Photographs by Charles Henri Ford Catalog Preview by Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

V I C T O R

K O S H K I N

Y O U R I T Z I N

Photographs by Charles Henri Ford

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art â&#x20AC;˘ The University of Oklahoma

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Vi c to r Ko s h k i n - Yo u r i t z i n

Front Cover:

Author and Curator: Victor Koshkin-Youritzin Catalogue designer: Eric H. Anderson

Back Cover:

Copyright © 2006 Victor Koshkin-Youritzin and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form without the written consent of the author or the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the University of Oklahoma. Published by: Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The University of Oklahoma 555 Elm Avenue Norman, Oklahoma 73019-3003 phone: 405.325.3272; fax: 405.325.7696 www.ou.edu/fjjma

Ruth Ford (b. 1911) n.d.; image 7½ x 7½ in. (fig. 61; p. 43)

Photographs by Charles Henri Ford

Ruth Ford [b. 1911] (Connecticut) n.d.; image 7½ x 7½ in. (fig. 58; p. 41)

Page 1: Salvador (1904-1989) and Gala (1894-1982) Dali (detail: fig. 32; p. 27)

Page 56: Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) (detail: fig. 48; p. 35)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006934955 isbn number: 0971718725 This catalogue was printed by the University of Oklahoma Printing Services and is issued by the University of Oklahoma. 1,000 copies have been printed and distributed at no cost to the taxpayers of Oklahoma.

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The University of Oklahoma

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

This catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Photographs by Charles Henri Ford, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, October 14-December 31, 2006.

Vi c to r Ko s h k i n - Yo u r i t z i n

Front Cover:

Author and Curator: Victor Koshkin-Youritzin Catalogue designer: Eric H. Anderson

Back Cover:

Ruth Ford (b. 1911) n.d.; image 7½ x 7½ in. (fig. 61; p. 43)

Photographs by Charles Henri Ford

Ruth Ford [b. 1911] (Connecticut) n.d.; image 7½ x 7½ in. (fig. 58; p. 41)

Page 1: Salvador (1904-1989) and Gala (1894-1982) Dali (detail: fig. 32; p. 27)

Page 56: Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) (detail: fig. 48; p. 35)

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The University of Oklahoma

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

This catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Photographs by Charles Henri Ford, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, October 14-December 31, 2006.

Foreword

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is honored to present the first museum exhibition devoted to the photographs of Charles Henri Ford, the avant-gardist who played roles in many twentieth-century art and literary developments, from Surrealism in the 1930s to Pop in the 1960s. The exhibition will be of both aesthetic and historic interest. I am thankful to the exhibition’s many contributors, especially Charles Henri Ford’s sister Ruth Ford, who graciously consented to the show, and Indra Tamang, custodian of Ford’s estate. Without their support, the exhibition would not have been possible. Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, David Ross Boyd Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma and the guest curator of the exhibition, has my utmost gratitude. Photographs by Charles Henri Ford is an outgrowth of a 2002 exhibition that Professor Youritzin organized at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art; the show featured work by Ford’s longtime companion, the artist Pavel Tchelitchew. Professor Youritzin, a distant relative of Tchelitchew, persuaded the Museum of Modern Art in New York to loan twenty-one paintings and drawings to that landmark exhibition, including the famous Hide-and-Seek. While curating that show, Professor Youritzin met Charles Henri Ford and Indra Tamang. Inspired by their meeting, Professor Youritzin conceived the idea for the current exhibition.

Leonor Fini (1908-1996) (detail: fig. 31; p. 26)

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Eric M. Lee The Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

Foreword

Leonor Fini (1908-1996) (detail: fig. 31; p. 26)

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Eric M. Lee The Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

Introduction: Charles Henri Ford’s Career “He is a poet in everything he creates.” 1 - Jean Cocteau

Fig. 1 Ruth Ford (b. 1911) n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7½ in.

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) Charles Henri Ford [1908 - 2002] in England (Detail: fig. 49; page 36.)

Deemed “a legendary cultural catalyst” in a long New York Times obituary announcing his September 27, 2002 death at the age of 94 2, the immensely creative and prolific Charles Henri Ford – often regarded as America’s first Surrealist poet – was also a magazine editor, novelist, and visual artist who produced paintings, drawings, collages, films, and photographs. During a career that spanned most of the twentieth century, he authored sixteen books of poetry and edited, from 1940-47, the important avantgarde journal View. Having created a huge body of visual art – which over decades he exhibited in America and abroad – Ford has, remarkably, never until now had a solo show in a United States art museum. It is, therefore, our special privilege to present Photographs by Charles Henri Ford. Although published dates of his birth vary by several years, Charles Henry Ford was actually born on February 10, 1908 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. (Weary of repeatedly being asked if he was related to the automobile maker Henry Ford, he eventually changed his middle name to Henri.) 3 With his extended family owning hotel properties in Texas, Kentucky, and Mississippi towns, during his youth he “moved to many hotels…all over the South….” 4 A premature sexual experience interrupted his youth, as he poignantly and briefly explained: “When I was ten years old the life of a child was over because I was seduced by an adult – end of childhood.”5 Despite being a Baptist, he attended Catholic schools 6 and eventually dropped out of high school; by the age of approximately thirteen, however, he had already edited his initial publication, a typed broadside titled The Brass Monkey which he would hang up at school. Describing his family life, Ford said that from his father there was “really no affection…. He was very distant. So all the affection was toward the mother. My mother and I were always very close, and I always cried when I was sent off to boarding school.”7 Desirous of fame, during his late teens he produced a prophetic diary entry: “In two years I will be famous…. This is my oath.”8 As Ford wrote later in life, “Already a poet and choosing (rather than continuing any formal education) to become the editor of a Little Magazine, I started publishing Blues: A Magazine of New Rhythms in Columbus, Mississippi... .”9 During its nine-issue run, Ford – already showing a genius for self-promotion – managed to elicit manuscripts from such notables as his early idol 10 Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, Edouard Roditi, Mark van Doren, and Gertrude Stein; she called Blues “the youngest and freshest of all the little magazines which have died to make verse free.”11 Erskine Caldwell, James Farrell, and Paul Bowles (see fig. 44; p. 32) made their publishing debut in Blues. It also carried poetry by the New York writer Parker Tyler (fig. 39; p. 30), Ford’s future collaborator and close friend. Prior to meeting, Ford and Tyler established a correspondence that – with the latter’s vivid, alluring descriptions of New York – spurred Ford to join Tyler there in January 1930.12 The city would be an important base of Ford’s activity until his death. He and Tyler quickly triumphed in the first of their two major collaborations: their novel The Young and Evil. Founded on their experiences in the artistic and, to a significant degree, homosexual and lesbian bohemia of Greenwich Village, this semi-autobiographical book – whose two leading fictional characters

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Victor Koshkin-Youritzin

Introduction: Charles Henri Ford’s Career “He is a poet in everything he creates.” 1 - Jean Cocteau

Fig. 1 Ruth Ford (b. 1911) n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7½ in.

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) Charles Henri Ford [1908 - 2002] in England (Detail: fig. 49; page 36.)

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Victor Koshkin-Youritzin

figs. 62, 63, 64; pp. 44-45). An elegant aristocrat who had been dispossessed by the Russian Revolution, Tchelitchew, Ford’s senior by “about twelve” years,25 was the leader of the Neo-Romantic figurative painters, who included Léonid Berman (fig. 41; p. 31), Eugene Berman, Kristians Tonny, and Christian Bérard. Ford and Tchelitchew began their often stressful but deeply committed intimate relationship that would continue from the early 1930s until the latter’s death in 1957. The two traveled in Europe and the United States, where they settled in 1939, and, from 1940 to 1950, occupied a New York penthouse at 360 East 55th Street, near the Museum of Modern Art.26 They cultivated a circle of friends, colleagues, and supporters who represented a mini-Who’s Who of literary, artistic, and social luminaries in England, Europe, and America – from Edith Sitwell, Cecil Beaton, Peggy Guggenheim, and Virgil Thompson, to, among many others, Lincoln Kirstein, Julien Levy, Monroe Wheeler, George Platt Lynes, Chick Austin, and George Balanchine. Tchelitchew remains renowned for the glorious costumes and scenery he created for Balanchine’s ballets. In 1942 the Museum of Modern Art purchased one of its most popular paintings – Tchelitchew’s greatest masterpiece, Hide-and-Seek (1940-42) – and gave him one of the museum’s first major solo shows; at that time he “was considered by many to rank with Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Dali, and Rouault.”27 As for Ford and his poetry, he had, in his teens, already published a poem in The New Yorker. He would later write, “In 1934 I returned [bringing Tchelitchew] to America, my poetry having been published in transition (Paris) and Poetry (Chicago), to name but two of the many periodicals which printed my work. A first full-length book of poems, The Garden of Disorder, with an introduction by William Carlos Williams, came from the Europa Press, London, in 1938….”28 Ford’s many other early poetry publications included: ABC’s (1940, with a Joseph Cornell collage cover); The

Overturned Lake (1941; with jacket cover and title page by the young Chilean Surrealist, Matta Echaurren – see fig. 47; p. 34); Poems for Painters (1945); The Half Thoughts, The Distances of Pain (1947); and Sleep in a Nest of Flames (1949), with a prefatory tribute by Edith Sitwell. (At the back of this catalogue is a select list of Ford’s published poetry, as well as other publications). Along with The Young and Evil, Ford is arguably most remembered for his creation and editorship of View magazine. As he wrote: “In 1940, New York City, I began the periodical View, first as a ‘poets’ paper,’ then, in 1942 View became a magazine and lasted until the fall of 1947. View featured the avant-garde work – in art & literature – of American as well as European artists and writers – notably the international group of Surrealists, under the aegis of Andre Breton, stationed in the U.S.A. during this period. A monograph on Marcel Duchamp, in a special number of View, was the first to be published anywhere.”29 According to The New York Times, View was “the premier art and literature magazine of the 1940s, whose Surrealist and figurative focus made it the natural counterweight to the Abstract Expressionists being championed by Clement Greenberg in The Partisan Review and The Nation.”30 Astonishing in the line-up of artistic and literary heavy-hitters whom Ford managed to recruit, View featured striking covers by artists ranging from Man Ray, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Fernand Léger, Leonor Fini, and André Masson, to Alexander Calder, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Tchelitchew (his art appeared with special frequency in the magazine issues). Other artistic luminaries appearing within View’s pages included such stylistically diverse figures as Lewis Carroll, Giorgio de Chirico, Ivan Albright, Edward Hopper, William Harnett, David Hare, Hans Bellmer, Isamu Noguchi, and Pablo Picasso. Ford included his own poetry as well as that of numerous contemporaries, among them ee cummings, Paul Valéry, and William Carlos Williams. Such writers as Harold

9 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

represent Ford and Tyler – often (though not quite accurately) has been called “the first gay novel.”13 Just before Ford’s death, Lynne Tillman wrote in her introduction to his final, highly self-revealing, gossipfilled, and sometimes moving 2001 book, Water from a Bucket: A Diary 1948-1957, The Young and Evil was, “like Ford himself, unapologetic, unashamed, poetic, candid, and determinedly free of conventions.”14 Primarily written in America, the novel was fine-tuned and finished by Ford in Paris, where he sailed in May 1931.15 Published two years later in Paris by Obelisk Press, the book was banned in England and, until the 1960s, in the United States. The work has been called “the novel that beat the Beat Generation by a generation.”16 Louis Kronenberger referred to it, in its only U.S. review – in The New Republic – as “the first candid, gloves-off account of more or less professional young homosexuals.”17 About it, Gertrude Stein declared, “The Young and Evil creates this generation as This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald created his generation.”18 In Paris, with its host of American expatriates, Ford quickly “negotiated his way through its social circuits.”19 Stein, whom Ford “revered,”20 took him temporarily under her wing. He also rekindled a New York City-originated friendship with the influential writer Djuna Barnes (fig. 24; p. 22), who had also just sailed to Paris to escape from an affair with the artist Thelma Wood.21 Staying with Barnes first in Paris and then in Tangiers – in a home provided by Paul Bowles – Ford typed the manuscript for her novel Nightwood. While sexually Barnes was fundamentally attracted to women and Ford to men, the two enjoyed an intimate physical relationship, and he even proposed marriage to her.22 But the greatest love affair of Ford’s life was about to develop. Exceptionally beautiful and possessing an aura of youthful innocence,23 Ford, in Paris, between 1931 and 193224 met the great Russian émigré painter/ballet scene designer Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957;

Fig. 2 Untitled (New York City) n.d.; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in.

9 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 2 Untitled (New York City) n.d.; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in.

The Photographs “With a camera one may write visual poetry; with a camera one reads life, too-the poetry’s already ‘written.’ ” 58 - Charles Henri Ford, Water From A Bucket, 1954

Fig. 10 Untitled (New York City) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 9 Untitled (New York City) c. late 1930s 7½ x 7½ in.

With many images containing interest of a historical or other nature, this current show’s sixty-four photographs by Ford were chosen primarily for their outstanding aesthetic value. Typically, they are superbly composed and abound with artistic subtleties. While portraiture constitutes the exhibit’s principal focus, the show’s attendees can revel in a wide range of other captured subjects, variously evincing Ford’s wit, originality of approach, human sensitivity, eye for the telling gesture or pose, penchant for sexual allusion, and sheer fascination with life and the world in its infinite variety. Before turning to the portraits, we are treated to a smorgasbord of New York, Italian, Nepalese, and Cretan subjects. Beginning with four untitled New York street scenes – three probably from the late 1930s – in figure 9 (p. 14) we first meet, close up, a sophisticatedly designed, triangular grouping of two adults helping dress a small child, while two slightly older children stand at each side, evocatively absorbed in their own thoughts. In Ford’s frontal street view of a pharmacy façade (fig. 10), with the laxative “Ex Lax” blatantly advertised, we have not only an example of his affinity for depicting ads and commercial lettering, but also an anticipation of Pop Art’s much later love affair with billboards and advertising. This photo recalls Edward Hopper’s similar, straighton, even more confrontational 1927 Drug Store, with its focus on an Ex-Lax sign. Ford’s image also evokes Hopper’s pre-Pop fire hydrant in his famous 1930 Early Sunday Morning. Further, one wonders if Ford might have been familiar with John Sloan’s very similar 1907 Ash Can School painting, The Hairdresser’s Window,59 which features a signspattered façade parallel to the picture plane and a group of figures, all of whom are seen either in profile or primarily from behind, except for only one, who turns around rightward and makes contact with the viewer. Moving from laxative advertisements to the more provocative world of Hollywood movies (fig. 3; p. 10), Ford neatly transforms a conventional love scene into gay fantasy. A poster for A Star is Born poster attracts a gentleman who – by pushing away with his open hand the image of the 1937 film’s leading lady, Janet Gaynor – obliterates romantic competition as he longingly gazes into the parted lips of her co-star, Fredric March. Turning down another New York street (fig. 2; p. 9), we confront a sharply dressed, handsome gentleman (could it be Parker Tyler?), whose cocked hat rises upward to mirror the shape of the traffic light beneath which he stands. Is the arrow-shaped “one way” street sign looming over his head a sexual motif, or – especially with its smaller letters that read “police dept” – does it not only identify his possible lifestyle, but also carry a suggestion that he who indulges in certain sexual proclivities does so at his legal peril? From the streets of New York, Ford transports us to what is a circa late 1930s Italian street (fig. 11; p. 16).60 In this poetic, beautifully composed and illuminated image, Ford leads the viewer from a wagon’s small upper window down along an imaginary straight line that passes through the pensive face of a seated boy to that of a young girl’s intent profile, as she seems gently to probe (perhaps for valuables?) the rubble beneath her with her foot. Ford joins the two children by having the boy’s dangling two legs – repeated in the girl’s stance – lead us down to her elbow and across to her expressively clasped hands.

The Photographs “With a camera one may write visual poetry; with a camera one reads life, too-the poetry’s already ‘written.’ ” 58 - Charles Henri Ford, Water From A Bucket, 1954

Fig. 10 Untitled (New York City) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 9 Untitled (New York City) c. late 1930s 7½ x 7½ in.

Fig. 11 Untitled (Italy?) 1930s; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in. Fig. 12 Untitled (Italy) late 1940s; 7 15⁄ 16 x 7⅞ in.

shredded billboard pasted on an aged brick Fig. 13 wall (fig. 19; p. 18). Indian women produce Untitled (Italy) saris by a river (fig. 17; p. 18) in an image n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in. wherein the background’s rectangular grid provides a foil for the undulating horizontal sweep of the rhythmically patterned material held by workers captured at artistically sensitive intervals. Provocative and arresting, too, is Ford’s imaginative injection of a huge artist’s palette-plus-brushes into the virtual center of a Kathmandu street scene, in which he dynamically juxtaposes and crops his human subjects. Lastly (fig. 20; p. 18), a woman uses her head to transport a huge gourd, whose bold shape not only well holds its own against the clear sky but also evokes some of Dali’s soft, large-scale phallic forms. In 1965 – when he was in Athens, Greece producing his “Poem Posters” – Ford shot “Bambi” (we do not know her last name; fig. 22, p. 20). While not a portrait in the formal sense, this masterfully unified, highly sensuous image of a nude is riveting. In Katherine Rose Rainbolt’s excellent set of gallery notes for this show, she has written with special sensitivity about this image: “[It] is a good example of his ability to make subjects sexual without making them appear trashy or promiscuous. Bambi is positioned in an inviting stance with her arm over head to elongate the lines of her body. She is nude, but dignified because, although it is possible to see her private areas, they are not the focus of the shot. Instead, the focus is on her face and, more specifically, her darkly outlined eyes. Her look is intense and penetrating as she stares directly out of the frame at the viewers, effectively drawing them into the picture. The attitude she displays has become the subject, rather than strictly her physical body. Ford captured her as a strong woman, both comfortable with and in control of her own Fig. 14 sexuality.”61 The show’s other nude – of an Untitled (Rome) unknown subject – communicates an ap1950s; 6 9⁄ 16 x 9⅞ in. pealing freshness, naturalness, and purity, with an outdoor shower’s water delicately Fig. 15 streaming down the young woman’s body Still from Johnny Minotaur 1971; 5 x 6⅞ in. (fig. 23; p. 21).

17 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

The psychologically compelling silence of children informs a scene of abject poverty (fig. 12; p. 16). Standing defiantly, yet with a hint of sadness in his face, a boy and his two flanking companions appear tragically alone in the rubble of late 1940s or early 1950s Italy, as they confront us and an uncertain world. Effectively complementing the trio is a dark triangular shape rising above them, which creates a visual vertical tension that makes the child in the foreground appear even more imposing. Another confrontational theme – but a delightfully whimsical one – is Ford’s animal-world standoff (fig. 13) between a cat, with its back sharply arched, and a dog, whose lowered head indicates meek acceptance of his defeat by his ferocious feline adversary. Engaging, too, is a slice of 1950’s Rome street life (fig. 14), where, while joining onlookers in watching trained rats perform on a rolling bar, viewers can also focus on the interestingly varied hair patterns on the backs of childrens’ heads and the different textures along a back wall. Finally, in figure 21 (p. 19), he gives us – at long range – a tiny basket-topped figure who creates a sharp focal point at the center of adroitly spaced, triangular solids and voids. Ford next presents a mythological animal – a minotaur (fig. 15) – whose outwardly thrust leg, forward stride, and phallus are artistically accentuated by several parallel diagonal bands behind; this image is a still from Ford’s 1969-71 film Johnny Minotaur, and here the caped creature constitutes a compelling, boldly shaped form that well holds its own against the almost blank background. Deep as was Ford’s affection for Nepal and its people, he created several fine, highly varied images from that country’s capital, Kathmandu, where he spent so much time. A dramatic view of Nepal’s large and ancient Buddhist shrine, the Bodnath Stupa (fig. 16; p. 18) – with its crisscrossing lines of prayer flags flapping and Buddha’s everwatchful eyes transfixing viewers – stands in stark contrast with a single paper eye from a

Fig. 11 Untitled (Italy?) 1930s; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in. Fig. 12 Untitled (Italy) late 1940s; 7 15⁄ 16 x 7⅞ in.

17 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 16 Ancient Stupa (Kathmandu) 1970s-1980s; 6½ x 8½ in.

Fig. 18 Untitled (Kathmandu) n.d.; image 613⁄ 16 x 10⅜ in.

Fig. 17 Indian Women Creating Saris by the River (Kathmandu) n.d.; 7⅞ x 10 in.

Fig. 19 Untitled (Kathmandu) 1980s; 7⅞ x 10 in.

Fig. 21 Untitled n.d.; 7 15⁄ 16 x 713⁄ 16 in.

19 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 20 Carrying a Large Gourd (Italy) c. late 1940s; 7⅞ x 7 13⁄ 16 in.

Fig. 16 Ancient Stupa (Kathmandu) 1970s-1980s; 6½ x 8½ in.

Fig. 18 Untitled (Kathmandu) n.d.; image 613⁄ 16 x 10⅜ in.

Fig. 17 Indian Women Creating Saris by the River (Kathmandu) n.d.; 7⅞ x 10 in.

Fig. 19 Untitled (Kathmandu) 1980s; 7⅞ x 10 in.

Fig. 21 Untitled n.d.; 7 15⁄ 16 x 713⁄ 16 in.

19 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 20 Carrying a Large Gourd (Italy) c. late 1940s; 7⅞ x 7 13⁄ 16 in.

23 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 25 (above) Karen “Tania” Blixen (Isak Dinesen) n.d.; 9½ x 11¾ in. Fig. 26 (below, left) Carson McCullers c. 1940s; 2⅛ x 2⅛ in. Fig. 24 Djuna Barnes n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in.

Fig. 27 (below, right) Mary McCarthy late 1930s; 6½ x 6½ in.

23 Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 25 (above) Karen “Tania” Blixen (Isak Dinesen) n.d.; 9½ x 11¾ in. Fig. 26 (below, left) Carson McCullers c. 1940s; 2⅛ x 2⅛ in. Fig. 24 Djuna Barnes n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in.

Fig. 27 (below, right) Mary McCarthy late 1930s; 6½ x 6½ in.

Fig. 28 Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Fig. 29 Leonor Fini n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7 ½ in.

Fig. 30 Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) n.d.; 7¾ x 7⅝ in.

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fig. 28 Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Fig. 29 Leonor Fini n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7 ½ in.

Fig. 30 Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) n.d.; 7¾ x 7⅝ in.

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

End Notes

“Charles Henri Ford: Catalyst Among Poets”; interview by Asako Kitaori, Modern American Poetry, Online Interviews with Charles Henri Ford, p.1. Cocteau also quoted in: Philip Hoare, “Charles Henri Ford: Enigmatic Survivor of New York’s Bohemian Surrealists,” The Independent, obituaries, October, 1, 2002, p. 20. 2 Smith, Roberta. “Charles Henri Ford, 94, Prolific Poet, Artist and Editor,” The New York Times, obituaries, September 30, 2002. 3 Ford, Charles Henri. Water from a Bucket: A Diary, 1948-1957; introduction by Lynne Tillman, Turtle Point Press, New York, 2001, p. vii. 4 Ford quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames: A Portrait of a Poet – A Portrait of a Century; narration written and read by James Dowell; produced and directed by James Dowell and John Kolomvakis; Symbiosis Films, 2000. This almost two-hour-long, rich documentary film about Ford includes extensive discussions with him, as well as interviews with people who knew him, including: Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gerard Malanga, Paul Morrissey, Ted Joans, Philip Johnson, Ned Rorem, Harold Stevenson, Indra Tamang, and Dorothea Tanning. 5 Ford quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 6 Hoare, p. 20; Smith, The New York Times, obituary. 7 Ford quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 8 Ford quoted in Steven Watson’s introduction to The Young and Evil, by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler, illustrated with paintings by Pavel Tchelitchew; a Sea Horse Book, Gay Presses of New York, 1988, p. ix. 9 Ford, Charles Henri. “A brief narrative of my career,” three-page, typed, hand-corrected, unpublished, undated document obtained from Indra Tamang, curator of Ford’s possessions in New York. 10 Watson, introduction, The Young and Evil, p. ix. 11 Hoare, p. 20. 12 Watson, The Young and Evil, p. xiii. 1

Detail (see fig. 62; p. 44) Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957)

Smith, The New York Times, obituary. 14 Tillman, introduction, Water from a Bucket, p. viii. 15 Watson, The Young and Evil, p. xx. 16 Parker Tyler quoted on back cover of The Young and Evil (1988 reprint edition). This quotation has often been misattributed to Gertrude Stein, who died in 1946. 17 Watson, Ibid., p. xxv and back cover. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., p. xxi. 20 Ibid., p. xii. 21 Ibid., p. xxii. 22 Ibid. 23 See Lincoln Kirstein, Tchelitchev, Twelvetrees Press, Santa Fe, 1994, p. 59. Kirstein comments on “Ford’s provocative coltishness, kaleidoscopic curiosity, and faun-faced sharpness” and states: “Parker Tyler… called him [Ford] ‘an adult stamped with permanent boyishness,’ and Djuna Barnes described ‘eyes that went around the sides [of his face] like an animal’s.’ These orbs would become salient features in Tchelitchev’s adoring portraits. Tyler, who first met him [Ford] when he was seventeen, wrote: ‘His blue eyes, shedding their confidingness remarkably like a child’s are set in his face like stone..., the whites of the eyes seemed to curve around his head and make the gesture of spacious looking.’” 24 Tyler, Parker. The Divine Comedy of Pavel Tchelitchew, Fleet, New York, 1967, p. 356; see also Kirstein, ibid., p. 59. 25 Tyler, ibid., p. 357; see also Kirstein, ibid., p. 59. 26 Parker Tyler’s “Chronology” in Lincoln Kirstein’s Pavel Tchelitchew: An exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art, The Foundation for Modern Art, Inc., 1964, pp. 50-51. 27 Michael Duncan, “Pavel Tchelitchew: The Landscape of the Body,” in Michael Duncan and Barbara J. Bloemink, Pavel Tchelitchew: The Landscape of the Body, exhibition catalogue, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, 1998, p. 7. 28 Ford, “A brief narrative,” p. 1. 29 Ibid. 30 Smith, The New York Times, obituary. 31 Tashjian, Dickran. A Boatload of Madmen: Surrealism and the American Avant-Garde, 1920-1950, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1995, p. 199. This excellent book contains extensive material on Ford and View. Another recommended book – also containing information on Ford and View – is Tracking the Marvelous: A Life in the New York Art World, by John Bernard Myers, Random House, New York, 1983. 13

Duncan, Michael. “Famous First Words,” Artforum, January 2003, vol. 41, no. 5, p. 25. 33 Tyler, “Chronology” in Kirstein, Pavel Tchelitchew, 1964, p. 51. 34 Ford, Water from a Bucket, July 1957, p. 242. 35 Ibid., February 1956, p. 209. 36 In a July 25, 2006 telephone conversation Indra Tamang provided information about the last fifty years of Ford’s life. 37 Water from a Bucket, p. 161. 38 Ford, “A brief narrative of my career,” p. 2. 39 Oisteanu, Valery. “Charles Henri Ford (1908-2002),” Berliner Kunst/NY Arts, November 2002, p. 95. 40 Ratner, Rochelle. “Poetry” section, The Soho Weekly News, May 13, 1976. 41 Ford, “A brief narrative,” p. 2. 42 Ford quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 43 See 1968 press release for publication of Ford’s Silver Flower Coo. 44 Ubu Gallery 1999 press release for Charles Henri Ford: Printed Matter 1929-1969; see also Oisteanu, ibid. 45 Warhol, Andy, and Pat Hackett. POPism: The Warhol ‘60s, Harvest/Harcourt Brace, San Diego, p. 25. 46 Ford quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 47 Malanga quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 48 Ford, “A brief narrative of my career,” p. 2. 49 James Dowell quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 50 Elliot Stein quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 51 Dowell quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 52 While the New York Cultural Center was not by definition an art museum, this exhibit was in the building which Edward Durell Stone originally designed for Huntington Hartford’s by-then-closed Gallery of Modern Art, whose inaugural 1965 exhibition – accompanied by a splendid catalogue by Lincoln Kirstein – happened to be a magnificent, 300-piece-plus retrospective of Tchelitchew’s art. 53 The Akehurst Gallery’s one-page press release for this show stated: “In the 30’s he [Ford] photographed his family and friends…[in] stylised black and white and then in the 70’s switched to colour, and incorporated projections. His well spring of influence was the Russian surrealist artist, Pavel Tchelitchew and inspiration came from the surrealist movement and mythology. The work forms a visual diary of Ford’s dreams and fantasies…. Ford has spent the past five years drawing using both collage and projections. He currently…is working on a new body of colour projection photography.” 54 Aletti, Vince, The Village Voice, June 24, 1997, vol. xlii, 32

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Please note: regarding quotations, in most cases minor grammatical and spelling errors have been reproduced without the insertion of “sic” to avoid interrupting the reader’s concentration.

End Notes

Detail (see fig. 62; p. 44) Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957)

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Please note: regarding quotations, in most cases minor grammatical and spelling errors have been reproduced without the insertion of “sic” to avoid interrupting the reader’s concentration.

Charles Henri Ford’s Publications Select list, including publications for which Charles Henri Ford was the editor.

Descharnes, Robert, and Gilles Néret. Dalí: The Paintings, Part I, 1904-1946, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 730. 64 See, for example, photographs of Nusch Eluard in: Man Ray: Photography and Its Double, ed. by Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais and Alain Sayag, Ginko Press, Corte Madera, ca, 1998. For portraits by Pablo Picasso of Nusch Eluard and Maar, see: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation, ed. by William Rubin, The Museum of Modern Art, Abrams, New York, 1996. 65 Herschel B. Chipp et al, Theories of Modern Art, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1970, p. 412. 66 See View, September 1940, vol. 1, no. 1. 67 Published comment on rear jacket cover of Parker Tyler, The Divine Comedy of Pavel Tchelitchew. 68 July 11, 1997 letter – quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames – from Burroughs to James Dowell and John Kolomvakis. 69 Rorem quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 70 Kelley, Robin D. G. “Ted Joans, 1928-2003,” obituary, The Village Voice, May 16, 2003. 71 Duncan, Michael. High Drama: Eugene Berman and the Legacy of the Melancholic Sublime, The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, and Hudson Hills Press, New York and Manchester, 2004, p. 94. 72 Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography, 3rd edition, Abbeville, New York, 1997, p. 499. 73 Ibid., p. 486. 74 Ibid., p. 485. 75 Ibid. 76 I am grateful to Katherine Rose Rainbolt for this observation about Ford’s use here of the “decisive moment.” See Rainbolt. 77 Naomi Rosenblum, p. 274. 78 In answer to comments by Gerard Malanga, Kitaori, p. 8. 79 Ford, Water from a Bucket, p. 204. 80 Ibid., p. 63. 81 According to James Dowell and John Kolomvakis; see on-line biographies of people interviewed in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames: www.sleepinanestofflames.com/interviews.htm 82 Duncan, High Drama, p. 114. 83 Ibid. 84 Vogel, Carol. “Exposure for a Nude,” The New York Times, September 30, 2005, Section e, p. 35. 63

Duncan, High Drama, p. 114. 86 Information from a July 24, 2006 letter from Stevenson to me about the photo’s date, place, and model’s name. 87 Goodie Magazine, no. 23; Romy Ashby, editor; New York, 2004, p. 21. 88 Dowell quoted in the film Sleep in a Nest of Flames. 89 Williams quoted in Goodie Magazine, no. 23, p. 21. 90 The children’s names are Sarah Scott and Stephen Mullinnix. 91 Information from August 2006 telephone conversation with Shelley Scott. 92 One of Gertrude Cato [Ford’s] paintings, Jimmie Lonesome, depicts flowers and a cat and is reproduced on p. 5 of the February-March 1942 View, vol. 1, nos. 11-12, Kraus reprint edition, 1969. 93 Tillman, Water from a Bucket, p. vii. 94 Kirstein, Tchelitchev, 1994, p. 15; see also Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, Pavel Tchelitchew, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 2002, p. 6. 95 Soby, James Thrall. Tchelitchew: Paintings, Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art/Arno Press, New York, 1972 reprint edition of original 1942 edition, p. 32. 96 Water from a Bucket, November 1951 entry, p. 126. Regarding Tchelitchew’s art and his inclusion of the butterfly, it prominently appears next to the crucial, central figure in Hide-and-Seek and also in the foreground of Tchelitchew’s large, 1936-38 oil Phenomena (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). Fascinatingly, the 1988 reprint edition of Ford’s and Tyler’s The Young and Evil includes six watercolors by Tchelitchew; in one of them – a beautiful, frontal portrait head of Ford – a huge white butterfly covers, almost like a mask, much of his face, including his nose and eyes. This painting contains provocative similarities to Ford’s self-portrait-in-a-mirror photograph with a butterfly in this show. 97 See Watson, The Young and Evil, p. xxxvi, note 46. 98 Tillman, Water from a Bucket, p. ix. 85

The Brass Monkey (a school broadside which Ford edited). Blues: A Magazine of New Rhythms, established 1929 (9 issues); Ford, editor. The Young and Evil (with Parker Tyler); Paris, 1933, Obelisk Press; reprint edition, illustrated with paintings by Pavel Tchelitchew and an introduction by Steven Watson; A Sea Horse Book, Gay Presses of New York, 1988: novel. View: Parade of the Avant-garde: An Anthology of View Magazine (1940-1947), Charles Henri Ford, editor; Thunder’s Mouth Press, New York, 1991. Water From a Bucket: A Diary, 1948-1957 (with an introduction by Lynn Tillman); Turtle Point Press, New York, 2001). Volumes of Charles Henri Ford’s Poetry:97 A Pamphlet of Sonnets (1936). The Garden of Disorder (1938). ABC’s (1940). The Overturned Lake (1941). Poems for Painters (1945). The Half-Thoughts, The Distances of Pain (1947). Sleep in a Nest of Flames (with a preface by Edith Sitwell, 1949). Spare Parts (collage poems in color-photolitho; 1966) Silver Flower Coo (collage poems; 1968). Flag of Ecstasy: Selected Poems (1972) 7 Poems (1974). Om Krishna I, II, III (1979, 1981, 1982) Haiku & Imprints (1984) Handshakes from Heaven (1985) Emblems of Arachne (1986). Out of the Labyrinth: Selected Poems (City Lights, 1991)98 Operation Minotaur: Haikus and Collages by Charles Henri Ford, Photographs by Indra Tamang; Shivastan Publishing; Kathmandu, Nepal and Woodstock, New York; 2006. Please note: Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library contains a substantial collection of Ford’s papers listed under “Papers of Charles Henri Ford”; the Beinecke Library also possesses photographs of Ford. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin has extensive holdings by Ford, as well as by Parker Tyler, in the Center’s manuscript and photography collections.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

no. 25. In an August 29, 2006 telephone conversation, Leslie Tonkonow said that these photographs by Ford were “in the manner of Cartier-Bresson.” Regarding this exhibit, see also: Grace Glueck, “Charles Henri Ford and Allen Frame: ‘Photographs from Italy and Elsewhere,’” The New York Times, July 4, 1997, section C, p. 24. 55 Smith, Roberta. “Charles Henri Ford: ‘Printed Matter 1929-1969,’” The New York Times, June 25, 1999. The Ubu Gallery press release for this 1999 show states: “The Poem Posters were published in 1964/65 in the workshop of the printer, Vassily Papachrysanthou in Athens [Greece]….The Poem Posters were produced in extremely limited runs employing an industrial photo-offset lithographic process and many are monotypes. Ford, in conjunction with the Papachrysanthou engineers, employed camera, filters, inks, film coatings, plastic and aluminum plates and the ‘roaring, fully-automated press’ to devise his compositions ‘on the spot.’ The results are large ‘collage-like’ posters – unique syntheses of cut-up words and images.” 56 Oisteanu (who ends his obituary of Ford with this haiku). 57 The information in this paragraph was provided by Indra Tamang. In 2006, New York’s Mitchell Algus Gallery paid homage to Ford by giving him a small retrospective – curated by Jack Pierson – containing photographs and many other aspects of Ford’s highly varied artistic career; see Michael Kimmelman’s review of this show in the January 24, 2006 New York Times. 58 Water from a Bucket, May 1954 entry, p. 183. 59 See also Katherine Rose Rainbolt’s Photographs by Charles Henri Ford: A Gallery Guide, issued by the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art to accompany this exhibition; 2006. 60 According to Indra Tamang, who provided information regarding the locations, subjects, and dates of most photographs exhibited here, this is a street in Italy. However, particularly considering the design of the background architecture, this may be a view of New York City. 61 Rainbolt. 62 Webb, Peter, “Erotic dreams in Paris, Obituary: Leonor Fini,” The Guardian, Manchester, January 23, 1996.

Charles Henri Ford’s Publications Select list, including publications for which Charles Henri Ford was the editor.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Acknowledgments

gentleman for whom I have the utmost, lasting respect. His lovely family includes his wife Radhika and three daughters: Sunita, Juneli, and Zina. Ford’s niece Shelley Scott very generously lent two of his photographs of her, while Sotheby’s Picture Library and the Beaton Archive graciously permitted us to reproduce Cecil Beaton’s famous image of Ford. At the University of Oklahoma, President David L. Boren and Mrs. Molly Shi Boren have my deepest thanks for their passionate, substantial, longtime support of the arts on campus. I am also grateful to Provost Nancy Mergler and Dean Eugene Enrico for their continued support. At the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art the entire staff deserves my heartfelt appreciation for its assistance in innumerable ways. In particular, Director Eric M. Lee has my profound gratitude not only for having invited me to curate this show, but also for having so enthusiastically backed it, extensively talked with me about the catalogue and its entries, and made astute suggestions about my essay’s text. It is always a joy working with him, as it is with my Art School colleague Eric Anderson, an exceptionally talented designer who collaborated closely with me, gave valuable advice, and produced an elegant and sophisticated publication. Assistant Director Gail Kana Anderson provided highly appreciated assistance, as did Registrar Kim Moinette, who handled numerous complicated matters with consummate professionalism and unfailing good humor. Kathleen Ludwig made essential proofreading and editoral contributions. Stephanie

Royse helped obtain excellent publicity, while Becky Zurcher, Sandra Milligan and Joyce Cummins donated valued support. Susan Baley and Karen McWilliams conducted fine educational programs. Mary Jane Rutherford has my special thanks for having, some six years ago, introduced me to Harold Stevenson, who most graciously hosted me at his Long Island home and arranged the above-mentioned, memorable interview for me with Charles Henri Ford. The museum’s preparators Tim Ramsey and Quinn Johnson did their characteristic outstanding job in framing and installing all photographs. During the summer of 2006, the museum was fortunate to have Katherine Rose Rainbolt as an intern. She prepared an insightful, artistically sensitive, excellently written gallery guide that accompanies this show and provided me with important research assistance. Now entering her sophomore year in college, she is not only a brilliant student but also an especially lovely human being for whom I predict a distinguished career. Many other people have my warmest thanks. James Dowell and John Kolomvakis most generously made available to us their fine documentary film on Charles Henri Ford, Sleep in a Nest of Flames, filled with fascinating, historically valuable interviews. My admired former colleague in the School of Art, Pamela Bradford, spent considerable time with me discussing the possible selections for this exhibit; she is one of the most discerning, articulate art critics I know, and I treasure her wise counsel and friendship. Similarly, I benefited significantly from conversations with

two other good friends, the internationally known photographer Charles Rushton and Monique Jones, both of whom possess a wealth of knowledge regarding art and twentieth-century culture. Numerous other individuals, in various ways – sometimes indirectly – contributed to this catalogue and/or show. Among them are: Bobby Anderson, Albert J. Bartridge, Jr., Megan Beard, Dianne and Leonard Bernstein, Catherine Bibbo, G. Edward Bibbo, Elsa Bruckner, Michaeli Brunk, Sharon Burchett, Elizabeth Burr, Carol Butler, Abby Cain, Renate and Mack Caldwell, Susan Havens Caldwell, David Coleman (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin), Rob Collins, Beverly Dewey, Debra Engel, John Gibson, Cynthia Barlow Marrs Gooch, Tony Gooch, Bob Goodwin, Jennifer Gourley, Herb Greene, Gloria Groom, Karin Gustafson, Rhonda D. Haley, Holly Harrison, Allen Frame, Teresa Hawkes, the late Dr. Eugene Miller Kerfoot, Patricia Brice Kerfoot, Ellen King, Erinn King, Theodore Kovaleff, Sarah Lai, Ann and James Levy, Gloria and Frank Lowe, Margaret E. Mahoney, Charles Martin, Mary Fielding McCleary, Bob McCloy, m.d., Anthony Wentworth Morss, Carolyn Morss, Dennis R. Mosser, Kate O’brien-Hamoush, J. Daniel O’Flaherty, Judith Osborne, Andrew Phelan, Joe Riddle, M.D., Andy Rieger, Aimee Rogers, Jacqueline Rogers, Linda Rushton, Ginny L. Sanders, Claudine Serre, Suzanne Silvester, Nancy A. Smith, Sunnie Smith, Marilyn Smotherman, the late James Thrall Soby, Matthew C. Stock, Leslie Tonkonow, Doris Eaton Travis, Wanda Trumbley, the late Lloyd Tugwell, Irene Urban, Vladi-

mir Urban, Denise Vale, the late J. Kirk T. Varnedoe, Roberta Waddell (New York Public Library), Gracie Walraven, James Walraven, M.D., Gloria Wardwell, Mary Jo Watson, Patricia Willis (Beinecke Library, Yale University), and Shelly Zaikis. My very special thanks go to Bidou for his constant encouragement and good cheer. I would also like to acknowledge the lasting inspiration provided by my numerous great teachers – too many of them no longer alive – at Williams College and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, among them: S. Lane Faison, Jr, Whitney Stoddard, William Pierson, H. Lee Hirsche, George Heard Hamilton, Fred Licht, Donald Posner, Charles Sterling, José López-Rey, Walter Friedländer, Robert Rosenblum, Colin Eisler, and A. Hyatt Mayor. Finally, I wish to dedicate this catalogue to two very important, cherished people in my life, Cynthia Lee Kerfoot and my late Mother, Tatiana Koshkin-Youritzin. Cynthia helped me in countless crucial ways with this catalogue, show, and selection of works for it. My Mother – who personally knew Tchelitchew and admired his artistic genius – long ago shared her knowledge of him with me, helping stimulate an enduring passion for his art that ultimately led me to Charles Henri Ford and his own exceptional work in this exhibit. – v.k.-y.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 68 Indra Tamang Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, Harold Stevenson and Charles Henri Ford (taken at Ford’s summer residence, Montauk, Long Island, New York, July 24, 2000) 7 15⁄ 16 x 12 in.

One of the keenest pleasures of creating an exhibit and its catalogue is being able to thank everyone who contributed to these projects. Numerous people provided assistance, and all have my warmest appreciation. Certain individuals, however, merit special mention. First, I would like to thank the late Charles Henri Ford himself, not only for having created the splendid images on display, but also for his gracious hospitality on July 24, 2000 at his summer residence on Montauk, Long Island, New York; for a full day, Harold Stevenson and I visited Ford and interviewed him in connection with my essay in Pavel Tchelitchew, the catalogue which accompanied a 2002 show of Tchelitchew’s art which I curated – with the official assistance of The Museum of Modern Art – at the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. That meeting with Ford – in the company of Indra Tamang and his family – would eventually result in this exhibition. I cannot express sufficiently my appreciation to Ford’s sister Ruth Ford for having consented to this exhibit and for her exceptionally kind and generous support of it. May the images in it, as well as the catalogue, do her and her brother justice. No one deserves more thanks than Indra Tamang, who, since Ford’s death, has been the custodian of his estate. I spent countless hours at the Dakota with Tamang, as we went through boxes of Ford’s photographs. Without Tamang’s extraordinary kindness, generosity, patience, wisdom, hospitality, and expert assistance, this show, very simply, would not have been possible. He is a wonderful, gracious

Acknowledgments

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Fig. 68 Indra Tamang Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, Harold Stevenson and Charles Henri Ford (taken at Ford’s summer residence, Montauk, Long Island, New York, July 24, 2000) 7 15⁄ 16 x 12 in.

The Exhibition

Works are listed alphabetically by title, Charles Henri Ford’s photographs preceding those by other photographers. Titles, dates, and shooting sites of all photographs referred to in the preceding text and listed below have – with five exceptions – been kindly provided by Indra Tamang. Sotheby’s Picture Library and the Beaton Archive provided information about Cecil Beaton’s photo of Ford; Shelley Scott and Sarah Scott supplied information about Ford’s two images of her; and I furnished information about my photo of Ford and about Tamang’s triple photograph of Ford, Stevenson, and me. – v.k.-y.

Ancient Stupa (Kathmandu) (fig. 16; p. 18) 1970s-1980s; 6½ x 8½ in.

Indian Women Creating Saris by the River (Kathmandu) (fig. 17; p. 18); n.d.; 7⅞ x 10 in.

André Breton (fig. 38; p. 29) 1940s; 7¼ x 7½ in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 6; p. 12) n.d.; 7¾ x 11½ in.

Andy Warhol (fig. 56; p. 39) n.d.; 6¼ x 9¼ in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 7; p. 13) n.d; 3½ x 5½ in.

Andy Warhol (fig. 55; p. 39) 1960s; 8 9⁄ 16 x 13 in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 8; p. 13) n.d.; 3½ x 5 in.

Bambi (Athens) (fig. 22; p. 20) 1965; 10¼ x 6½ in.

James Van Der Zee (fig. 45; p. 33) n.d.; 107⁄ 16 x 99⁄ 16 in.

Carl Van Vechten (Florence) (fig. 52; p. 37) n.d.; 7⅞ x 7⅞ in.

Karen “Tania” Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (fig. 25; p. 23) n.d.; 9½ x 11¾ in.

Carrying a Large Gourd (Italy) (fig. 20; p. 18) c. late 1940s; 7⅞ x 7 13⁄ 16 in.

Léonid Berman (fig. 41; p. 31) c. 1940s; 6¼ x 9½ in.

Carson McCullers (fig. 26; p. 23) c. 1940s; 2⅛ x 2⅛ in.

Leonor Fini (fig. 29; p. 24) n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7 ½ in.

Cecil Beaton (fig. 53; p. 37) c. 1940s; 2¼ x 2¼ in.

Leonor Fini (fig. 31; p. 26) n.d.; 11 x 11 in.

Djuna Barnes (fig. 24; p. 22) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in.

Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) (fig. 30; p. 25) n.d.; 7¾ x 7⅝ in.

Fabrizio Clerici (Rome) (fig. 46; p. 34) 1960; 4 13⁄ 16 x 7⅛ in.

Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) (fig. 28; p. 24) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Gala Dali (Italy) (fig. 33; p. 27) n.d.; 7¼ x 7⅜ in.

Mary McCarthy (fig. 27; p. 23) late 1930s; 6½ x 6½ in.

Gertrude Ford and Pavel Tchelitchew (Italy) (fig. 60; p. 42) 1950s; 7½ x 77⁄ 16 in.

Ned Rorem (fig. 43; p. 32) n.d.; 6⅜ x 9⅝ in.

Harold Stevenson in his Studio (Paris) (fig. 54; p. 38) 1950s; 8 9⁄ 16 x 13 in.

Nude (Crete) (fig. 23; p. 21) n.d; 9⅜ x 7 3⁄ 16 in.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (fig. 50; p. 37) n.d.; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in.

Nusch Eluard, Dora Maar, Paul Eluard, Leonor Fini (fig. 35; p. 27); n.d.; 4½ x 4½ in.

Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographing Pavel Tchelitchew (fig. 51; p. 37); 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Parker Tyler (fig. 39; p. 30) n.d.; 7¾ x 7¾ in.

Paul Bowles (on the 2nd Avenue El, Shortly Before his First Trip to Paris) (fig. 44; p. 32) early 1930s; 8½ x 7½ in. Paul Eluard (fig. 34; p. 27) n.d.; 11 x 11 in. Pavel Tchelitchew (fig. 63; p. 44) n.d.; 6½ x 6½ in. Pavel Tchelitchew (fig. 64; p. 45) n.d.; 7½ x 7⅝ in. Pavel Tchelitchew (fig. 62; p. 44) n.d.; 7 9⁄ 16 x 7⅜ in. Roberto Matta (fig. 47; p. 34) n.d.; 7⅜ x 7½ in. Ruth Ford (fig. 61; p. 43) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in. Ruth Ford (fig. 1; p. 6) n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7½ in. Ruth Ford (fig. 59; p. 42) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in. Ruth Ford (Central Park, New York City) (fig. 57; p. 40) 1930s; 6 x 6 in. Ruth Ford (Connecticut) (fig. 58; p. 41) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in. Salvador and Gala Dali (fig. 32; p. 27) 1930s; 9¾ x 13 in. Self Portrait in a Mirror (fig. 67; p. 47) n.d.; 6 x 9¼ in. Shelley Scott (Crete) (fig. 66; p. 46) 1967; 4½ x 6½ in. Loan Courtesy of Shelley Scott Shelley Scott and Musician (Crete) (fig. 65; p. 46) 1967; 9½ x 11¾ in. Loan Courtesy of Shelley Scott

Still from Johnny Minotaur (fig. 15; p. 17) 1971; 5 x 6⅞ in. Ted Joans (fig. 37; p. 28) n.d.; 9¾ x 8 in. Untitled (fig. 21; p. 19) n.d.; 7 15⁄ 16 x 713⁄ 16 in. Untitled (Italy?) (fig. 12; p. 16) late 1940s; 7 15⁄ 16 x 7⅞ in. Untitled (Italy) (fig. 11; p. 16) 1930s; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in. Untitled (Italy) (fig. 13; p. 17) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in. Untitled (Kathmandu) (fig. 21; p. 18) 1980s; 7⅞ x 10 in. Untitled (Kathmandu) (fig. 18; p. 19) n.d.; 6 13⁄ 16 x 10⅜ Untitled (New York City) (fig. 2; p. 9) n.d.; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in. Untitled (New York City) (fig. 10; p. 15) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in. Untitled (New York City) (fig. 3; p. 10) late 1930s; 8¼ x 7½ in. Untitled (New York City) (fig. 9; p. 14) c. late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in. Untitled (Rome) (fig. 14; p. 17) 1950s; 6 9⁄ 16 x 9⅞ in. W. H. Auden (fig. 40; p. 31) n.d.; 8¾ x 13 in. Wallace Stevens (fig. 36; p. 28) n.d.; 9⅝ x 7⅝ in. William S. Burroughs (fig. 42; p. 32) n.d.; 9½ x 7⅝ in.

Yves Tanguy (fig. 48; p. 35) 1930s; 7¾ x 7⅜ in.

The works listed below are by photographers other than Charles Henri Ford: Cecil Beaton (fig. 49; p. 36) Charles Henri Ford (England) 1930s; 9⅜ x 7½ in. © Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby’s London Indra Tamang (fig. 4; p. 11) Charles Henri Ford at Full Moon Party, Kathmandu, Nepal (April 19, 1981); 4⅝ x 3¼ in. © Indra Tamang. Loan courtesy of the artist. Indra Tamang (fig. 68; p. 52) Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, Harold Stevenson and Charles Henri Ford (taken at Ford’s summer residence, Montauk, Long Island, New York, July 24, 2000). 7 15⁄ 16 x 12 in. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman: gift of Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, 2006. © Indra Tamang. Victor Koshkin-Youritzin (fig. 5; p. 11) Charles Henri Ford (taken at his summer residence, Montauk, Long Island, New York), July 24, 2000. 7 15⁄ 16 x 12 in. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman; gift of the artist, 2006. © Victor Koshkin-Youritzin.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma

Please note: Unless otherwise noted all photographs are by Charles Henri Ford and were loaned courtesy of Ruth Ford and Indra Tamang. Copyright for Charles Henri Ford’s photographs is owned by Indra Tamang. Dimensions listed are the image size; height precedes width.

The Exhibition

Ancient Stupa (Kathmandu) (fig. 16; p. 18) 1970s-1980s; 6½ x 8½ in.

Indian Women Creating Saris by the River (Kathmandu) (fig. 17; p. 18); n.d.; 7⅞ x 10 in.

André Breton (fig. 38; p. 29) 1940s; 7¼ x 7½ in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 6; p. 12) n.d.; 7¾ x 11½ in.

Andy Warhol (fig. 56; p. 39) n.d.; 6¼ x 9¼ in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 7; p. 13) n.d; 3½ x 5½ in.

Andy Warhol (fig. 55; p. 39) 1960s; 8 9⁄ 16 x 13 in.

Indra Tamang (fig. 8; p. 13) n.d.; 3½ x 5 in.

Bambi (Athens) (fig. 22; p. 20) 1965; 10¼ x 6½ in.

James Van Der Zee (fig. 45; p. 33) n.d.; 107⁄ 16 x 99⁄ 16 in.

Carl Van Vechten (Florence) (fig. 52; p. 37) n.d.; 7⅞ x 7⅞ in.

Karen “Tania” Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (fig. 25; p. 23) n.d.; 9½ x 11¾ in.

Carrying a Large Gourd (Italy) (fig. 20; p. 18) c. late 1940s; 7⅞ x 7 13⁄ 16 in.

Léonid Berman (fig. 41; p. 31) c. 1940s; 6¼ x 9½ in.

Carson McCullers (fig. 26; p. 23) c. 1940s; 2⅛ x 2⅛ in.

Leonor Fini (fig. 29; p. 24) n.d.; 7 5⁄ 16 x 7 ½ in.

Cecil Beaton (fig. 53; p. 37) c. 1940s; 2¼ x 2¼ in.

Leonor Fini (fig. 31; p. 26) n.d.; 11 x 11 in.

Djuna Barnes (fig. 24; p. 22) n.d.; 7½ x 7½ in.

Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) (fig. 30; p. 25) n.d.; 7¾ x 7⅝ in.

Fabrizio Clerici (Rome) (fig. 46; p. 34) 1960; 4 13⁄ 16 x 7⅛ in.

Leonor Fini (Central Park, New York City) (fig. 28; p. 24) late 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Gala Dali (Italy) (fig. 33; p. 27) n.d.; 7¼ x 7⅜ in.

Mary McCarthy (fig. 27; p. 23) late 1930s; 6½ x 6½ in.

Gertrude Ford and Pavel Tchelitchew (Italy) (fig. 60; p. 42) 1950s; 7½ x 77⁄ 16 in.

Ned Rorem (fig. 43; p. 32) n.d.; 6⅜ x 9⅝ in.

Harold Stevenson in his Studio (Paris) (fig. 54; p. 38) 1950s; 8 9⁄ 16 x 13 in.

Nude (Crete) (fig. 23; p. 21) n.d; 9⅜ x 7 3⁄ 16 in.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (fig. 50; p. 37) n.d.; 7⅝ x 7⅝ in.

Nusch Eluard, Dora Maar, Paul Eluard, Leonor Fini (fig. 35; p. 27); n.d.; 4½ x 4½ in.

Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographing Pavel Tchelitchew (fig. 51; p. 37); 1930s; 7½ x 7½ in.

Parker Tyler (fig. 39; p. 30) n.d.; 7¾ x 7¾ in.

Yves Tanguy (fig. 48; p. 35) 1930s; 7¾ x 7⅜ in.

Photogra phs by C ha rl es H enri Ford

Fred Jones J r. Mus eum of A rt • The U ni vers i t y of Okl ahoma