Visual Poetry

The Artifacts of Poesia Visiva

Curtis L. Carter

The term Poesia Visiva or Visual Poetry, as represented in the art of Eugenio Miccini, Lamberto Pignotti (the initiators and theoreticians of the movement) and other artists such as Giuseppe Chiari and Claudio Francia working in Italy since the 1960s, refers to a particular type of experimental poetry formed as an amalgam of language and pictorial elements positioned simultaneously in the same image. In Visual Poetry the multi-linearity of comics, picture stories and illustrated magazines replaces Gutenberg linearity. In its use of both the linguistic and the pictorial, it differs from concrete poetry which mainly works within the field of a single language code.1 Instead of approaching Visual Poetry from the perspective of a detailed comparison with its counterparts in the evolving avant-garde, or examining its broader societal context, I will focus on the artifacts of Visual Poetry themselves. This analysis will include a look at Visual Poetry's characteristics, (formal, aesthetic, and pragmatic) followed by discussion of particular works in the Haggerty exhibition.

The formal elements of Visual Poetry may vary with the individual artists. For example, Chiari works mainly with musical sources, but they include some common features. Their basic components are words and fragments of pictures abstracted from printed materials. The two are merged in part by means of collage and various other graphic art techniques. Typographical and linguistic features of the words yield to their visual features, and the images give up their representational functions. In their new context, words and images are arranged freely according to the imagination and intent of the artist and become a new whole, where the verbal and the visual function in creative tension. It is useful to think of a visual poem as a metaphor which compresses its message into a complex symbolic form that is intended to stimulate a creative response from the viewers that may include aesthetics as well as ideas and actions.

In what sense does Visual Poetry relate to poetry in its traditional linguistic modes? At the very least it can be said that conventional poetry—from Aristotle's mimesis and the Romantics through the Visual Poetry of the late twentieth century—aims at lifting the human conscious out of the mundane narcosis of routine daily experiences. Poetry aims to inspire through heightened states of emotion and aesthetic pleasure, or perhaps to incite people to action. Both traditional poets and visual poets share a love of the well-crafted object, whether in metric schemes or in juxtapositions of the respective verbal and visual elements. It is nevertheless true that traditional poetry typically invokes a more intimate experience between the reader and the page. Perhaps a critical difference is that traditional poetry is both read and spoken, while Visual Poetry is viewed; a fact that allows Visual Poetry a place in the categories of the visual arts. However, this circumstance did not preclude the visual poets from performance art, which includes both elements of the spoken word and the visual, as the careers of Miccini, Pignotti and the others attest.

On another level, a principal element of Visual Poetry is its critical engagement with the languages of mass communication including advertising in magazines, TV images, and posters in public spaces. A comparison of the still images of Visual Poetry and modern advertising images conjoining words and images confirms the connection. But the images borrowed from advertising are used in a different way. The new structures of Visual Poetry attempt to subvert the manipulative stereotypes of advertising images. This is accomplished through Visual Poetry's displacement of existing forms and meanings and substitution of critical consciousness-raising images in a new sign system.2

Unlike forms of ‘pure’ poetry, valued solely for aesthetic or literary merits that depend upon the sensibilities of a cultivated reader, Visual Poetry draws upon the contemporary vernacular of newspaper captions and magazine advertisements. It aims for accessibility to the same audience as does mass media, the public at large. The exception is that Visual Poetry embraces elements of socio-ideological commentary intended as a critique of the culture of mass communication. In this respect, the Italian visual poets were among the first to offer a critique of the visual and verbal language of mass culture. They propose first to analyze and then decompose the sign systems of mass communications.3

Mass communication is seen by the visual poets as a means of subjugating people and turning them into inactive social instruments. By activating a spirit of experimentation in their art and in the minds of audience members, the visual poets raise their voices against institutional and market coercion of human freedom that would result in a homogenized culture of consensus and conformity. Yet, as has been remarked, this critical function of the artist has become very difficult in a world in which the art market absorbs the artist’s products quickly allowing little or no opportunity for the artist’s critique to effect social change.4

To place the artifacts of Visual Poetry in a context of parallel international art movements, it is useful to compare it with Pop Art. Curiously, Pop Art and Visual Poetry emerged on the cultural horizon at about the same time, around 1960 in England and the United States. Both art movements responded to changes in mass culture, but their approaches were quite different. The objects of Pop Art address both Abstract Expressionism, their immediate art historical precedent, and also objects in popular culture such as Campbell's soup cans or images of Marilyn Monroe. Pop Art repudiates the premises of Abstract Expressionism, the latest brand of high art. It restores figuration while substantially embracing the core of a commercially based popular culture of the media arts, especially celebrity culture. At times influenced by collage, as in the case of Robert Rauschenberg's constructions, the artifacts of Pop Art mainly revert to a stylized figurative painting as seen in the works of Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist. Its reception among the public and traditional art historians was ambivalent, detested by traditional art lovers while admired by the younger generations who identify with mass popular culture.

There are additional differences between Visual Poetry and Pop Art. Pop Art absorbs and reflects the banalities, as well as the ironies of mid-twentieth century life. Visual Poetry also appropriates materials from the visual language of popular mass culture, as well as images from the history of art, but it transforms these elements into a critical commentary. Missing in Pop Art are the analytic and critical perspectives brought to mass culture by Visual Poetry. Unlike Visual Poetry, Pop Art seems more attracted to, than repelled by the dominant media forces of popular culture.

Visual Poetry and Pop Art also differ in their foundations, and in their uses of language and the visual. Pop Art is grounded first in the history of the visual arts. To the extent that Pop Art incorporates language, it is mainly as a secondary element. On the other hand, Visual Poetry begins with the textual language of poetry and is notably influenced by theoretical studies of language in semiotics. It gravitates toward the visual, primarily as a means of extending the domain of poetry.

A little-noticed contribution of the visual poets is the recognition given to the previously ignored visual aspects of written text for the aesthetic appreciation of poetry. Historically, this aspect of poetry has been largely ignored by philosophers and others who discuss the aesthetics of poetry. For example Benedetto Croce “treats the written text as merely a sign for producing certain sounds.”5 Similarly, the aestheticians Mikel Dufrenne and Monroe Beardsley disallow the written symbols any aesthetic relevance, claiming instead that only the oral and the meaning aspects of poetry have any aesthetic relevance.6 All of this changes for Visual Poetry where the aesthetic features of the typography are integrated with the total image and form an integral part of the experience.

II

One of the earliest works in the Haggerty Museum exhibition is Miccini’s 1968, a collage referencing the Vietnam War. A prominent feature of the piece is its title, 1968, placed near the upper right in bold red type. In the upper left is an image of U.S. military figures juxtaposed against missiles placed above the U.S. flag. Opposite is a fighter plane in flight. Between the two images are the words “Vietnam Ventun Anni Di Guerra Senza Gloria” or “Vietnam: years of war and destruction without glory.” On the lower left is an aerial photo of New York City skyscrapers with the inscription in red: “Yankee Go Home.” On the opposite lower right is a soldier uttering a cry of anguish. Between them is a pictogram in the shape of a human hand covered with a colored montage of photographs incorporating power symbols of politics, mass media, religion, and corporate business. Depicted across the out-spread hand are political leaders including Lyndon Johnson, Leonid Brezhnev, Fidel Castro, Charles de Gaulle, the Pope, a media commentator, an entertainer and corporate figures. A military rocket, television screens, cars, airplanes, and a bundle of cash are dispersed throughout the image. The overall effect of Miccini's 1968 is a fairly transparent commentary on the story of the United States' problematic intervention in the Vietnam War. Here Miccini integrates almost seamlessly the interplay of the words and the images to create a work that expresses more than either part represented separately.

Much of Miccini's art in the Haggerty exhibition represents his recent work created between 1999 and 2004. During this period, he experiments with a range of processes where the form becomes increasingly important. The result is Visual Poetry that is octagonal, round, or in some cases in the form of a dancer in motion, or the shapes of a living flame. The two round images entitled Una misura espressiva nuova, 1999 are composed of cut strips of words from publications arranged in a swirling pattern extending out from the center. These pieces have the energy of centrifugal force. In them, the words become submerged into the visual pattern so completely that the didactic is subjugated to the formal elements. E’ in edicola il mondo or The World It's On Newsstands, 2004, returns again to a theme focusing on social commentary; this time the subject is the abuse of war captives as represented in the media.

Pignotti's Visual Poetry of the 1960s draws upon media images paired with typography appropriated from a newspaper or magazine to comment on societal issues in the age of media technology. The words and images are formed, using collage technique, into new constructions that convert literal intentions into the artist's own critical purposes. Un poeta “può” dire la verità or A Poet “Can” Say the Truth, 1966, is divided into three vertical columns, perhaps suggesting the columns of magazine or newspaper pages. The upper right column begins with a proclamation (or is it a question?) concerning the role of the poet: “Un Poeta, ‘Può’ dire la verità.” Literally, a poet can tell the truth. Or perhaps it is the question: can the poet tell the truth? The quotation marks around the word può (can) alert the viewer to Pignotti's use of irony concerning the very enterprise of poetry itself. Below the text are two images: the upper one is of the Three Musketeers; the other portrays a military procession of British soldiers. At the top of the middle column is an image of a hooded Ku Klux Klan figure holding a flaming torch in each hand. Below are the words “Certo, per la pace e il progresso,” or “Certainly for peace and progress,” as if to affirm, perhaps mockingly, the truth-telling capability of the poet in the face of a giant media enterprise that seeks to control thought and action. The image in the right column shows a suited man towering over a street scene with a man wielding a pistol. The difference in scale between the man and the street scene heightens the tension in the overall composition and draws the eye to the words below: “la sconfitta era già segnata.” These words proclaim that defeat is already determined. Pignotti leaves it to the viewer to decipher the meaning of his enigmatic juxtapositions. What links the three columns? Perhaps it is the question: what is the role of poetry in a world challenged to the point of breaking by the threat of powerful forces over which the individual has no control?

In his Chi si difende si salva, 1965, or Who Defends Oneself Will Be Saved, Pignotti again addresses the theme of the individual's response to the stress of contemporary life. This time he makes reference to an advertisement for a popular alcoholic drink made from extract of artichoke. He incorporates into the piece the familiar words of the advertisement: “Contro il logorio della vita moderna,” or “Against the stress of modern life,” as a means for expressing, with clever irony, his concerns for human survival in the age of technological mass communication. The wider context of the piece incorporates references to global Marxism.

Also represented in the exhibition is a selection from Pignotti's series of works bearing the heading Visibile invisibile from the 1980s. “Visibile” refers to what can be seen, “invisibile” refers to the hidden messages in seductive advertisements. Pignotti produced these works as a critique of fashion used as a means of manipulating consumer choices through the media. This aspect of Pignotti's Visual Poetry is represented in the exhibition by two works ) each bearing the title, Visibile invisibile, 1982. The images feature beautiful female models elegantly clothed and photographed in enticing poses. When linked with a commercial product their aim was to attract attention to the product. Here, they are removed from their mass media advertising context and branded with the words “Visibile Invisibile” again leaving the viewer to ponder their new meaning.

Chiari shares with Miccini and Pignotti a distrust of the mass media. His performances and his Visual Poetry images are intended to counter the indiscriminate use of information by mass communication for manipulation of the relations of market conditions to everyday life.7 Chiari's visual poetry is strongly influenced by his identification with avant-garde Fluxus artists such as John Cage, and his identity as a composer and performer of avant-garde music. For Chiari, whose work as a visual poet derives mainly from the perspectives of music and performance, the chief weapons of technology might be the microphone, the recorder, the radio, the record, the computer synthesizer, internet downloads and CDs. These are the means whereby music is produced, transmitted, and controlled for the mass market.

Chiari's works in the exhibition incorporate pages of musical scores altered with bright color blotches and markings interspersed with newspaper copy. The abstract colored marks effectively break down the conventions of traditional musical language. Hence his Visual Poetry, as in La Serenata (The Serenade), 1995 alters the language of the music. His Decisions, 1996 is a mixed media collage incorporating overlays of media text with a sheet of music and with red, green, and purple markings. In Untitled, 2001 the artist forms a collage of colored paper strips and torn sections of an advertisement of Bernardo Bertolucci's film, The Sheltering Sky, 1990. The overall shape forms a guitar on a black background.

Not shown in the exhibition are Chiari's famous terse and provocative statements written in large black letters of India ink on paper or applied to canvas, or his action pieces involving such events as deconstructing a piano or dragging a piano across the stage as if it were a cart.8 These efforts underscore his role as activist-performer.

Writer, filmmaker and poet, Claudio Francia first became involved with Visual Poetry in the mid 1980s. This led to a film De la poésie visuelle à l'art total, which is included in the exhibition. Among his Visual Poetry shown in the exhibition are Gioconda integralista, 1997, Leonardo's Dream, 1997 , and La Presse, 1998. Gioconda is dressed in black and covers her head in the manner of a Muslim woman with only her eyes revealed. Large black letters in block typography bleed into the costume completing the image. In Leonardo's Dream, an airplane projects into the artist's brain. Beneath the artist's portrait are the printed words “Leonardo's Dream.”

La Presse, 1998 comes closer to the earlier works of Visual Poetry in appearance and message. In the center of the image is a large splotch of black ink; underneath is a cut out text of newspaper copy with red ink. The words placed on top of the image, some French some Italian, “La Presse. Ne s'empresse pas de pressentir …Moindre impression de Son pressapochismo” offers a stinging critique of the press for its hasty, slapdash work leading to inaccuracies.

As a second generation artist with respect to Visual Poetry, Francia approaches the medium primarily from his background as a visual artist and poet. In this respect, he differs from Miccini and Pignotti whose work is grounded in semiotics and philosophy. As a result his works differ in aesthetic tone from the Visual Poetry of the earlier generation. They reflect a stronger affinity to the aesthetic of visual fine arts.

III

What then is the outcome of the Visual Poetry movement as represented in the works of the four artists considered here? First, their contributions to the visual culture of the late twentieth century join those of other twentieth century artists such as the Futurists, who wished to question the practice of limiting artistic explorations to the internal boundaries of a particular art form such as painting, music, or film. In this sense, they belong outside the mainstream of modernism which sought to purify and isolate art in a particular medium. They are not the first to challenge these boundaries, but they can be classified as practitioners of post-modernism where diverse arts are combined without regard for historical or media boundaries. Still their scientific grounding in semiotics and humanistic philosophy, especially Miccini and Pignotti, sets them apart. Their theoretical understanding of mass communication provided them with special tools to carry out their radical social program. This knowledge enabled them to decode and expose the practices of mass communication. On another level, they were free to explore new artistic opportunities arising from inter-relationships between the linguistic and artistic functions of words and visual images. Perhaps their greatest contribution lies in their refusal to yield the spirit of experimentation, which is essential to creativity in art and in all aspects of life, to a spirit of consensus and conformity that so easily follows from the mindless influences of mass communication on the daily lives of us all.

1. Lucianno Nanni, in Henri Veyrier, Poesia Visiva, 1963-1988, exh. cat., Palazzo Forti, Verona, October-December 1988; Museo Mediceo, Florence, December 1988-January 1989; Castell del ’Ovo, Napoli, January-February 1989: Paris: Edizioni cooperativa “La Favorita,”1981, p. 341. 2. Edigio Mucci, “Eugenio Miccini or the Manipulation of Signs,” Eugenio Miccini: Critical Anthology, Colognola Ai Colli; Adriano Parise, 1991, p. 12. 3. Ibid. 4. Maria Rita Sbardella, Giuseppe Chiari: musica e segno, Prato: Gli Ori, 2003, p. 240. 5. Cited in Richard Shusterman, Surface and Depth: Dialectics of Criticism and Culture, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002, p. 160. 6. Richard Shusterman kindly referred me to his essay, “Depth Theory and Surface Blindness,” pp. 159-172, which draws attention to the neglect of the visual and asethetic aspects of written poetry. See Shusterman, Surface and Depth cited above. 7. “Art and Society: A Heated Debate,” in Sbardella, Giuseppe Chiari: musica e segno, p. 240. 8. For examples of this aspect of Chiari’s Visual Poetry see Giuseppe Chiari, Frasi, Turin: Martano Editore, 1999.

Pressetext

Visual Poetry
Contemporary Art from Italy

mit Eugenio Miccini, Lamberto Pignotti, Giuseppe Chiari, Claudio Francia ...