Brainard, Joe, 1942-1994

Joe Brainard, author and artist. Exhibited widely in New York and Chicago, Brainard harmonized linguistic and visual materials in extraordinary ways. His graphic work is notably literary, often incorporating works and sentences into non-literary designs. Both the art work and writing is full of information and frequently takes erotic and semiotic risks.

Poet, artist, and book illustrator associated with the New York School of Poetry.

Biography

Born in Arkansas in 1942 and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brainard moved to New York City in 1961. There, he quickly developed friendships with Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Bill Berkson, Barbara Guest, and other participants in the New York School. The large number of collaborative works in the collection, as well as the many illustrations Brainard did for books by others, reflect the sense of community shared by these artists.

Brainard's achievement, however, is remarkable quite aside from his many associations. Brainard harmonized linguistic and visual materials in extraordinary ways. His graphic work is notably literary, often incorporating words and sentences into non-literary designs. Such qualities prompted Frank O'Hara to say that Brainard's work had "nothing to do with philosophy, it's all art." Both the art work and writing is full of information and frequently takes erotic and semiotic risks. In one of his more scandalous serial works, Brainard subjected Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy to every imaginable erotic and high art situation.

A prolific artist, Brainard's work has been exhibited extensively in the New York City area since the early 1960s. His first retrospective show, consisting of work from 1960-1970, took place at the Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago in 1970. In the mid-1970s he created over 3,000 miniature collages, paintings, and drawings for a major show at the Fischbach Gallery in Manhattan. The materials gathered in the Joe Brainard Archive were first exhibited at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1980. In 1986 they were again exhibited at UCSD.

Like Joe Brainard, Alex Katz is a New York City artist. He has given numerous solo shows since the early 1960s, and many of his works have been added to numerous public art collections throughout the country. Unlike Brainard, Katz has created a depthless, planar art which strips the visual image of its narrative, literary aura. The result, as one critic has noted, is an image of a reality that is of no consequence.

Biography

Born in Arkansas in 1942 and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brainard moved to New York City in 1961. There, he quickly developed friendships with Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Bill Berkson, Barbara Guest, and other participants in the New York School.

Brainard's achievement, however, is remarkable aside from his many associations. Brainard harmonized linguistic and visual materials in extraordinary ways. His graphic work is notably literary, often incorporating words and sentences into non-literary designs. Such qualities prompted Frank O'Hara to say that Brainard's work had "nothing to do with philosophy, it's all art." Both the art work and writing are full of information and frequently take erotic and semiotic risks. In one of his more scandalous serial works, Brainard subjected Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy to every imaginable erotic and high art situation.

A prolific artist, Brainard's work has been exhibited extensively in the New York City area since the early 1960s. The Joe Brainard Archive, located in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at UCSD, is the largest collection extant of Brainard's work.

Brainard died on May 25, 1994.