Art and Poetry Background Information
Poet-Artists
For centuries, artists from Michelangelo to Picasso have written and published poems. Artists who are
fluent in the visual and literary arts are able to select the creative medium that best expresses their
ideas. In some cases, paintings and poetry are displayed together to more deeply communicate a theme,
emotion, or thought.
Exploring Themes in Art and Poetry
William Blake, one of the most prolific artists and poets of the Romantic period, united the two sister
arts—painting and poetry—most effectively in his “illuminated books.” Recalling medieval illuminated
manuscripts, these richly illustrated books addressed large themes such as religious hypocrisy, poverty,
inequality, and human existence. Blake’s books represented the marriage of painting and poetry
through carefully etched poems and accompanying images. His best-known works are Songs of
Innocence and Songs of Experience, two illustrated collections of lyric poems that were combined into
one volume in 1794.
In both his visual and literary works, Blake explored
contrasting states—innocence vs. experience, the rational
mind vs. imagination, good vs. evil. In his drawing Satan
Exulting over Eve, a heroic and glorified Satan prevails over
Eve, who clutches the apple that resulted in her loss of
innocence. The serpent who tempted her with the apple in
the Garden of Eden is shown constricting Eve—reflecting
literal and metaphorical dominance. Although Blake most
frequently turned to the Christian Bible for inspiration, his
William Blake favored the medium of poetry and works of art reflect his own personal visions.
watercolor, as in Satan Exulting over Eve,
because of its transparent qualities. Learn View a reading of William Blake’s “The Proverbs of Hell” by
more about this work of art.
Marilyn Manson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xghpb_myA0E
Art and Poetry Background Information
Poet-Artists
Love in Art and Poetry
Another example of an artist who was also known for his poetry is
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was most recognized for his dreamlike,
single-figure portraits of his lover and muse, Elizabeth Siddal. She was
the subject of over 60 intimate drawings and could be credited with
inspiring a prolific output of poetry. The content of poems such as “A
Last Confession” and “The Blessed Damozel” have been linked to
aspects of Rossetti’s relationship, including the deep sorrow he
experienced when Siddal died in 1862. Intimately familiar with the
extremes of love and loss, Rossetti represented the expanse of human
desire in his work. Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal Resting,
Holding a Parasol is one of dozens of
works that Dante Gabriel Rossetti
created featuring his muse. Learn more
about this work of art.
Fantasy in Art and Poetry
Rossetti’s contemporary, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (more
commonly known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll) also used
visual art and poetry as vehicles for expression. His work as a
writer, poet, and artist reflects his deep interest in fantasy
and children’s stories. As a poet, he played with the English
language by inventing words and creating puns. In his novels,
he commonly included poems and songs. He made skilled
pen-and-ink illustrations to complement his writing and also
worked in the medium of photography.
An accomplished portraitist, Carroll made pictures of
In Saint George and the Dragon, Lewis children in fantastical scenes. His interest in whimsy and
Carroll staged the legend of Saint George, humor drove him to expand the genre of “literary
the English patron saint, who slew a child-
eating dragon to save a princess. Learn nonsense,” leading him to publish his most famous piece,
more about this work of art. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Art and Poetry Background Information
Poet-Artists
Visual Poetry
Like Lewis Carroll, Kansuke Yamamoto pursued both poetry and
photography and created unexpected and surprising works. His poems
emphasized discontinuity through rhythm and tension, and like
Carroll, he often manipulated grammar to experiment in a language of
his own. However, for Yamamoto, poetry did not necessarily depend
on the written word; his photographs could be considered poems
themselves.
Yamamoto made plastic poetry, as he and his colleagues called it.
Through these dreamlike photographic collages, the Japanese
Surrealists brought a poetic sensibility to the creation of visual art by
Kansuke Yamamoto poetically
juxtaposing or layering different images to evoke complex and juxtaposed imagery in his plastic
symbolic meanings. Yamamoto and other Japanese Surrealists defied poems, such as I’d Like to Think
the restrictions of the written word and of creative categories, blurring While inside the Body of a Horse.
the line between poetry and art. Learn more about this artist
Learn more about visual poetry
