Scholar links art, literature of the Cold War period

The Cold War, poetry and modernist painting all came together Wednesday night when literary critic Marjorie Perloff spoke to dozens of Penn students and faculty at the Kelly Writers House. Perloff, a professor of Humanities at Stanford University, delivered a lecture entitled "Watchman, Spy and Dead Man: Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns and John Cage in the '60s." The critic of contemporary modern poetry focused mostly on the paintings of Johns, a renowned abstract expressionist, analyzing several of his works in relation to the poetry of Frank O'Hara and the tumultuous politics of the 1960s. "More than any other artist, Johns employed the Cold War mentality in art," she explained, maintaining that many of Johns' works expressed his reaction to the conflict between the communist and non-communist sectors of the international system. Specifically, Perloff talked about Johns' "Watchman" and "In Memory of My Feelings." She also drew on several of his sketches and early drafts of works to enhance the discussion of these particular paintings. Citing various coded messages and themes of spying and espionage as evidence, she called the paintings and sketchbooks of Johns "a warehouse of Cold War information." The paintings, Perloff said, reflect "the need in the Cold War to construct alternate identities." She claimed that need led to the sense of "personal anguish" and "anxiety" in many of Johns' pieces. The paintings, however, were discussed in the context of the poetry of the '60s as well. Perloff -- using several of O'Hara's poems as examples -- asserted that O'Hara's personal relationship with Johns greatly influenced the emotional content of several of Johns' paintings. Earlier in the afternoon, a discussion among students and faculty with Perloff about reading the works of Gertrude Stein was broadcast on the World Wide Web. Though unrelated to the night's lecture, the webcast event drew an audience of students and faculty comparable to that of the evening's program. According to College senior Kirsten Thorpe, the webcast format of the discussion facilitated conversation not only among those attending the event but also with those listening to the discussion online. "Because it was broadcast on the Web, there was a chat room where people participated and posted their own opinions," Thorpe said. Along with several other students, Thorpe attended both the Stein discussion and the evening lecture on Johns to complement an English class on modern poetry. Perloff, originally from Philadelphia, has published several books critiquing modern poetry, including Poetry on and off the Page and The Futurist Movement.