Imaginary Museum: Poems on Art [Hardcover]

Joseph Stanton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Joseph Stanton’s poems perform for us several sequences of works of art, displaying paintings, movies, noh plays, and a variety of tales. Each piece is a genuine discovery, redreaming the elements of art that have surprised him and enlarged his understandings.

Stanton’s poems sing for us the essential songs of paintings by such masters as Vermeer, Pissarro, Magritte, Bruegel, and Hopper; of such movies as The Third Man, The Birds, and Blade Runner; and of such noh plays as Matsukaze, Kagekiyo, and Dojoji. Other series of poems even attempt to shed light on some of Chris Van Allsburg’s inscrutable Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Stanton’s “museum” confirms that our experiences with the great works of our various cultural traditions are deserving of our passionate attention.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Imaginary Museum does more than conjure pre-existing works of art. Through the alchemy of language it offers another view the complexity of another mind deepening our gaze: the simultaneous apprehension of landscapes internal and external merging in shimmering form. --Cathy Song, author of School Figures

Joseph Stanton has organized this outstanding collection...as if it were a museum tour. He enters the space of artifact after artifact, filling his poems with story....Imaginary Museum...is a stunning collection of lyrical poetry. --Laverne and Carol Frith, editors of Ekphrasis

Joseph Stanton's poems on art...convey a narrative inspired by, not imposed upon, the visible stories. They are poems of mood and meditation, and they make you want to look at the paintings again and read these wonderful poems again and again. --Tony Quagliano, former editor of Kaimana

About the Author

Joseph Stanton has published poetry extensively, in a wide variety of journals and anthologies, including Poetry, Poetry East, New York Quarterly, Ekphrasis, and Harvard Review. His scholarly work has appeared in such journals as American Art, Art Criticism, Journal of American Culture, and Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. His other books of poems include What the Kite Thinks and Cardinal Points: Poems on St. Louis Cardinals Baseball. He teaches art history and American studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 111 pages
• Publisher: Time Being Books (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568090501
• ISBN-13: 978-1568090504
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,779,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Joy of Art, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Imaginary Museum: Poems on Art (Hardcover)

Anyone who has ever gazed at a favorite work of art and longed to DO something about it will cherish Joseph Stanton's IMAGINARY MUSEUM, a collection of poems that respond to images from the visual arts--painting, sculpture, movies--and the arts of drama and story. Stanton's own images and word-music concentrate your attention in fresh and startling ways, quicker than thinking. In these poems you'll find a ghost's sleeves dripping with salt, fire trying to outlive the burning house, a bird disappearing with a cry into unpainted silk. The arrangement of the book "museum" into galleries is delightful. Visit the Western Wing with its Vermeer, Cezanne, and Magritte poems; the Eastern Wing with its stunning evocations of Noh Drama; The Moving Picture Room with its Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Blade Runner, Birds (look out for that darkening jungle jim!) and Incredible Shrinking Man; the golden-lit Breugel Gallery; the surreal yet familiar Exhibition of Tales; and the spare splendor of the Hopper Gallery (Edward Hopper is obviously a favorite artist of the poet's). From cover to cover, IMAGINARY MUSEUM is a rare beauty.