For centuries an artist adept in one medium has found solace, encouragement, and inspiration in another, even to the point of merging them. Michelangelo put down his chisel to pick up his pen; Blake pictorialized his poetry; Max Ernst collaged narratives; Gertrude Stein adopted a cubist style. This bicameral interplay of the verbal and pictorial has never been more pronounced than in our own time. The Dual Muse explores a range of creative interrelationships between the visual arts and literary media in works by selected modern and contemporary artists and authors.
This catalogue is published in conjunction with an exhibition and symposium organized by the Washington University Gallery of Art and the Washington University International Writers Center, St. Louis. The exhibition catalogue illustrates the 67 pieces in the exhibition with 38 color plates and contains essays on the relationship of literary and visual arts by William Gass and Johanna Drucker, with an introduction by Cornelia Homburg.
A companion volume containing proceedings from The Dual Muse symposium being held at Washington University in St. Louis on November 7-9, 1997 will be available in 1999. The symposium book will include papers by artists and authors Jennifer Bartlett, Breyten Breytenbach, Tom Phillips, and Derek Walcott.
Co-published with Washington University Gallery of Art and International Writers Center, Washington University in St. Louis.