Page 22 - Litteratteur Redefining World December issue

Litterateur redefining world December 2020

New Horizons

Partly through the good offices of
Charles Amirkhanian at KPFA, I was
listening to experimental music as well
as reading experimental poetry.
Charles Ives' Concord Sonata and his

book, Essays Before A Sonata were
enormous influences, as were his
songs. I first heard Lou Harrison on
KPFA and was able to attend several of
his concerts at near-by Mills College. I
had acquired Kenneth Rexroth's
wonderful edition of D.H. Lawrence's
poetry in Ithaca. Now I was reading

Rexroth's poetry and listening to him on KPFA. My friend Ed Michel gave me a

collection of records he had produced, so I began with great excitement to
listen seriously to jazz. Eisenstein's essays were also tremendously exciting,
as was Abel Gance's marvelous "polyvision" film, Napoleon, which Adelle and
I saw at The Avenue Theater in San Francisco. I haunted UC Berkeley's Pacific
Film Archive and, centering on Alfred Hitchcock, published a few essays on
film. (Gary Morris, the editor of Bright Lights magazine, was a constant
supporter of my work in this area.) I began to think seriously about the art of
painting. Clyfford Still's abstractions fascinated me. A 1977 exhibition of
Jess's work at the UC Berkeley University Art Museum had an enormous
impact. Through Jess, I discovered Max Ernst and all the people to whom Jess
referred in his multilayered paintings. Kandinsky's paintings and his book,
Concerning The Spiritual In Art, were powerful expressions. Etc.

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