Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painters & Poets

The Tibor de Nagy Gallery marks its 60th anniversary with “Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painters and Poets,” an exhibition celebrating the gallery’s pivotal role in launching the New York School of Poets and fostering a new collaborative ethos among poets and painters in post-War New York. The exhibit focuses on the gallery’s first two decades, the 1950s and ‘60s, when its vibrant, salon-like atmosphere and director John Bernard Myers’ passion for both art and poetry gave birth to these unique partnerships.

The show features paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Alfred Leslie, Trevor Winkfield, Nell Blaine, Joe Brainard, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Jane Freilicher and Fairfield Porter; poetry collections published by the gallery’s imprint, Tibor de Nagy Editions, and featuring work by Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, John Ashbery, Barbara Guest and others, with illustrations by Tibor de Nagy artists; photographs and films by Rudy Burckhardt; letters, announcement cards and other ephemera; and archival photographs of leading cultural figures of the day by John Gruen and Fred McDarrah.

“Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painters and Poets” runs from Saturday, January 15 - Saturday, March 5. An opening reception will be held on the 15th from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; regular gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM. Tibor de Nagy (pronounced TEE-bor dih-NAJ) is located on the 12th floor of 724 Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets.

“The New York School of Poets and Their Milieu,” a series of complementary events organized to celebrate the gallery’s anniversary, further illuminates the avant-garde milieu of the period:

• January 1, The New York Festival of Song Presents “The New York School” — Chicago’s
WFMT radio broadcasts a concert (also available via webstream at www.wfmt.org)
featuring poetry by Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and other poets who
came of age in the 1950s and ‘60s set to music by William Bolcom, Ned Rorem, Vernon
Duke, Virgil Thomson and others.
• January 31, The New School Presents “60 Years of Tibor de Nagy Painters and Poets: A
Celebration of the Legendary Gallery” — An evening of poetry, film clips and
reminiscences about the Tibor de Nagy Gallery’s role in shaping New York’s post-War
literary and artistic vanguard. With poets John Ashbery, Bill Berkson and Ron Padgett;
artist and filmmaker Alfred Leslie; and scholars Jenni Quilter and Douglas Crase, whose
essays comprise the catalog for the exhibition “Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painters and
Poets.”
• February 25 - 27, Anthology Film Archives Presents Newly-Restored Prints of Rudy
Burckhardt’s “Money” (1968) and “The Climate of New York” (1948) — Screenings of
recently restored prints of the classic Burckhardt films “Money” (1968), in which
renowned dance critic Edwin Denby leads a cast of ‘60s art- and poetry-world stars, and
“The Climate of New York” (1948), in which Burckhardt paints a portrait of the city and
its inhabitants in luminous black-and-white and saturated color.

Media Contact: Alix Friedman, prmaven1@gmail.com | 646 468 4269

Download PDF

Celebrating 60 Years

January 15 – March 5, 2011

Press Release