April 15, 2021: Spotlight on HOLDING ON UPSIDE DOWN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARIANNE MOORE & MARIANNE MOORE AND THE VISUAL ARTS; and Context for Poem “Orison”

This biography of Moore begins with the pivotal trip she made at age 28 in 1915 to New York City, a trip that included a visit to 291, the gallery and studio of photographer of Alfred Steiglitz, headquarters for the magazine, Camera Work, and a gathering place for young modernists of all genres. The biographical study contains all the elements one would wish in the life of an artist (extensive notes, appropriate concision to enhance the reader’s pleasure, a detailed family tree, ample photographs, and a good and balanced treatment of the details of domestic life, friends and family influences, broader cultural milieu, and the intersections of art and life. Of particular pleasure in this work is the judicious use of excerpts from letters to and from Moore.

Moore’s often-anthologized poem, “Poetry,” supplies the title for this biography. (Knowing of her love for animals, see if you can spot the reference!)

Suffice to say, this was a superb literary biography, and it is helping me to read Moore’s poetry with more understanding than I could muster on my own. I have always been a little afraid of her work, somehow (those daunting syllabics!) Yet, I was a little sad to finish it last month, and so, on the strength of that experience, and to prolong it, I sought out a copy of Leavell’s first book, Marianne Moore and the Visual Arts: Prismatic Color (Lousinana State University Press, 1995.) I am keeping it for a treat, to read this summer.

In addition to helping me toward new understanding of Moore’s work, Leavell has helped me understand the modern art movement, more broadly, and its questioning of traditional forms, its exploration of shards and jarring juxtapositions and collage and pastiche–in music, the visual arts, popular culture, and the literary arts.

(I am also wondering, but have not established, whether Linda Leavell might be the sister of poet Ava Leavell Haymon of Louisiana. If so, how lovely to have a powerful scholar of poetry and a powerful poet in the same family.)

Modernist Self-Portrait, 2020

Regarding the Poem for April 15, 2021: “Orison”:

My office, looking south, with chaise longue
Looking west from my office: trellis, wren houses to be hung; green gingko tree
Yesterday–scilla under a dusting of snow

Until tomorrow!

LESLIE

2 thoughts on “April 15, 2021: Spotlight on HOLDING ON UPSIDE DOWN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARIANNE MOORE & MARIANNE MOORE AND THE VISUAL ARTS; and Context for Poem “Orison”

  1. You are so right!

    We added white scilla bulbs last fall as an experiment–and I am in love with them! I want to order a hundred more this fall.

  2. Interesting post, Leslie. Let us know if you find there is a familial connection here between Ava Leavell and Linda Leavell. That would be small world.

    Love blue scilla and a friend just took me to a hidden pathway, practically in the middle of town yet hidden, of blue scilla. It’s beautiful as a singular plant, as in our yard this year. Even more magical as a carpet in the woodland!

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