Existing comment:
Robert Duncan, 1919-1988
Poet Robert Duncan lived and worked mostly on the West Coast, where he was associated with both the Beat movement and the so-called "Bay Area Renaissance." During the 1960s he emerged as a major, post-Beat-era poet by publishing three important books in quick succession: Opening of the Field (1960), Roots and Branches (1964), and Bending the Bow (1968). He then vowed to avoid the "distraction" of publishing for fifteen years, a promise he kept; it was not until 1984 that he published his prize-winning Ground Work I.
R. B. Kitaj's sensitive charcoal portrait of Duncan conveys his thoughtfulness through its depiction of the poet with closed eyes. Duncan was a friend of the artist's, who made the poet the subject of several other works, including a color screenprint and an etching.
R.B. Kitaj, 1982 |