Figures and Figurations (New Directions Paperbook) - Softcover

Paz, Marie José; Paz, Octavio; Weinberger, Eliot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811217590 ISBN 13: 9780811217590

Publisher: New Directions, 2008

Synopsis

Figures & Figurations, one of the last works completed by the great late Mexican poet Octavio Paz before his death in 1998, is a stunning collaborative project with his wife, the acclaimed artist Marie José Paz. In response to ten of her collage-constructions, he wrote ten new short poems; she in turn created two new artworks in response to two of his earlier poems. In addition to the gorgeous full-color art, this bilingual edition features Eliot Weinberger's excellent translations, as well as an essay by Octavio Paz on Marie José Paz's work, "The Whitecaps of Time," in which he relates how her friendship with Joseph Cornell became a stimulus for her assemblages and how she was further spurred on by other friends, such as the linguist Roman Jakobson and Elizabeth Bishop. "These objects sometimes surprise us," he writes, "and sometimes make us dream or laugh (humor is one of the poles of her work). Signs that invite us on a motionless voyage of fantasy, bridges to the indefinitely small or galactic distances, windows that open on a nowhere. Marie José's art is a dialog between here and there." An illuminating afterword by the eminent French poet Yves Bonnefoy completes this edition.

About this title

Review:

An imagination not afraid to be extravagant is Paz's appeal, his provocation. -- Calvin Bedient

An aesthetic and visually provocative collection of 12 of Paz's poetic constructions. -- Patrick L. O'Connell (06/01/2003)

Poems of magnitude reaching to us in their smallness...we are the faces that Marie Jose Paz constructs... -- Harriet Zinnes

Marie Jose Paz began creating amazing, boxed assemblages. Octavio Paz wrote these beautiful poems inspired by his wife's art constructions. -- Jeri Lynn Crippen

An elegant fusion of art and poetry. Both the poetry and artwork have striking affinities, enhancing our appreciation and understanding. -- Charles Guenther (04/30/2003)

Synopsis:

"Figures & Figurations", one of the last books completed by the late Mexican poet Octavio Paz before his death in 1998, is a collaborative effort with his wife of 30 years, the artist Marie Jose Paz. In response to ten of her collage-constructions, he wrote ten new short poems; she in turn created two new artworks in response to two of his earlier poems. Twelve poems, twelve pieces of art reproduced in full colour, in a book first published in Spanish in 1999 and now appearing in a bilingual edition. In addition to the poems and collage-constructions, "Figures & Figurations" includes an essay by Octavio Paz on Marie Jose Paz's work, "The Whitecaps of Time", in which he relates how her friendship with Joseph Cornell became a stimulus for her assemblages and how she was further spurred on by other friends, such as Roman Jakobson and Elizabeth Bishop. "These objects sometimes surprise us," he writes, "Sometimes make us laugh or dream. Signs that invite us to a motionless voyage of fantasy, bridges to the infinitely small or galactic distances, windows that open on to nowhere. The art of Marie Jose is a dialogue between here and there". Octavio Paz (1914-98), one of the great poets and public intellectuals of our time, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. The essayist Eliot Weinberger, his longtime translator, is also the editor and translator of Jorge Luis Borges' "Selected Non-Fictions", which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism for 1999. In 2000, Weinberger became the first American writer to be awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0811217590
• ISBN 13: 9780811217590
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64