April is National Poetry Month! Begun 25 years ago by the Academy of American Poets, this month-long celebration invites us to enjoy poetry together in all its many forms and formats. At Marquette, in concert with the university’s April Mental Health Day, the Haggerty and the Ott have joined forces to celebrate all that art and poetry can do together, especially in support of our individual and collective well-being.

The work we feature this month is Robert Motherwell’s artist book A la pintura (On Painting), currently on view at the Haggerty. It contains aquatint images and letterpress text that illustrate the writing of Spanish poet Raphael Alberti (1902-1999). Along with Federico Garcia Lorca, Nobel laureate Vicente Aleixandre, and Luis Cernuda, Alberti was a member of "Generation of ‘27,” a group of writers credited with reviving Spanish poetry in the late 1920s and 30s. While exiled from Spain and living in Argentina, Alberti wrote A la pintura inspired by the paintings of his friend and fellow exile Manolo Ángeles Oritz. The title of Alberti's work echoes a famous treatise on painting by another Alberti, Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti, who composed Della pittura in 1435.

Motherwell (1915-1991) was a contemporary of Alberti’s. His best-known works include an extensive series of abstract expressionist paintings known collectively as Elegy to the Spanish Republic (1948-1967). As he was completing this series, printmaking and artists books gained new prominence in the United States. Thanks to Tatyana Grosman, who founded Universal Limited Art Editions at her Long Island studio, Motherwell and many of his contemporaries got involved, including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler, who was married to Motherwell from 1958-1971. A la pintura, which Motherwell created over 4 years (1968-1972) is considered one of the most important examples because of the way he marshalled Alberti’s words and his own images using color, typography, and layout.

Click each of the pages above to enlarge. Open this PDF to read Alberti’s poems in Italian and English.

Looking Good, Marquette: Art & Writing for Mental Health

Post and tag your writing with #LookingGoodMarquette #WHM #HMA #OttWC

Prompt 1 (5 minutes)

Raphael Alberti wrote in response to paintings by his friend Manolo Ángeles Oritz and others. Then Motherwell created his illustrations in response to Alberti’s poetry. Continue the cycle by writing your own poem in response to one or more of Motherwell’s images. Set a time for 5 minutes to get started. 

Prompt 2 (10 minutes)

The exhibition was planned in conjunction with Fr. Ryan Duns’ theology class, Contemplation and Justice in a Violent World. Each week the students visit the Haggerty and “behold” the same piece of art for 20 minutes, and then they write a 3-page reflection on their experience, expressing what they see, how they feel, and the way the work changes for them over time. Fr. Duns explains: “My thought – supported by the literature – is that the disciplined practice of beholding will allow students to perceive everything more clearly. “We grow by looking,” as Iris Murdoch put it, and through these practices we come to see the world on its terms, not ours.”

Imagine you are one of Fr. Duns’ students. Pick one page from Motherwell’s book, and then do the following:

• Set a timer and spend 5 minutes beholding the page you selected. Be deliberate about both looking and reading.
• Set a timer and spend 5 minutes writing about what you beheld (e.g., read, saw).

Prompt 3 (15-25 minutes)

This 3-part prompt invites you to explore looking and reading as distinct activities.

• To start, set a timer for 5 minutes and spend the time looking at several pages from A la pintura. Focus on seeing colors, shapes, and their arrangement on the space of each page.
• (Optional) Set a timer for 5 minutes and write about what you saw as well as what you experienced. What did it feel like to look at pages from this book instead of reading them? Did you find maintaining the distinction between looking and reading easy or hard? Does looking at and reading this work make you think of other works of art or literature—or other experiences entirely?
• Set a timer for 5 minutes and read the same pages, consulting both the images above and the PDF that includes both the original Italian and English-language translations.
• Set a timer for 5 minutes and write about what you read and what you experienced. how did reading the poems themselves affect you? How does it affect the way you regard each page or the book as a whole?
• (Optional) Set the timer for 5 more minutes and reflect in general on seeing and reading. Consider the ways in which they are complementary activities. Also consider how they are contrasting. Think about how Motherwell marshals them in A la pintura and think of additional examples in which they work together or in productive tension. If time permits, also think of examples in which seeing and reading work against each other.

Prompt 4 (15+ minutes)

Take inspiration from Motherwell and illustrate a poem. You might select one of Alberti’s poems in either Italian or English translation or choose a poem you already know. You can work by hand or on screen using any platform you like and have access to. Whatever you do, think about how you will use words, images, typography, and layout to create your viewer-readers' experience of the poem (or poems) you choose. When you’re done, share your work with us: write to haggertym@marquette.edu and title your email Looking Good! We'll share what we receive.

Prompt 5 (15+ minutes)

This prompt is for writers who know multiple languages. Pick one of Alberti’s poems and translate it yourself. If you know Italian, start with one of his original verses and write your own translation into either English or another language you know. If you do not have Italian, then start with one of Alberti’s poems in English and translate it into another language. When you’re done, share your work with us: write to haggertym@marquette.edu and title your email Looking Good! We'll share what we receive.