They Knew What They Wanted: Poems and Collages

This alluring art book illustrates the way the imagination of John Ashbery (1927–2017)—one of the world’s most influential poets from the 1950s onward—was fundamentally powered by collage. He often took verbal artifacts—overheard conversation, movie dialogue, and, more broadly, language that adopted the tones and conventions of art criticism and journalism—and reassembled them in his poems. His lesser known visual artwork, collected for the first time in this book, comprises mostly magazine cutouts and photographs, alongside a selection of his explicitly collage-oriented poetry, such as one composed entirely of movie titles (“They live by night./ They drive by night./ They knew Mr Knight”). Almost always humorous, Ashbery’s collages show his abiding engagement with popular culture, such as a pair of pastoral postcards with comic book superheroes pasted onto them; a risqué Chutes and Ladders game board; and a picture of an ancient fountain depicting men peeing with a similarly posed stone Popeye spliced in. Ashbery is ever alert to the natural ironies that arise from juxtaposition, highlighting conflicting visions of the world as depicted in newspapers, magazines, classical paintings, and other sources. This book, which also features an intimate interview between Ashbery and the poet and art critic John Yau, is an enlightening complement to Ashbery’s poetry. Color illus. [em](Apr.) [/em]