Category Archives: Larry Rivers

Cecil Taylor (1929-2018), Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka

Posted on May 17, 2018 by

When the groundbreaking avant-garde jazz pianist and composer Cecil Taylor died last month, there was an outpouring of obituaries and tributes to his genius and influence.  But there was less attention paid to Taylor’s connections to the literary world, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Beats, Billie Holiday, Bob Kaufman, Cecil Taylor, Charles Olson, Frank O'Hara, Franz Kline, Gilbert Sorrentino, In Memoriam, Influences on the NY School, Jack Kerouac, Jazz, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Michael McClure, Morton Feldman, Music, Norman Mailer, NY School Influence, Ornette Coleman, Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Thelonious Monk | 1 Comment

Remembering John Ashbery (1927-2017)

Posted on September 6, 2017 by

This past Sunday, September 3, brought the very sad news that John Ashbery had passed away at the age of 90.  Ashbery has long been regarded as the greatest and most influential living American poet, so it is not surprising … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Guest, Fairfield Porter, Frank O'Hara, Harry Mathews, In Memoriam, Jack Spicer, James Merrill, Jane Freilicher, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Mark Ford, Robert Creeley | 11 Comments

Buried at Springs: Frank O’Hara’s Funeral (7/27/66)

Posted on July 27, 2017 by

51 years ago today, Frank O’Hara was buried in Green River Cemetery, in Springs, New York, just steps away from the grave of one of his heroes, Jackson Pollock, two days after being struck down by a dune buggy on … Continue reading →

Posted in Alex Katz, Alfred Leslie, Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Guest, Bill Berkson, David Shapiro, Edwin Denby, Frank O'Hara, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, James Schuyler, Joe LeSueur, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, MoMA, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning | 7 Comments

For Allen Ginsberg’s Birthday: Making it Up with “Gingsberg, Koch, Padgett”

Posted on June 4, 2017 by

Allen Ginsberg would’ve turned 91 yesterday, and the flurry of tributes and social media love reminded me of an event I attended over 20 years ago — one of a handful of times I was fortunate enough to meet Ginsberg in … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, collaboration, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Poetry Project at St. Marks, Ron Padgett | 10 Comments

Grace Hartigan, Frank O’Hara, and the New York School

Posted on April 14, 2016 by

Burt Glinn, Back Table at the Five Spot (1957), Frank O’Hara, Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan (l to r) The painter Grace Hartigan (1922-2008) was a central figure in the New York School of poets and artists in the 1950s. Particularly close to Frank O’Hara, … Continue reading →

Posted in Abstract Expressionism, Book Review, Elaine de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, James Schuyler, Jane Freilicher, Joan Mitchell, John Ashbery, Larry Rivers, Uncategorized, Visual Art

On Frank O’Hara’s “To the Harbormaster” and Larry Rivers

Posted on December 15, 2015 by

The Paris Review posted this 2011 piece by Olivia Cole again today: it’s a brief look at the relationship between Frank O’Hara and Larry Rivers, and the beautiful poem “To the Harbormaster” that O’Hara wrote about Rivers.  It begins: Lately I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, Poems

James Merrill and … the New York School?

Posted on June 24, 2015 by

James Merrill is not often mentioned in the same breath as poets of the New York School. He is usually viewed as a consummate formalist and genteel New England poet, celebrated for his elegant style, refinement, and restraint, who operated at some distance from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Frank O'Hara, Herbert Machiz, James Merrill, James Schuyler, John Ashbery, John Bernard Myers, Larry Rivers, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Visual Art