Word hoards: masterpieces of concrete poetry – in pictures
Poets such as Ian Hamilton Finlay and Augusto de Campos have shaken words out of standard verse structure and rearranged them in striking, enigmatic new forms. Here are some of the teasing, amusing and vivid results
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Rever (To See Again), 1964, by Augusto de Campos (1931-). From Equivocabulos (São Paulo: Edições Invenção, 1970)
Los Angeles’s Getty Center is exhibiting its collection of concrete poetry – where writers blend often gnomic words with graphic design to create affecting formalist artworks. Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space is at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, until 30 JulyPhotograph: Augusto de Campos
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Ho/Horizon/On, by Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006). From The Blue and the Brown Poems (New York: Atlantic Richfield Company and Jargon Press, 1968)
A major figure in the collection is Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, whose first collection of concrete poetry, Rapel, was published in 1963Photograph: Courtesy the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
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Sea-Poppy 2 (Fishing Boat Names), by Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1968
His work is based around lulling repetition, satisfying arrangements and wonder in naturePhotograph: Courtesy the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
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The Tug/The Barge, by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Peter Lyle (draftsman). From Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. No 20 (Wild Hawthorn Press)
A cover of his magazine Poor. Old. Tired. Horse., the home to much of Finlay’s concrete poetryPhotograph: Courtesy the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
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Luxo (Luxury), 1965, by Augusto de Campos. Leaflet folder published in São Paulo, 1966
Augusto de Campos brought concrete poetry to Brazil in the 1950s, beginning with his Poetamenos in 1953, published in his literary magazine NoigandresPhotograph: Augusto de Campos
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Lygia Fingers, 1953, by Augusto de Campos. From Poetamenos (São Paulo: Edições Invenção, 1973)
De Campos said in a 1992 interview: ‘I think that the task of concrete poetry, after it appeared in the 50s, was to reestablish contact with the poetry of the vanguards of the beginning of the century (futurism, cubofuturism, dada et alia), which the intervention of two great wars and the proscription of Nazi and Stalinist dictatorships had condemned to marginalisation’Photograph: Courtesy Augusto de Campos
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Resistento (Resisto + Tento) = I Resistry (Resist + Try), by Augusto de Campos. From Colidouescapo (São Paulo: Edições Invenção, 1971)
In a manifesto on concrete poetry, he wrote that it ‘refuses to absorb words as mere indifferent vehicles, without life, without personality, without history’Photograph: Augusto de Campos
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Open (Abre), 1969, by Augusto de Campos, Julio Plaza. From Poemobiles (São Paulo: ed de autor, 1974)
‘The concrete poet does not turn away from words, he does not glance at them obliquely: he goes directly to their centre’Photograph: Courtesy Augusto de Campos / Courtesy Anabela Plaza
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Pulsar (The Pulsar), 1975, by Augusto de Campos. Screenprint from Poesia concreta in Brasile (Milan: Archivio della Grazia di Nuova Scrittura, 1991)
‘Far from attempting to evade reality or to deceive it, concrete poetry is against self-debilitating introspection and simpleton simplistic realism. It intends to place itself before things, open, in a position of absolute realism’Photograph: Augusto de Campos
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Forsythia, 1965, by Mary Ellen Solt (American, 1920–2007), John Dearstyne (designer and printer). From Flowers in Concrete (Bloomington: Fine Arts Department, Indiana University, 1966)
The method grew in popularity and drew in new talents, such as Mary Ellen Solt, whose work mirrored natural forms such as flowers and waterfalls. She was also a teacher and critical theorist, writing about authors such as William Carlos Williams, and edited a major overview of the movement, Concrete Poetry: A World ViewPhotograph: Courtesy the Estate of Mary Ellen Solt
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Vite (Fast), 1961, by Henri Chopin (1922–2008). From Le Dernier Roman du Monde: Histoire d’un Chef-Occidental Ou Oriental (Wetteren, Belgium, 1970)
A work by the avant-garde poet and musician Henri Chopin, who also created sound poetry by manipulating the human voice using studio effects and tape recordings. He edited OU, a journal of writings from artists in the surrealist, dada, and fluxus movements, alongside beat writers such as William Burroughs and Brion GysinPhotograph: Henri Chopin
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Terra (Earth), 1957, by Décio Pignatari (Brazilian, 1927–2012). Screenprint from Noigandres 4 (1958)
Décio Pignatari co-edited Noigandres with Augusto de Campos and his brother Haroldo de Campos. The three were influenced by Ezra Pound, James Joyce, EE Cummings, and film-maker Sergei EisensteinPhotograph: Décio Pignatari
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Acrobats, 1964, by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Screenprint (Tarasque Press, 1968)
Finlay would go on to broaden out his practice from the printed page – he experimented in placing poems in nature, etched in stonePhotograph: Courtesy the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
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You/Me, by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Lithograph from The Blue and the Brown Poems (New York: Atlantic Richfield Company & Jargon Press, 1968)
Finlay eventually created Little Sparta, a garden in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh featuring 275 of his artworksPhotograph: Ian Hamilton Finlay
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Star/Steer, 1965, by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Screenprint (Tarasque Press, 1968)
Finlay’s work has been seen by some as difficult to grasp, which frustrated him. He wrote in 1991: ‘Why doesn’t anyone write about the CLARITY in my work, and its LYRICISM, and its (frequent) love of the ORDINARY?’Photograph: By courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
