biographical information relevant links e-texts of poems online discussions

ONLINE JOURNAL

***These are a variety of portraits of O'Hara done by different artists.  Please click on the images to see the enlarged ones and their source.

The photo is from Brad Gooch's City Life: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara  (New York: Knopf, 1993)

1. A very short biography of O'Hara        2. An introduction to O'Hara from            Oxford Companion to 20th-Century           Poetry                 3. A review of Brad Gooch's biography called         City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara

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     1. A web site presenting four poem/paintings done by O'Hara and the artist Norman Bluhmon 

     2. Allen Ginsberg's poem "My Sad Self" which is dedicated to O'Hara

     3. O'Hara was an avid supporter of abstract expressionist art.  Here's a site with abstract expressionist paintings 
 

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     1. At night Chinamen jump

     2. The eager note on my door said "Call me"

     3. Homosexuality

         --An online review of Brad Gooch's biography of O'Hara that focuses on O'Hara as a gay man and poet 

     4. For Grace, After a Party
 

--This poem was written for Grace Hartigan,             a visual artist and friend of O'Hara. For             more information about Hartigan see the             following site: which discusses, in part, her            relationship with O'Hara              --You may also want to see the following             site           --Hartigan and O'Hara collaborated on a             series of paintings called "Oranges" in which             Hartigan included parts of O'Hara's poem             "Oranges" in her series of paintings.  The two             paintings on the right are from this series.             Both are from Grace Hartigan: A Painter's             World by Robert Saltonstall Mattison (New             York: Hudson Hills P, 1990)

Oranges #4    (The Changing Dialectics of Our World)

¡@Oranges #6      (The Light Only Reaches Halfway)

 

5. "On Seeing Larry Rivers' Washington Crossing the Delaware           at the Museum of Modern Art"           --As the title indicates, this poem is based upon a painting by the artist               Larry Rivers.  An e-text of the poem, plus a copy of the painting can               be found at the following site            --Comment by O'Hara on Larry Rivers            --A collaboration by Rivers and O'Hara on a set of lithographs               called Stones

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1953)  by Larry Rivers,   Oil on canvas, approximately 7 feet x 9 feet.   The Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

 

6. Joseph Cornell           --This box is about the artist Joseph Cornell who created wooden box               constructions which O'Hara greatly admired.           --Site with biography of the surrealist artist Joseph Cornell and examples of              some of his box constructions

Joseph Cornell  This photo is from the site

     7. A Step Away from Them

     8. Digression on Number 1, 1948

--This poem is based on Number 1 (1948) by Jackson Pollack.  Pollack was               an abstract expressionist painter known for his action paintings and               drip paintings.  Jackson Pollock's life            --An introduction to abstract expressionism can be found at the following site

Number 1 (1948) by Jackson Pollack

 
     9. "Why I am not a Painter"

         --Online essay about the poem 
     

10. The Day Lady Died           --This is an elegy for Billie Holliday.           --A good site on Billie Holliday            --Billie Holiday biography            --A "Lady Day" site devoted to Holiday and her jazz music

photo credit: William P. Gottlieb  It's from the site

     11. Ave Maria
 

12. Lana Turner has collapsed!           --"The Lana Turner Page," a site with filmography and links of Lana Turner             --A site with biography and filmography of the actress Lana Turner            --A Lana Turner site with many links, including links to photo galleries, movie reviews,               multimedia sites, and others

This photo is from  The Lana Turner Page

 

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     1. This online essay entitled "Rebel Poets of the 1950s" provides a good introduction to O'Hara and his literary,
         artistic, and cultural contexts

     2. A very brief online discussion of the relationship between O'Hara's poetry and the visual arts 

     3. Here's a brief online discussion introducing the influence of William Carlos Williams on Frank O'Hara's poetry. 
         That introduction links to at other related areas at the same site. 
 

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***The painting with the title is Girlfriend Walks! by Brenda Clancy (Mixed Media on Paper) from HyperMart: B. Clancy Fine Art
      and Graphic Design.
      The background is Jackson Pollack's Lavender Mist (Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950 (350 Kb); Oil on canvas, Oil, enamel, and
      aluminum on canvas; 221 x 300 cm (7 ft 3 in x 9 ft 10 in); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) from the page "Second Grade's
      Famous Artists" maintained by Salerno, a student in University of California, San Diego.
 

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