New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections presents “At Moments Like These He Feels Furthest Away,” a new series of paintings by painter Philip Monaghan at NYU’s Bobst Library, 3rd Floor, 70 Washington Square South, (at LaGuardia Place). The exhibition opens January 26, 2011, and runs through April 29, 2011. [Subways A,C,E, B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.].
The Exhibition is a Collaboration Between Monaghan and Tim Dlugos’ Poem, “Gilligan’s Island”
New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections presents “At Moments Like These He Feels Furthest Away,” a new series of paintings by painter Philip Monaghan at NYU’s Bobst Library, 3rd Floor, 70 Washington Square South, (at LaGuardia Place). The exhibition opens January 26, 2011, and runs through April 29, 2011. [Subways A,C,E, B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.].
The exhibit, based on Tim Dlugos’ mid-1970s poem “Gilligan’s Island,” will include 54 works of oil and digital prints on canvas as well a graphic depiction of the text of the poem on the gallery walls. A catalogue with essays by Marvin Taylor, David Trinidad, and Monaghan as well as Dlugos’ poem will accompany the show.
Dlugos was a central figure among the young downtown New York poetry scene of the 70s and 80s. His books include Je Suis Ein Americano, 1979, Entre Nous, 1982, and Strong Place, 1992. Posthumous volumes include Powerless, 1996, and A Fast Life, 2011, both edited by David Trinidad. Dlugos’ papers are in the Downtown Collection at the Fales Library.
“At Moments,” is the realization of a commission from former NYU Grey Gallery Director Bob Littman in 1983 as collaboration between poet Tim Dlugos and painter Philip Monaghan. Dlugos died of AIDS in 1990 before the collaboration could be completed.
“In 2007, with the support of David Trinidad, Dlugos’ poetry editor, I revisited the unfulfilled “Gilligan’s Island” project by creating a series of watercolors and oils that interpret the poem,” said Monaghan. “Fales accepted the show in 2009, and I am pleased to have it back at NYU, where it began.”
“Artist/poet collaborations are a mainstay of the downtown scene,” said Marvin J. Taylor, director of Fales Library. “When I heard that Tim Dlugos and Philip Monaghan had worked on a piece, I was excited to see it completed and on display. Dlugos is one of our great poets. He needs to be better-known. Philip’s illuminating paintings open up the psychosexual world Dlugos—and a whole generation of gay men—envisioned in Gilligan’s world.”
Philip Monaghan earned his BFA in Painting from the Texas Tech School of Art in 1976, and his MFA, in Painting from the Pratt Institute, NYC, in 1979. After completing his MFA, Monaghan pursed a career in the fashion industry as a creative director working with leading talents such as Andy Warhol, Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber and Peter Lindbergh. He returned to painting in 2004, has a studio and lives in New York City. For more information about Philip Monaghan please visit the website: www.philipmonaghanstudio.com
About Fales Library and Special Collections:
The Fales Library, comprising nearly 200,000 volumes, and over 8,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, houses the Fales Collection of rare books and manuscripts in English and American literature, the Downtown Collection, the Food and Cookery Collection and the general Special Collections of the NYU Libraries. The Fales Collection was given to NYU in 1957 by DeCoursey Fales in memory of his father, Haliburton Fales. It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in the novel. The Downtown Collection documents the downtown New York art, performance, and literary scenes from 1975 to the present and is extremely rich in archival holdings, including extensive film and video objects. The Food and Cookery Collection is a vast, and rapidly expanding collection of books and manuscripts documenting food and foodways with particular emphasis on New York City. Other strengths of the collection include the Berol Collection of Lewis Carroll Materials, the Robert Frost Library, the Kaplan and Rosenthal Collections of Judaica and Hebraica and the manuscript collections of Elizabeth Robins and Erich Maria Remarque. The Fales Library preserves manuscripts and original editions of books that are rare or important not only because of their texts, but also because of their value as artifacts.