The Painted Word features artworks by 80 writers and poets of the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat Generation. During the 1950’s and ’60’s, San Francisco experienced a creative awakening through its poetry, visual art and jazz.
In the early 20th century, artist Marcel Duchamp asserted that art existed primarily in the mind instead of the eye. Language can also be a visual experience, and The Painted Word explores the place where text, sound and vision combine. What distinguishes this exhibition, says Meridian Gallery’s executive director Anne Brodzky, “is that it shows the culmination of different modes of visual art and writing from San Francisco Renaissance and Beat poets, which has never been done before in a major art exhibition.”
Artists include William Saroyan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Hirschman, Jess, Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, Jack Micheline, Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, Christopher Felver,
John Keating, William S.
Burroughs, and David Meltzer. Selected works are available for sale.
Don’t miss the special closing event for The Painted Word on July 13 from 5–8 p.m. Award-winning actress and stage director Lissa Tyler Renoud will read poetry by Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, William Saroyan, and William Burroughs.
The Painted Word: Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street (near Bush), through July 14, Tuesday–Saturday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., 415-398-7229,www.meridiangallery.org
— S. Anderson
