Traces: whatdoyoumeanandhowdoyoumeanit
F R A N KO ' H A R A . T h e < N e w Y o r k S c h o o l >betweenAbstractE*pressionism
and Pop Art
T H O M A SD R E H E R
Rising,
he wraps himself in the burnoose of memories against the heat of life...
and I have lost what is always and everywhere
present, the scene of my selves, the occasion of these ruses,
which I myself and singly must now kill
and save the serpent in their midst 2.
THE NEW YORK SCHOOL
In the nineteen-fifties, the poet Frank O'Hara and the
musicianJohn Cage were important stimulatorsfor New
York artists searchingfor alternativepaths to Abstract
Expressionism. O'Hara and Cage presentedtheir aesthetic the differencebetween art-internal,public,and private
views as early as 1952in panel discussions and lecturesat
The Artists Club, an associationof Abstract Expressionist
artrsts.
A p a n eldis c us s ion on 7 Ma rc h 1 9 5| , w i th O' H a ra and the
a rti stsJ aneF r eilic he r,G ra c e H a rti g a n ,J o a n Mi tc h e l l ,A l fred
Leslie,and Larry Riverswas led by John Bernard Myers,
partner of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery :. With the
exception of Mitchell,each of the artists participatingin
ex hibi te di n th i s g a l l e ry ,w h i c h a l s o p ubl i shed writing, which is related to 'Action Painting':ln verse, the
th i s d i s c us s ion
volumes of poems by O'Hara (A City Winter, 1952;
Ora n g es , 1953;Lov e Po e ms , 1 9 6 5 ).In O ' H a ra ' s p oems,
the first names of Freilicher,Hartigan,and Riverswere
fre q u e nt lym ent ioned .F u rth e rmo re ,th e d e N .g y G al l ery
also publishedthe four-pageliterary journal Semicolonon
a n i rre gularbas is ,wh i c h i n c l u d e dp o e ms b y O' H a ra, John
Ashbery, Edwin Denby, and Kenneth Koch,
Th e p o et s O ' Har a, A s h b e ry ,D e n b y , a n d Ko c h , a l ongw i th
BarbaraGuest and JamesSchuyler,are united by literary
criticismunder the epithet New York School of Poets. On
l4 March 1952,Larry Riversmoderated a panel discussion read.
in The Club, on which each of the aforementionedpoets
- with the exception of Koch - participated,
O'HAR A ' S P O E T I C F O R M
l n 1 9 5 1152, O ' Har a d e v e l o p e dh i s o w n l i te ra rys ty le.
Without considerationof meter, he quicklywrote down
a l l i e dim pr es s ionsM. e m o ri e s ,fi c ti o n s ,a n d i mp re s si ons
from
the immediateenvironment- O'Hara frequentlywrote at
his work place,the bookstore of the Museum of Modern
Art ( 195l- 55) - blen d to g e th e r. F o l l o w i n gre p o rts of
imaginedor actual occurrences- this cannot be differen-
tiated by the reader - in the imperfect or perfect tense,
are descriptionsin the present tense, and vice versa.
t4
Names and expressionsfrom the variousfields of art and
from public life receivethe same relative importance in the
poetic processof associationas the first names of friends,
The significance of names is not explainedwithin the work
itself. Even with foreknowledge,the reader can recognize
only with difficulty.
The artistic ego is not clearly recognizableas an individual
di sassoci atedfrom the outer w orl d, fol l ow i ngpr inciples
independentof situation.The border between the freely
associatedand the disintegrating subject- between the
constitutionand dissociationof the ego - becomesfluid a.
Experiencesand conceptionsreceivetheir own relative
importance in the stream of associationof the act of
poet is like JacksonPollock, who literally (work)... in the
painting s.'As a result of their cubist syntax (Perloff) with
temporal and spatial displacements6, the reader can no
longer reconstructthe author's stream of thoughts in
O' H ara' s poems.The reader can use the poem only as a
multiply-refractedframework for his or her own
associations. By means of the multiplicityand intricacyof
the referenceswhich make the poem possibleand leave it
open at the same ti me, the i mpressi ons w hi ch ar isedur ing
its readingbecome at least as significantas that which is
W A S H IN GTON C R OS S IN G TH E D E LA W A RE
ln 1952,Hartigan,Rivers,and the galleristMyers regularly
visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art 7. Hartigan,who
had even closer contact with O'Hara than Rivers,was
inspiredto paint expressiveadaptationsof Drer, Rubens,
and others by these museum visits.Hartiganhad reworked
the adapted figuresonly in a painterlymanner, not
compositionally.Rivers,who in his early figurativework
was influencedby Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse,was
inspired by Gustave Courbel's Un Enterrement Ornans
(1849/50)as earl y as 1951.In contrastto H arti gan'sO / d
Master Paintings,Rivers reworked the original
autonomously- in the representationof the Jewishburial
of his grandmother.
Unlike Hartiganwho completelyadapted a painting's
composition, in WashingtonCrossingthe Delaware (1953)
Riversreworked the compositionwith the help of other
sources.He representedWashington'scrossingof the river
in a new manner which contrastswith the Well-known
paintingof the same motif by EmanuelLeutze from l85l .,r**;ffi
in the collectionof the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rivers translated O'Hara's cubist syntax, into a multi-
perspectivecomposition.In various places,soldiers,
cavalrymen,and civiliansare more drawn than painted on
- and at the same time in - a landscapewhich is only
loosely suggestedby strokes of color. : '
As a model for Washington'sportrait, Riversstated: .../ i,.! |

took the face from a Da Vinci demon, a man screaming 8. "-F

The position of the front hooves of the white horse,
especiallythat of its inclinedstandingleg, as well as the
posture of its head are related to that of the horse in
Peter Paul Rubens'oil sketch of St, Martin cutting his cloak
in half (c. 1609-13).No other figure is painted so precisely
as the white horse and Washington.The posture of the
head, as well as of the standingand trailinglegsof the
white horse'sfront hooves correspond- althoughlaterally
inverted - with the contrappostoof Washington.Leutze's
real-idealistic
Washingtonis based upon Rivers' revisionof
prototypes e and satirizedin the posture of
his classicist
the horse. Such analogiesin opposition,whereby pathos is
treated with irony, is also found in O'Hara's poems 10.
Grace HARTIGAN Organges I , 1952-53 Oil on paper I 12 x 85 cm
Riverssatirizesa well-known history paintingby
fragmenting it into many scenesand adapting figuresfrom Rivers' imagesare placedeither as illustrationsnext to,
other narrativecontexts. Through satire, he upsetsthe above or below parts of poems, or as words in linesof
Cold War nationalismof the McCarthy Era. verse. Segmentsof text also become image forms by
RiverstransfersO'Hara's 'displacement'of names and meansof specialscript forms, or they are integratedwith
placesinto the visualfield via adaptation in Washington imageforms as letters, signs,and comic-stripballoons.
Crossing the Delaware and via set pieces borrowed from lllustrativeas well as signal-like
non-illustrative
symbolsare
the everyday and private spheresin the compositions employed as prominent signsof the text. lconicaland
which followed in the course of the fifties. Paintingsfrom indexicalsignfunctionschange.The exchangebetween
1955to 1958are no longer constructedwith multiple- processesof seeingand processesof reading provokes a
perspectivein terms of compositiononly - as in, for reception which fluctuates between de- and re-
'Washington'
example, the painting- but also in terms of semantization.
the individualfigures: see Frank O'Hara, One in Three
(1957). For O'Hara, Rivers' quality lies in the fluctuation
between figurative absence and abstract presence tt . P E R S ON IS M

Kenneth Koch, with the paintingNew York 1950-60,

POEM.P A I NT I NG S
In 1952-53,Grace Hartigantranslatedinto oil paintingsl2
of the l9 (anti-)pastorals from O'Hara's seriesof poems
Oranges 12.Hartiganunited linesof verse into blocks in
these l2 paintingsby varyingthe color base and
handwriting.HartigansubstitutedO'Hara's long linesof
verse with new line arrangements.The artist wrote the
first linesof verse larger than those which follow: they thus
become headings.Hartiganemployed text as image,
whereas Riversand O'Hara crossedimage and text while
working together on Stones 13,a seriesof twelve
lithographs,between 1957 and 1960. O'Hara: Sometimes
we would discussthe placement of an image, which would
leave me enough room to write the text, or I would say
where I wanted the text and then he would decorate the
rest of the stone ta.
completed in 196l in collaborationwith Rivers,was
obviously influencedby the graffiti of the period -
scrawlingson walls and toilettes. The title refers to a
retrospectiveattitude: O'Hara's Personism,which Koch
and Riversfollowed in the fifties,was supercededin the
sixtiesby Andy Warhol's and Roy Lichtenstein'simpersonal
adoption of models and subjects.Hartigan'sand Rivers'
adaptationswere followed by a processof quotation, with
which the artist not only adapted himselfto the
anonymousmeans of production of graphicdesign,but also
denied the creativitywhich was demandedthere as
productive force. The points of reference in the external
urban world which, for O'Hara and Riversreferred back
to the personal,were replacedby mechanical
reproductionsof reproductions.For Warhol and
Lichtenstein,the public replacedthe private, whereas, in
the sixties, Rivers was creating a personal cosmos, an
l5
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',1sitt r
Larr RIVERS
a n d F r a n kO H A R A S t o n e s .U S , ) 9 5 7 Lithograph from one stone

i n d i vi dualic onogr aph yR . e fe re n c e to s th e e x te rn a lworl d and at ttmes when I would rather be dead the thought
c a n b e d e c i p h e r e da s q u o t a t i o n so f t h e s e l f ,s i n c ea l i m i t e d that I could never write another poem has so far stopped
a mo u nt of r ef er enc ep o i n ts re tu rn s i n m a n y w o rk s, and me. I think thrsts an tgnobleattitude. I would rather dre
s o m e t i m e se v e n w i t h i n t h e i n d i v i d u awl o r k s t h e m s e l v e s . for l ove, but I haven' t.
T h e n o n - i n d i v i d ufar lo m t h e e x t e r n a lw o r l d i s r e -
i n d i v i d u a l i z ei nd a p a i n t e r l yr e v i s i o ns t r e s s i nfgi e l d so f c o l o r .
R i ve rs 'quot at ionof h i m s e l ftra n s fo rmsfo rm e r e x te rnal IN MEMORY OF MY FEELINGS
p o i n ts of r ef er enc ein to i n te rn a lo n e s a n d d e m o n s trate
t h a t h i s f o r m e r p r o x i m i t yt o O ' H a r a ' s h y p e r - s e n s i t i v e l n l 9 6 l , J a s p e Jr o h n si n t e g r a t e di n s t e n c isl c r i p tt h e t i t l e o f
- r ^ -L+t t ^c ) ^> ^ -+L U^ c^i \"L +
dtct ct
^ rt tnd . a l i l tfulcut et LnC >c eti>ss s u o e r c e d e db v a
t ii l n a longer poem, ln Memory of My Feelrngs, written by
wi th d rawalf r om t he e x te rn a lw o rl d . O ' H a r a i n 1 9 5 6t 7 i n t o a p a i n t i n go f t h e s a m e n a m e . l t r s
Th i s wit hdr awalf r om th e e x te rn a lw o rl d i s a l s o a pparent one of the fi rst pai nti ngsi n a devel opmentof Johns'away
i n te rm s of O ' Har a b y a s e a rl y a s th e e n d o f th e f i fti es,as from the appropri ati onof i mpersonalgeneral , l yknown
h i s l i n e so f v e r s e a b o u t B e r d r e( 1 9 5 9 ;M r s . B e r t h aB u r g e r , c, ,i o .n, ,s t-n_r n r : r d c t h e r n r.n. n
. Yl c, v_ . h : r c l v d e r - i n h c r e h l e i ,r ,rl a g e
w h o d i e d i n 1 9 5 7 ,w a s R i v e r s 'm o t h e r - i n - l a w a n d m o d e l )i n c o m p o s i t i o nw s i t h a u t o b i o g r a p h i craelf e r e n c e sJ.o h n sp l a c e d
a l i th o gr aphf r om t he Sto n e ss e ri e sd e mo n s tra te s: the ti tl e above the l ow er edge of the l eft si de o f t he
m r i s e u m sA r e d e o i c t e da s o o s s i b i l i t i ef osr w i t h d r a w a l . pai nti ng.C n the l ow er ri ght si de of the pai nti n gar e t he
l m a g e si n w h i c h t h e d e c e a s e di s d e p i c t e db e c o m e name Frank C'Hara and the signatureJohns 6l tn tl'e
memorials'.How lucky we are that you're in so many s a m es t e n c isl c r i p t .A b o v e t h e n a m e s ,t h e p e n t i m e n to f
mu se um s .lt is not a m a tte r o f e x p re s s i v ere v i ta l i z ati on, t h e w o r d s D e a d M a n a r e s t i l ll e g i b l eu n d e r l a y e r so f p a i n t .
b u t ra t her of t he m o u rn i n qo v e r th e l o s so f l i fe o u tsi dethe W e are not concernedhere w i th an epi graph,b ut r at her
museum. w i th the trace of an epi graphi n the form of residuesof
O'Ha ra' s pr ogr am m a ti cs ta te me n t,Yo u l u s t g o o n your ^ ' - + ^ rr^d ') c-)^ - \^J {r "v v' o r k . T h e m e a n i n so_ .f t h e s c r i o_ ta_ . n d t h e
Pd)L Pr .) r
n e r v e . a l s oi" m " H "o" l- i e s
t h e n n n o s i t e 't h e i n s u r m o u n t a b l e p o s s i b i l i t i eosf i n t e r p r e t i n tgh e f o r m o f p r e s e n t a t i o n
sta g n at ion,t he m our n i n go v e r th e l o s sw h i c h fo rc e s one to c o r r e q n o n dw i t h o n e a n o t h e r .
- - l ^ ^ i ^ ^^ $ ^ { ^ n e s e l ff r o m e x t e r n a ls t i m r r l iO n e n n e s sf o r
cl Ll\J>ll lE l.-.rll (-rl \Jl lC)Cll ll \Jlll g^LCl I ror JLil r ruil. vpul T h e t i t l e o f O ' H a r a s v e r s e r e f e r st o o a s t e m o t i o n sw h i c h
n e w a c quaint anc es in p u b l i ca p p e a rsa s a n a n ti p o l eto l ove o n l y l i v e i n m e m o r y , a n a l o g o utso p a i n t i n gw, h i c h c a n o n l y
a n d m our ningin pr iva te .In a Sra fe me n tfro m 1 9 5 9, presenttracesof past acti ons,and to the ol d for k and
O'Ha ra r ef lec t suDon th e c o n tra s tb e tw e e n d e a th a nc kni few hi ch - thei r everydayfuncti ondi schargedby t he
' draw n'
'h v n' e r -/s e nYs i t i "v e ' o n e. n n 'e q q' f n" r t |h e . o r e s e n t : functi onof the i mage- can onl y be fro m t he
I am mainly preoccupred with the world as I experrenceit, Ir rr tar aca e s ^of r ^p- a
.+ '^--+
s l ,u, -s^ e . Jl ^oh ^n- n s rr^e^ rP^ -r^e^ +s- e n r s ^n^ o+ r a
^ ^-^-^^+' ',
lll
Pasr Presenr
t o
JasperJOHNS ln Memory of My Feelings- Frank O'Hara, 196l
but rather signsof the absent, that is to say traces. Johns
attains a new presenceof the flat surface of the paintingas
a result of the way in which he engagestraces of painting,
usage,and script with one another to become signswhich
then refer to each another.
MEMENTOMORI
ln 1969170, after O'Hara's accidentaldeath in 1966,Johns
had Memory Piece (Frank O'Hara) constructed according
to a model from 1961.In the realizationof the piece, a
rubber cast of O'Hara's left foot was used. One relief on
a flap is printable in each of the three interchangeable,
sand-filled,uppermost drawers. The mould of the
deceased,a trace of an eternally absent referent, can be
reproduced any amount of times as traces in the sand.
The reference foot - imprint of production is transformed
into a referencebetween imprints in the work.
With ln Memory of the Dead (1967), Rivers thematicized
the relationshipbetween death and life in a manner
different than and yet similarto Johns:in the vertical axis,
he presentsBerdie above and, under this, O'Hara. The
dead are depicted in collageddrawings, as further
quotations of the self next to studiesfor already
completed picturesof animalsand animal-logos. The
individualparts of the work consistof works which can be
related to other works in Rivers' oeuvre - the
represented disappearsin a network of representations
that refer to representations.
In the sixties,Riversand Johnsbeganto repeatedly
Oil on canvasand objects 102 x 152 cm Private Collection
entwine and unravel signsof a vocabulary which recurs
again and again in their oeuvres. The irretrievable absence
of the represented - of the referent - as a result of
death is employed to transform communicatingsign
functions: the reference of signsto reality becomes the
reference of signsto signs- as in a dictionary, in which
every word is explainableonly by means of new words,
or, as John Ashbery states:
All things seem mention of themselves
And the names which stem from them branch out to
other referents...
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the
point te.
For the recipients- as for the readers of O'Hara's poems
- possibilitiesof associationsof presentedsignswith one's
own life experiencesand possibilities of the emotive filling
of the processesof seeingand reading triggered by the
network of signscondenseas intensity.The relationship
between recipientand author can be explainedin two
ways:
'dead', 'mute',
A. The work reflectsitselfas or rather as
sinceit makes no statement about the relationships
between referents external to the sign, the causefor the
use of the presentedsignsand the combinationof signs
internal to the work. Merely the result of a transformation
of signsbecomes relevant, but not the process of
transformation itself.
'dead'
B. The work is regarded as the medium of a
'secret
exchange'between author and recipient.The
relationshipbetween the occasionof the projection and
the projection itself, between the production of signsand
t7
 Larry RIVERS ln Memory of the Dead, 1967
Spraypaintand collagein relief 76 x 53 cm

the reception of signs,remainsopen, without being 12. F. O'HARA, Oranges:l2 Pastorals(1949),in: The CollectedPoems,pp. 5-9;
'communicating P E R L O F Fp,p . 3 9 - 4 1 ;M A T T I S O Np, . 2 8 .
arbitrary. The tubes' between absent
13.lllustratedin: E. SPARKS, UniversalLimitedArt Editions...,The Art Instituteof
author and recipientprojectionsdo not allow themselves C h i c a g o1, 9 8 9 p
, p. 471-475.
to be deciphered,nor do they reveal themselves. 14.E. LUCIE-SMITH, FrankO'Hara..,,in: Studiolnternational(Sept. 1966),p. l12.
15. F. O'HARA, Personism: A Manifesto,in Yugen6/1960;reprintedin: O'HARA,
Intellectualexaminationof the sign processrestrictedto
The CollectedPoems,o. 498.
the work itself(A.) and emotive opennessfor the potential 16. F. O'HARA, Statement(1959),in: D. ALLEN (ed.),Ihe New American
of meaningreferringto past sign processes(8.) are not Poetry, New York, 1960;reprinted in: O'HARA, Ihe CollectedPoems,p. 500.
1 7 .S e en o t e 2 .
simultaneously, pregnableattitudes of
but successively I 8. J.DERRIDA, Ellipse,in:Die Schrift unddie Differenz, FrankfurVMai n, | 976, p. 450.
re ce pt r on.I 19.J. ASHBERY,Grand Galop, in: J. ASHBERY,SelfPortrait in a Convex Mirror,
l. F. O'HARA, Biotherm(1961162), in: The CollectedPoems,New York, 1972, New York, 1975;reprintedin: J. ASHBERY, SelectedPoems,New York, 1986,
p. 445. p p . 1 7 2 ,1 7 4 ,
2. F. O'HARA, ln Memory of My Feelings (1956),in The CollectedPoems,
Translatedfrom the German by Gdrard A. Goodrow
pp.252-256.
3. l. SANDLER,Ihe Club, in Artforum (September1955);reprintedin: C. and
D. SHAPIRO,Abstract Expressionism, A CriticalRecord,Cambridge,1990,p. 53. FrankO'HARA (1926,Baltimore/Maryland) was a poet, art criticand
4. See:A. FELDMAN, Frank O'Hara. Criticismand lnterpretation,New York, organiser
of exhibitions.
He livedsince195| in New York. In 1955he
1 9 7 9 p, p . 9 0 - l1 2 . became'specialassistant'
of the international
exhibitionprogrammeat
5. j. POLLOCK,My Painting,in Possibilitr'es / (Winter 1947-48);reprintedin: the MOMA, New York, in 1960'assistant curatorof paintingand
SHAPIRO,Abstract Expressionism, p. 356. sculpture
exhibitions';
in 1965associatecuratorand in 1966curator.
6. GraceHARTIGAN,25 November 1975.Quoted in: M. PERLOFF, Frank He died on25.7.1966runnedover by a buggyon the beachof Fire
O'Hara. Poet Among Painters,Austin/London, 1979,p.70. lsland/NewYork.
7. J.B. MYERS,Trackingthe Marvelous.A Life in the New York Art World,
London, 1984,p. 126;R.S.MATTISON, GraceHartigan.A Painter'sWorld, New GraceHARTIGAN(1927,Newark/NewJersey),livesand works in
Y o r k , 1 9 9 0p, . 2 0 , Baltimore/Maryland.
8. J.H. LORIA, Golden Oldies:An lnterview with Larry Rivers,in Arts Magazine
(Nov. 1978),p. 104;H. KORIATH,Larry Rivers...,FrankfurVMain, 1990,p. 102. JasperJOHNS(1930,Augusta/Georgia) livesand works in New York and
9. See,for example,the postureand clothingin lngres'portraitof de Nogent in SaintMartin,FrenchWest Indies.
( l B l 5 ) i n t h e F o g gA r t M u s e u mC
, ambridge.
1 0 .M . P E R L O F F pp , . 40,63,68. Larry RIVERS
(1923,Bronx/NewYork) livesand works in Southampton.
ll. F, O'HARA; Larry Rivers:Ihe Nexf to LastConfederate Soldier(1959);
ThomasDREHER(1957)is an art historian.He works as an art criticin
reprinted in: F. O'HARA, StandingStiiland walkingin New York, Bolinas,
C a l i f o r n i,a1 9 7 5 ,p . 4 3 . Mnchen,

IB