Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror
Artist: various
Publisher: Arion Press, San Francisco, 1984 (Andrew Hoyem)
Printer: text: Arion Press, San Francisco;
lithographs (Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Jane Freilicher): Hampton Editions, Ltd., Sag Harbor
Binder: box: Atlas Metal Spinning, South San Francisco
Author: John Ashbery (American, 1927 - 2017)
Date: 1984
Dimensions:
Box: H: 19 1/4 in. (489 mm); W: 19 1/4 in. (489 mm); Depth: 1 5/8 in. (41 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 18 in. (457 mm); W: 17 7/8 in. (454 mm).
Sleeve: H: 12 3/8 in. (314 mm); W: 12 1/4 in. (311 mm).
Medium: Original prints: 4 lithographs, 1 woodcut, 1 soft ground etching with aquatint tone, 1 "etching reproduced by photogravure" with added pastel hand-coloring.
Reproductions: 2 photolithographs of a photograph (incl. 1 on record sleeve), 2 photolithographs of a painting (incl. 1 in color, on the record sleeve).
Text: letterpress (typeface: handset Cochin); photolithography (record sleeve).
Paper: cream wove handmade Twinrocker Mill paper.
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss
Object number: 1984.1337A-PP
Label Text:
Audio from vinyl recording of John Ashbery reading “Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror.”
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This book was published to celebrate New York poet John Ashbery’s poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” inspired by the 16th-century painting of the same name by Italian artist Parmigianino (see image). Arion Press founder Andrew Hoyem invited Ashbery to produce a fine print edition in the early 1980s inspired by the poem. Ashbery had close ties with many artists, and he and Hoyem invited artists with whom Ashbery was close friends, or whose work he especially admired, to create the prints for the volume. The circular format echoes the mirror of the title, as well as the vinyl recording that is included of Ashbery reading his poem.
Eight artists joined in this tribute by contributing prints in a variety of mediums, all in this circular format, each responding either to the poem or to the Parmigianino painting. The resulting prints present a range of styles and techniques, with, for example, lithographs by Elaine and Willem de Kooning and Jane Freilicher, an etching by R. B. Kitaj, a woodcut by Jim Dine, and a hand-colored photogravure by Larry Rivers. The unbound pages are contained in a stainless-steel canister mounted with a convex mirror for viewers to peer into.
Audio from vinyl recording of John Ashbery reading “Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror.”
The reading of the poem was recorded at Station WBAI, New York, in 1975, for the program "Poetry," produced by Susan Howe. The recording tape was edited at 1750 Arch Studios, Berkeley, CA, and the records were cut and pressed at Wakefield Manufacturing, Phoenix, AZ.
__________________________________
This book was published to celebrate New York poet John Ashbery’s poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” inspired by the 16th-century painting of the same name by Italian artist Parmigianino (see image). Arion Press founder Andrew Hoyem invited Ashbery to produce a fine print edition in the early 1980s inspired by the poem. Ashbery had close ties with many artists, and he and Hoyem invited artists with whom Ashbery was close friends, or whose work he especially admired, to create the prints for the volume. The circular format echoes the mirror of the title, as well as the vinyl recording that is included of Ashbery reading his poem.
Eight artists joined in this tribute by contributing prints in a variety of mediums, all in this circular format, each responding either to the poem or to the Parmigianino painting. The resulting prints present a range of styles and techniques, with, for example, lithographs by Elaine and Willem de Kooning and Jane Freilicher, an etching by R. B. Kitaj, a woodcut by Jim Dine, and a hand-colored photogravure by Larry Rivers. The unbound pages are contained in a stainless-steel canister mounted with a convex mirror for viewers to peer into.
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