Basil King
Photo of Basil
King by Nicole Peyrafitte
The Friends of Basil King are Mitch Highfill, Vincent Katz, Burt
Kimmelman, Martha King, and Kimberly Lyons. A group of writers who came together in 2011 to support and
bring attention to the visual and language arts of painter and poet
Basil King. A circle of advisors assists our efforts.
News from the friends of Basil King.
A solo exhibition of Kings paintings and graphics opened September 2nd
and will continue December 31 at the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts
Center in Asheville, N.C.. A second exhbibtion will open October 28 and be on disolayt through November 19 at St. Andrews University
in Laurinburg, North Carolina, part of a semester-long celebration of Black
Mountain arts. In February 2017, King;s work will be exhibited in a solo show at
the John Molloy Gallery, on East 78th Street, in New York City.
Basil King was invited to serve in the role as narrator in Black
Mountain Songs by Bryce Dessner and Richard Reed Parry, presented as part
of the BAM Next Wave Festival, in 2014.
Tim Keane wrote about Basil King in "The Language of Devotion" on
Hyperallergic on 8.3.13: "His human and animal figures are often
semi-anonymous and melancholic, recalling Max Beckmann and Chaim Soutine,
countered with the ebullient colors and vibrant surfaces found in American and
British Pop art, as in his decades-long series of giant iconographic paintings
based on playing cards. In other works, King paints tinted blank planes with a
contemplative palette suggestive of Color Field painting; their geometric
designs and hypnotic effects share traits of Minimalism. This stylistic
openness informs his writing life too. His autobiographical collage Learning
to Draw/A History rejectschronology and defies the boundary between prose and
poetry and even fact and fiction. Instead of a straight narrative, he engages
in the sort of colloquial musicality mastered by New York School poet friends
like Frank O’Hara and Frank Lima as well as the atavistic cadences and
syntactic reiterations of Gertrude Stein and Samuel Beckett".
Lunar Chandelier Press was an organizer and sponsor of:
"Basil’s Arc: The Paintings and Poetics of Basil King"
on Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
Anthology Film Archives
Over 100 people gathered for this celebration of the visual art of Basil King.
The fireworks, raison d’être and finale of the event was a first screening of
a 22-minute film portrait of Basil King, created and directed by Miles
Joris-Peyrafitte with Nicole Peyrafitte and Commissioned by the Friends of
Basil King.
"I am a painter and a writer, and I follow these two habits, making lines
that are not always linear” says 77 years old Brooklyn working artist Basil
King. This 22-minute film depicts the vital ongoing intimacy between writing
and painting, mapping of the multiple layers of Basil King’s interior terrain
is structured via his reading of his long poem “Mirage” (Marsh Hawk Press
2003) and filmic survey of his paintings.The camera focuses on the lines
drawn/written and intrinsic experiences of King’s syncretic aesthetics
that have been shaped by his early childhood in WWII London ,friendship with
poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, apprenticeship to Abstract
Expressionist painters Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko in New
York, and by his mentors and friends at Black Mountain College, including
Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, John Wieners and to his relationship with other
artist such as Frank O’Hara, Paul Blackburn. But most of all, this film
examines Basil King’s ongoing quest. “Mirage” is available for rental via the
Friends of Basil King.
Please contact: Lunarchandelierpress@gmail.com
“Art is Not Natural”
was screened following “Mirage.”.A speaking portrait
of artist/poet Basil King, filmed by George Quasha,
2-13-10.
Basil’s Arc: The Paintings and Poetics of Basil ing
included talks on King’s art by
scholars, critics and poets including Edna Augusta,
William Benton, Laurie Duggan,
Tom Fink, Paola Javier, Andrew levy, Harry Lewis,
Tom Patterson, George Quasha,
Barry Schwabsky and Mitch Highfill, Vincent Katz, Burt
Kimmelman and Kimberly Lyons .
Daniel Staniforth’s video of images and music “The Green
Man ”opened the day.
Joe Elliot, Hettie Jones, Martha King, Mitch Highfill and
Michael Mann, who read selections from Basil King’s books of prose and
poetry.
Filmmaker, poet and vocalist Nicole Peyrafitte presented
sang her original
vocalization of a poem by Basil King, “ I Have a
Little Song.”
Thanks to the donated expertise of
Christina Strong,
nearly all of the panels, readings and performances of
the event,
“Basil’s Arc: The Paintings and Poetics of Basil
King” are online.
Link below to all currently available vimeos of this
event.
