December 1, 2021
Jordan Stein’s Book release at SFAI
Jordan Stein's Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo's Estocada & Other Pieces Book release, screening, and signing
September 30, 2021
The Brooklyn Rail’s conversation about Bruce Conner & Jay DeFeo
Register for The Brooklyn Rail's conversation "Bruce Conner & Jay DeFeo ('we are not what…
July 12, 2021
Remembering Moira Roth
Artforum, June 25, 2021 Pathbreaking feminist art historian and author Moira Roth, who taught at…
June 25, 2021
The Jewel in Modern Art exhibition at LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art's exhibition Modern Art opened on June 13, 2021 and…
June 4, 2021
Watch a recording of Jay DeFeo: A Symposium
Jay DeFeo: A Symposium took place on Friday, May 28th. The conference was organized by…
April 7, 2021
From the Archive: Jay DeFeo’s Birthday March 31st
In honor of Jay DeFeo’s birthday on March 31st, we are pleased to share a…
![“When ‘Song of Innocence’ was shown publicly for the first time, two years after its making, in the summer of 1959, it was titled ‘If you have formed a Circle to go into, go into it yourself & see how you would do,’ a line taken from a William Blake poem that haunted DeFeo for much of her career. Wallace Berman featured this passage the same year in his handpress-printed publication ‘Semina 4.’ DeFeo and Berman shared a love of the poet-artist, although according to Michael McClure, at that time ‘anyone in their right mind was reading Blake.’ The final title of the painting was taken from Blake’s 1789 collection of poetry, ‘Songs of Innocence.’ In 1794 he released the companion ‘Songs of Experience,’ and the two collections were subsequently published together, with his illustrations and the subtitle ‘Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul’ [William Blake’s title page for ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience,’ 1794]. This type of dialectical thinking was fundamental to DeFeo’s working method and also found resonance in her practice of making groups of works to express the dichotomy of a single theme.”
- Dana Miller, “Jay DeFeo: A Slow Curve,” "Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective" exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).
[Jay DeFeo, “Song of Innocence,” 1957, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm). May not be reproduced in any form without permission of The Jay DeFeo Foundation. © 2021 The Jay DeFeo Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York]
#jaydefeo #jaydefeofoundation #williamblake #danamiller #michaelmcclure #wallaceberman](https://www.jaydefeofoundation.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)