Authors, poets, writers are all represented one way or another in the art world. There are lots of artworks of writers that are caricatures, ones that are clearly tinkered-with photos & to be honest, ones that are astonishingly primitive. I found no good ones of Irvine Welsh for instance. Some pieces of my favourite authors such as Annie Proulx or Keri Hulme are limited perhaps because the photo references available are limited or they’re not the types to commission portraits. Others such as Shakespeare are overdone & tedious or, god save us, WACKY. There are portraits of authors that are cartoons or made for book covers or newspaper reviews.
Some are great though & although this is a decent list, I could have done more with more time. Today, I’ve gone for writers who mean something to me, I have a little story for or that I’m completely obsessive about. It’s neither exhaustive artistically nor regarding my general book & reading obsessions (which are huge), but I’ve tried to at least go for something interesting.
e.e. cummings (1894-1962), Self Portrait (1958)
In complete fairness, I’m not as interested in e.e. cummings as in my story. Once I’d finished with my first Gerald Durrell book & mother realised I could handle that, she got me interested in other things, such as poetry. School managed to make me enthusiastic about reading playscripts later on. It was a simple trajectory really & I was an easy target. One of the poets I was given to read was cummings & of course, at a young age, you’re interested in how writers (or anyone) will subvert the language (or anything). Obviously NO CAPITALS as a policy was interesting. Come time, I’d also be like when writers messed with or omitted punctuation & form.
I’m realising this isn’t much of a story now as I’ve built it up, but the upshot was that when a teacher who had told my parents at a meeting that I’d fail Sixth Year Studies English once presented the class with e.e. cummings. The supercilious fool thought we’d all be amazed that a poet that wrote with NO CAPITALS would even get published & archly asked what on earth we thought was going on.
As witheringly as I could manage I replied, “Because it’s what he always does.”
The teacher was less sure of himself now. “Does what?” he wheedled through gritted teeth.
I may have sighed or I may have been pleased with the attention I was getting from my classmates.
“cummings doesn’t use capitals.” I definitely sighed then. “I’ve read a fair bit,” I sort of lied.
He looked at me with new, suspicious eyes but never tried to pull a fast one like that again.
Plus I passed SYS English so hahahaha.
Davie Levine (1926-2009), Portrait of Joseph Heller (1992)
Tom Bachtell, J.D. Salinger
For said SYS English I’d written some drivel in the form of a dissertation on the collapse of the American Dream. I compared two of my favourite books at the time, “Catch-22” & “The Catcher in the Rye” (lots of catching) to help make my point. I mean it probably was drivel, but once again I say, I PASSED.
Anyway, these portraits were two of the better artworks depicting Heller & Salinger in the form of cartoons/caricatures. Though very different in style, they do capture a likeness as well as attitude.
Leib Chigrin, Hermann Hesse
This vaguely Pop Art portrait is a clean, crisp depiction of a man of philosophies. As with other writers with at least one Big Idea such as Huxley or Pirsig, his appearance belies the esoteric & more mind-blowing aspects of his writing.
Frank Larson, Mark Twain (1935)
I’ve seen Mark Twain described as one of the most quotable writers of our age & they’re not talking about his books. What I like is there are umpteen photos of Twain with CATS & he says good things about CATS. I was struggling to find information about this painting & it might be a painting of a painting, I’m not sure…but the signature is on the work, so I’m going with this credit.
Esther Green (b. 1969), SK70 (2017)
Yes, once again I impudently include my own work but Stephen King has been a lifelong literary obsession. This was made as thanks on the occasion of his seventieth birthday.
Ralph Heimans (b. 1970), Margaret Atwood: “The Abysm of Time…” (The Tempest) (2016)
I was pretty late finding Margaret Atwood & I first started reading her work when Stephen King mentioned her in a speech – something else I can thank him for other than a lifetime of scares. Although this is a stunning painting, it does give me the feeling that she’s a potions teacher at Hogwart’s.
Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012), James Joyce (1981)
I’ve a strong hunch that le Brocquy painted this amazing piece from Joyce’s death mask, although there are other paintings clearly made from photographs. Le Brocquy’s was a style as unique as the writing style of his fellow countryman Joyce.
Federica Masini, Albert Camus
I’m also a fairly recent convert to Camus & I have to say, I’ve fallen hard. One fun thing to do whilst struggling with Covid, was to read “The Plague.” & when I say “fun,” I mean “terrifying.” Despite the book actually being about Nazi invasion, what happens to society & authority in the face of the plague was incredibly prescient. As for Albert, when someone dies so young, there are only so many existing reference photos for artists to use & this quickly becomes obvious when you do a search. I’ve not yet found a credit for the beautiful painting above. Artists have a tendency to make Albert look like James Dean or Humphrey Bogart, both of which are understandable from the available photographs…yet not quite right.
Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), James Kelman (1977)
Here we have two Scottish citizens who were friends, sharing politics, a city & a vision. One of Alasdair’s artistic devices was to use brown paper pasted on to white, which gave his drawings depth & a distinctive look. James’s books are deceptively simple in style but take the side of the underdog & the oppressed.
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