on canvas. There are even cases in which he as worked closely with the artists that " poem - pictures " emerged, images with text fragments. O'Hara's most original books of poetry Meditations in an Emergency (1956) and Lunch Poems (1964 ), are a mixture of impromptu poems, a jumble of witty sayings, journalistic parodies and surreal images.

Bibliography

Works during his lifetime

  • A City Winter and Other Poems. Two drawings by Larry Rivers. Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, New York in 1951 [ actually 1952 ].
  • Oranges: 12 pastorals. Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, New York 1953; Angel Hair Books, New York 1969.
  • Meditations in an Emergency. Grove Press, New York, 1957; In 1967.
  • Second Avenue. Cover drawing by Larry Rivers. Totem Press in association with Corinth Books, New York 1960
  • Lunch Poems. City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1964. The Pocket Poets Series, No. 19
  • Love Poems ( Tentative Title). Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, New York 1965.

Lesser-known works and works from the estate

  • " Hartigan and Rivers with O'Hara. " (1 folded sheet, 10 p. ) By Frank O'Hara, Grace Hartigan, Larry Rivers and from " An Exhibition of Pictures with Poems by Frank O'Hara ... November 24 through December 24, 1959 " (New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1959)
  • "A Cordial Invitation to Celebrate The Sixtieth Birthday of Edwin Denby at a dinner to be Given By His Friends. Friday March 15, 1963 ... with ' Edwin 's hand ' "by Frank O'Hara (1963 )
  • Belgrade, November 19, 1963 (New York: Adventures in Poetry ).
  • " New Paintings " by Michael Goldberg (New York: Martha Jackson Gallery, 1966) with " Why I Am Not A Painter" by Frank O'Hara on front cover dated 1956
  • Hotel particulier. ( broadside ) ( Pleasant Valley, NY: Kriya Press, 1967 )
  • Two Pieces. ( London: Long Hair Books, series one, 1969) includes " THOSE WHO ARE DREAMING, a play about St. Paul " and " COMMERCIAL VARIATIONS " dated 4 /52)
  • The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Donald Allen ( ed.), John Ashbery Introduction. Knopf, New York 1971. Repr University of California Press, Berkeley, 1995.
  • The Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Donald Allen ( ed.). Knopf, New York 1974.
  • The End Of The Far West: 11 Poems. Private Print by Ted Berrigan, New York 1974.
  • Bill Berkson and Frank O'Hara: Hymns of St. Bridget. Adventures in Poetry, New York 1974.
  • Macaroni. ( broadside, includes " In Memoriam " by Patsy Southgate ). Z Press, Calais, VT, 1974.
  • Standing Still and Walking in New York. Donald Allen ( ed.). Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, Calif. , Berkeley in 1977.
  • Early Writing. Donald Allen ( ed.). Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, Calif. , Berkeley in 1977.
  • Retrieved Poems. Donald Allen ( ed.). Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, Calif. , Berkeley 1977
  • Selected Plays. Ron Padgett, Joan Siomon, Anne Waldman (eds.). Full Court Press, New York 1978.
  • Amourous Nightmares of Delay. Selected Plays. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1997.

Exhibition catalogs

  • Jackson Pollock. (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1959)
  • New Spanish painting and sculpture. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1960)
  • Robert Motherwell: with selections from the artist 's writings. by Frank O'Hara (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965)
  • Nakian. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966)
  • Art Chronicles, 1954-1966. (New York: G. Braziller, 1975)

Translations

  • 'Lunch Poems ' and other poems. Translated from the American and with an essay by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. ( Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, Cologne, 1969).
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