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Fred W. McDarrah (American, born 1926)
Larry Rivers Playing Sax at 5 Spot, April 1,
1960.
Gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 9 1/4" (image)
Copyright Fred W. McDarrah, from
Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village, by
Fred and Gloria McDarrah (Schirmer)
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Were they silly and irresponsible -- or were they
divinely inspired? Were they the best or the worst that
America has to offer? The Beat Generation remains one of the
most controversial of American legends. Even the word "Beat"
can mean "beat down" or "beatific." Picture editor of the
Village Voice for 35 years, Fred W. McDarrah produced
a lively and unpretentious photographic chronicle of the
Beats, selections of which will be on display. McDarrah and
his wife, Gloria, were both participants in and meticulous
observers of the Beat scene in Greenwich Village in the
fifties and sixties, and as a result his images and their
accompanying artifacts of the period reflect these "glory
days" of poetry readings, jazz, cafe life, parties,
performances, and the ordinary life of extraordinarily free
Americans. The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures,
poetry readings, special music performances and a panel
discussion with noted Beat-era artists, held in conjunction
with the Virginia Film Festival (Oct. 29- Nov. 1), which
this year explores the meaning of "Cool."
The exhibition has been made possible with the support of
the University's Arts Enhancement Funds and the Art$
Program. Additional support has been received from the
Departments of Art, Music, and English, the Women's Studies
Program, and the Virginia Film Festival.
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Exhibition Lecture
The Beat Period: What Was Happening, What It Meant,
and How It Significantly Related to American Artistic
Tradition, Far Eastern Art and Thought, and European
Phenomenology and Existentialism
by Neil Chassman
A member of the New York poetry scene in the mid-1960s and
curator of the ground-breaking exhibition "Poets of the
Cities: New York and San Francisco, 1950-65," Chassman
recently held a memorial poetry reading for Jack Micheline
at the New Knitting Factory in New York City.
October 22, 5:30 pm, Campbell Hall 153
First Sundays Gallery Talk
Fred W. McDarrah, photographer
Sunday, November 1, 2 pm
in the Museum
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Program Events
in conjunction with the Virginia Film Festival
Lecture: The Art of Hans Hofmann, slide presentation
by filmmaker Ken Jacobs, former student of Hofmann, followed
by live "Nervous System" performance of Bitemporal
Vision/The Sea, honoring Hofmann
Friday, October 30, 12 noon, location tba
Retrospective Screening: The Jack Smith/Ken Jacobs
Collaborations including Blond Cobra and Little
Stabs at Happiness
Saturday, October 31, 11 am, Campbell Hall
Panel: The Art of Spontaneity"
Jacobs, McDarrah, composer David Amram, writer/musician
Ed Sanders and others will discuss links across jazz
improvisation, Beat poetry, underground film, and Abstract
Expressionism.
Saturday, October 31, 1 pm, Campbell Hall
Performance: A Beat Reunion
David Amram and Ed Sanders in performance plus special
screening of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My
Daisy!
Saturday, October 31, 7 pm, Culbreth Theatre, $12
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