Now in New York -- Thursday, December 3rd, 8 PM
John Ashbery's
Self-Portrait
in a Convex Mirror
for six voices  Douglas Dunn & Dancers
presents
A Salon Evening Performance
John Ashbery'sSelf-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
in a reading for six voiceswith projected text and imageDirected by Jim Paul
Read by Joan Arnold, Andrea Barnet, Jan Hanvik,
James Occhino, Jim Paul, and Annie Walwyn-Jones
Technical Support: Beth Thielen
Thursday, December 3rd, 8 pm541 Broadway (between Prince and Spring), Third FloorNew YorkAn Ancram Opera House Production On December 3, the Douglas Dunn & Dancers Salon Evening Series will present a staged reading of John Ashbery's long poem, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, a great, dense work, certainly one of the defining poems of the 20th century.
The work will be presented by six readers: Joan Arnold, Andrea Barnet, Jan Hanvik, James Occhino, Jim Paul, Annie Walwyn-Jones. In this performance, the six readers and projected text and image make the poem unusually available, as Ashbery's tonal shifts and juxtapositions are taken up by different voices.
Photo: Beth Thielen
John Ashbery has won nearly every major American award
for poetry since his second volume, Some Trees, was selected
by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series in 1956.
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975) received the Pulitzer Prize
for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the
National Book Award.
Ashbery began writing about art in 1957, serving as executive editor of Art News (1965-72), and art critic for New York Magazine (1978-80) and Newsweek (1980-85). A selection of his art writings was published by Knopf in 1989 as Reported Sightings. This long poem, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, springs from close description of the Renaissance painting by Francesco Parmigianino. From the poem,
Vasari says, "Francesco one day set himselfTo take his own portrait, looking at himself for that purpose
In a convex mirror, such as is used by barbers . . .
He accordingly caused a ball of wood to be made
By a turner, and having divided it in half and
Brought it to the size of the mirror, he set himself
With great art to copy all that he saw in the glass . . . "
Ashbery's Self-Portrait is a richly modulated meditation on
identity, art and death, often abstract, occasionally quite funny
and in the end deeply moving.
Click here for full narrative biography of John Ashbery. Tickets: $10, open seatingClick here to buy tickets online for this event
or call toll-free: 866-811-4111
See below for other purchasing options.
For further information,
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room to move for body and mind
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Options
for
buying your tickets
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1. If you 'd like to purchase tickets with a credit card, please do so online (a small service charge will apply). Click here to buy tickets online for John Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror in this SoHo performance.
2.
You can also reserve seats by emailing us at info@ancramoperahouse.com or calling 518 789 4182. Let us know your name, phone, and how many tickets you'd like. Please pay for these tickets by cash or check at the door.
3.
You can buy tickets at the door on the evening of the event with cash or check. Availability may be limited.
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Thank you so much for supporting this Ancram Opera House production!
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