Abstract Expressionism and Frank O’Hara’s Writing
While researching everything about American cotemporary poet Frank O’Hara, it became very apparent that art was a driving force in both his personal life and his professional writing career. This can be proved by merely trying to find information about him in the literature section in a library. Only his collected poems can be found, but much more information about Frank O’Hara can be found in the art section. Many art books dedicate entire sections to celebrating O’Hara’s poetry as complementary to the art of the abstract expressionist movement that was occurring in New York at the same time that O’Hara was writing his poetry. Even general art books that merely explain the characteristics of different art movements include Frank O’Hara as a contributing factor in the abstract expressionist art movement. It seems he was more significant in the art circles than in his own literary circles.
Much of the new criticism strays away from looking at the author’s personal life and biography as a window to understanding his work, but with Frank O’Hara, his personal friends and life in New York were a predominant and reoccurring theme in his poetry. He was a member of the New York School of Poets, which was a small group that followed in the footsteps of the famous New York School of Painting. This is only one of the many parallels between the art movement and O’Hara’s poetry. By closely looking at the artistic visions of the artists of the abstract expressionism movement, the qualities and themes of O’Hara’s writings, and by uncovering these themes in his poetry, the effect abstract expressionism had on O’Hara’s writings becomes clear and evident.
The abstract expression...
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...ern is the amount of influence each medium had on one another. This aspect is easily overlooked, and this may be the reason that Frank O’Hara is disregarded in most literature books. It is not only his words that make him great and unique, it is the way his position in the art community influenced both his writings, and the artistic vision of the abstract expressionists that embraced him. If there were a book or a class that studied art’s influence on literature, or vice versa, then Frank O’Hara would play a key and pivotal role.
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Ferguson, Russell. In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art. Los Angeles: U of California, 1999.
During the author’s life in New York and Oberlin College, he understood that people who have not experienced being in a war do not understand what the chaos of a war does to a human being. And once the western media started sensationalizing the violence in Sierra Leone without any human context, people started relating Sierra Leone to civil war, madness and amputations only as that was all that was spoken about. So he wrote this book out o...
This psychological memoir is written from the eyes of Ishmael Beah and it describes his life through the war and through his recovery. War is one of the most horrific things that could ever happen to anyone. Unwilling young boy soldiers to innocent mothers and children are all affected. In most instances the media or government does not show the horrific parts of war, instead they focus on the good things that happen to make the people happy and not cause political issues. In his book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah dispels the romanticism around war through the loss of childhood innocence, the long road of emotional recovery and the mental and physical affects of war.
Throughout the course of this novel, Ishmael Beah keeps the readers on the edge of their seat by incorporating interchanging tones. At the beginning of the novel, the tone can be depicted as naïve, for Beah was unaware to what was actually occurring with the rebels. Eventually, the tone shifts to being very cynical and dark when he depicts the fighting he has endured both physically and mentally. However, the most game changing tone is towards the end of the novel in chapters nineteen and twenty. His tone can be understood as independent or prevailing. It can be portrayed as independent because Beah learns how to survive on his own and to take care of himself. At the same time, it is perceived as prevailing and uplifting because Beah was able to demonstrate that there is hope. Later in the novel, Beah travels to
In the A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a twelve-year-old explains how he used to go on a swim with his friends and his love for rap music and hip-hop dance. When Ishmael and his friends went to visit Mattru Jong, they visited Ishmael's grandparents in Kabati. While staying at the Mattru Jong, they recieved a terrifying news that Mogbwemo was attacked. When messengers warn the townspeople several times that Mattru Jong is going to be attacked, the townspeople fled and hide until time has passed and everyone returned to their daily life. Until, the rebels actually arrive and people run away from the rebels from more than an hour until the rebels stop chasing them. Ishmael, Junior, Ishmael’s brother, and their friends kept walking for days and began to be very hungry. The only way to get was to scavenge cassava and fruit. They decided to reenter to Mattru Jong to get their hidden money. Even though there are rebels lingering in Mattru Jong, the boys manage to get their hidden money and escape except for one boy who alerted the guards. But, they found out that the marketplace has stopped selling food. Hungry for some food, the boys return to Mattru Jong again. However, they were ambushed by three rebels and Ishmael and Junior were chosen to be killed in line. Gunshots were heard from the village and ...
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
Ishmael starts his journey with a will to escape and survive the civil war of Sierra Leone in order to reunite with his mom, dad, and younger siblings, who fled their home when his village was attacked by rebels. Having only his older brother, who he escaped with, and a few friends by his side Ishmael is scared, but hopeful. When the brothers are captured by rebels, Ishmael’s belief in survival is small, as indicated by his fallible survival tactics when he “could hear the gunshots coming closer…[and] began to crawl farther into the bushes” (Beah 35). Ishmael wants to survive, but has little faith that he can. He is attempting to survive by hiding wherever he can- even where the rebels can easily find him. After escaping, Ishmael runs into a villager from his home tells him news on the whereabouts of his family. His optimism is high when the villager, Gasemu, tells Ishmael, “Your parents and brothers wil...
Jarrell, Randall. ?Fifty Years of American Poetry.? The Third Book of Criticism. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah explained his journey throughout his life; whether it was with his family and friends or at war against the rebels in Sierra Leone. During the attack on his village in Mogbwemo, Beah was separated from his family when he was in another city with his brother and friends. At the young age of twelve, Beah was forced to flee from village to village with the aim of escaping the rebels. Eventually, he reluctantly joined the army as a soldier against the rebels. Throughout his memoir, Beah used multiple different tones. Beah described the cheerful times with family and friends, along with the dreadful and shocking times of war.
The purpose of my paper is to prove that marijuana effects teens and their mind. Marijuana is a tobacco-like substance produced by drying the leaves, stems, flower tops of the Cannabis sativa (Indian Hemp) plant (Fact Sheet, 1). It is smoked or eaten to get hallucinated and receive pleasure. It grows just about anywhere. It is illegal in some countries but in others it is used for medical purposes (Encarta, 1). Some names that it is called a joint, nail, pot, Mary Jane, hive, etc. (Fact Sheet and Facts for teens, 1). Marijuana stays in the body for several days after one smoking session. In a chronic user marijuana can stay in the body for up to several weeks (Facts for Teens, 1).
Art Deco as an art mover has had a lot of influence in the history of arts and was under the influence of the past art movements and different cultures, the present lifestyle and the societies of the life changing World War I and II. In design Art Deco was glamorous and in style it was luxurious. Major influences were the styles of art and the French crafts of high standards, different cultures and avant-grade art. It wasn’t just a normal style that reflected adventure, entertainment and leisure but a highly enjoyed taste by all classes of people with different minds after Second World War. It handed down its concepts of design and traditional and modern visual styles to younger generations while at the same time its styles influencing many present-day designers (Hillier & Escritt, 2004).
...helter, food, clothing, and fuel for survival. The Market Revolution in the 19th century changed the mindset of copious individuals about their essential needs. With new innovations that make goods cheaper and easily obtainable, people's greed for more possessions grew. However, the incessant growth of one's desires make the individual a "slave" of their desires because they devote their time in earning money to acquire more, thus losing their freedom. Henry David Thoreau agreed that people enslaved themselves to materialistic possessions and often they forget the genuine meaning of living. Faced with the choice of increasing one’s ability to acquire more goods and decreasing one’s needs, Thoreau believed that minimizing one’s desire will lead to favorable account as individuals gain the chance to enjoy the meaning of life and welcome what nature provide them with.
After smoking, or consuming marijuana, it is distributed in the brain. The concentration of marijuana in the brain may be governed by an active transport process in the choroid plexus network of blood vessels in the brain which regulates intraventricular pressure by absorption and secretion of cerebro spinal fluid. one scientific experiment it gave an example of how the distribution of marijuana in the central nervous system could effect man. At a high dose of 30 mg./kg. marked sedation and pronounced motor incoordination peaked at the one hour interval subsiding in 8 hours when over reaction occurred to external stimuli; man reveals incapacitation of cognitive and motor function. High concentrations of marijuana are usually found in the following parts of the brain: the frontal cortex (the general association area), and hippocampus (short term memory and oreintation). As a result, perception of time, mood and general cordination is impaired. It is apparent that marijuana intoxication effects the neurological functions and usually disappears in 24 hours, but can become a permanent malfunction.THC effec...
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Works Cited “American Literature 1865-1914.” Baym 1271. Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Gibbs, Beverly Jean. "Impressionism as a Literary Movement." The Modern Language Journal 36.4 (1952): 175-83. JSTOR. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.