Customer Reviews

Museum of Parallel Art

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Robert Wynne is a consummate craftsman. He can write in any form (and has been known to make some up), or on any theme, and produce beautiful, clear, entertaining poetry.
Museum of Parallel Art is no exception. In this collection of poems about ekphrastic art, Wynne describes, one by one, pieces of art which do not exist, but, Wynne makes clear, should. Wynne imagines a world in which Currier and Ives painted "The Scream," Anne Geddes created "Guernica," and Dr. Seuss gave his interpretation of "Madonna and Child" (to list just the first three pieces).
Wynne doesn't just conceive of this artistic marvels, he describes them so completely we're convinced he has seen them in some museum somewhere. Take his description of "Matt Groening's Creation of Adam":

He reaches for the First Beer in God's hand, taking no notice of the fact that God is nothing but a hand: blue foam rubber covered in red words, and pointing at the first man. The original slogan, "We're #1", has been crossed out and replaced with "I created stupid." God's a joker.

Through these poems, Wynne reveals much about the relationship between artist and art, and between both and the viewer. He also demonstrates the unlimited spread of the human imagination. Read it and be amazed.