Poetry and print–a common convergence: week 11, day 7 (Friday)

I don’t think I’m particularly looking for it, but I have come cross a few places where poetry and graphic art intersect, either inspiring the other . It popped up again today. I was given a copy of a Jewish legend from the Zohar (one of the foundational texts of Jewish mysticism) called The Alphabet of Creation, adapted and illustrated with prints by the Lithuanian-American-Jewish artist Ben Shahn. My mom is a big fan of Shahn, but aside from one print hanging on the wall of our living room, I wasn’t really familiar with this artist. With the Alphabet of Creation in hand, I decided to explore Shahn’s print art. Some I liked, some I didn’t, but I discovered that Shahn had a particular fascination with the 19th/20th century Austrian poet-novelist Rainer Maria Rilke. I don’t know RIlke’s work well, but a particular quotation I had long ago encountered gave him a special lustre in my memory. (From his Letters to a Young Poet: “For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.”)

Shahn actually created a series of 24 lithographs (The Rilke Portfolio) inspired by a single long paragraph in Rilke’s only novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. The passage is beautiful, and the lithographs are interesting and beautiful riffs on the passage. Today’s print, however, is not one of those, but rather another Rilke-associated print called Birds Over the City. This print is “assembled” from 3 motifs found in the Rilke Portfolio: several doves together, shown above a representation of a city, with a minimalist figure of Rilke’s face superimposed. Doves are often a symbol of love. Cities can be places to meet people, but when unpartnered, can feel very lonely. Love and loneliness are important themes in Rilke’s writing. (The portion of the print which is just Rilke’s face and the doves was also used in a poster Shahn created for a gallery called Atelier Mourlot.)

Symbolism aside, I find this picture visually appealing–harmonious, even. Love predominates over possible loneliness in the feel. How does it grab you?

Birds Over The City (Lithograph, 1968) with comparison images by the same artist