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David Abraham Antin (February 1, 1932 – October 11, 2016) was an American
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
,
art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
,
performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
, and university professor.


Education and early career

Antin was born in New York City in 1932. After graduating from
Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is a public specialized high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is on ...
, he earned his B.A. from
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
in 1955 and his M.A. from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
in 1966. He spent the first ten years of his career (1955-1964) as a translator of both scientific texts and fiction, including multiple scientific text translations (typically German to English) for Pergamon Press where he interacted frequently with the company's flamboyant founder, British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell. By the late 1950s Antin had begun to experiment with writing fiction and poetry, with his first published work appearing in the ''
Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959 in litera ...
'' in 1959. By the early 1960s, Antin had developed significantly, both as a poet and as an art critic, and it has been said that his articles about
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
and Robert Morris (in 1965) were among the first truly analytical writings about either artist.Inventory of the David Antin Papers, 1954-2006.
The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2008.M.56.


Works

In the late 1960s, Antin began performing extemporaneously, improvising "talk poems" at readings and exhibitions. In the late 1960s Antin moved with his wife, the writer and
performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
Eleanor Antin Eleanor Antin (née Fineman; February 27, 1935) is an American performance artist, film-maker, installation artist, conceptual artist, feminist artist, and university professor. Early life and education Eleanor Fineman was born in the Bronx o ...
, to
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
to take up a post at the
University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
, in the newly formed and experimental Visual Arts Department. He served for a time as gallery director and from 1971 to 1999 as a Professor. During this time Antin served several terms as Chairman of the Visual Arts Dept. In the early 1970s, his influence on a nascent group of conceptual photographers among the graduate students there was powerful. He has a fellowship in the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEH. He also received the PEN Los Angeles Award for Poetry in 1984. In 2008, Antin was a featured performer at the &NOW Festival at
Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...
. Antin said that as a child he wanted to invent things, and that to him this meant he must either become a scientist or an artist. His early published poetry, collected in ''Selected Poems: 1963-1973,'' was
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
, using found or "readymade" texts to address issues of language. In "Definitions for Mendy," a poem from this book, he uses definitions of "loss" from both a dictionary and an insurance handbook to fuel a meditation on the death of a friend. In his "Novel Poems" from the same book, he pages through popular novels, choosing a line or a phrase from each page to assemble poems. After gathering some experience reading his poems, he began to find the convention of reading his own previously written poetry stultifying. He turned instead to improvising poems that are a kind of thinking out loud about the act of creating meaning. The themes of these "talk pieces" are often inspired by their location and audience. The talk pieces can be viewed alternately as poetry that seeks to re-connect with oral and performative aspects of the poetic tradition, as philosophy in the tradition of
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
's dialogues or
Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...
's lectures, or as a "site-specific" artwork like
Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...
's earthworks. He tape-records each performance and often composes subsequent written versions, which are collected in books like "talking at the boundaries," "tuning" and "what it means to be
avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
." In his talk pieces Antin blends personal narrative with philosophical reflection to address issues of meaning. In "tuning," for example, he critiques the concept of "understanding" and offers an alternative model. In "what it means to be avant garde" he suggests that the avant garde attempts to address not the future but the present. In "the fringe" he tells a story about resistance to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
that offers as a central figure a bucket containing the urine of several Guggenheim poets.


Selected works

*''Definitions'' Caterpillar Press, New York, 1967. Poetry *''Autobiography'', Something Else Press, ''A Great Bear'' Pamphlet, New York, 1967. See: UbuWeb edition 2004 *''Code of Flag Behavior'', Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles, 1968. Poetry *''Meditations'', Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles, 1971. Poetry *''After the War; A Long Novel with Few Words'', Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara, 1973 *''Talking'', Kulchur Foundation, 1972. New edition: 2001. Poetry *''Talking at the Boundaries'', New Directions, New York, 1976 *''Tuning'', New Directions, New York, 1984 *''Selected Poems: 1963-1973'', Sun & Moon, Los Angeles, 1991. *''What It Means to Be Avant-Garde'', New Directions, New York, 1993. *''A Conversation with David Antin'' (with Charles Bernstein) 2001 *''i never knew what time it was'', University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005. *''
john cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
uncaged is still cagey'' 2006 *''Radical Coherency: Selected Essays on Art and Literature, 1966 to 2005'', University of Chicago Press, 2010.


References


External links


David Antin at UbuWeb
Includes PDF edition of ''Autobiography'' and full text of ''In Place of a Lecture: Three Musics for Two Voices'' from ''Talking''

Includes excerpts from books, interviews, and sound recordings

A short piece on the history of Antin's some/thing journal (coedited with Jerome Rothenberg) and its BOMB HANOI cover, produced by Andy Warhol
David Antin papers, 1954-2006.
The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2008.M.56. The papers of performance artist, experimental poet, curator, and critic David Antin include extensive correspondence, forty years of diaries, published and unpublished manuscripts, working notes, teaching files, and over 300 audiotapes and videos of lectures and performances. {{DEFAULTSORT:Antin, David 1932 births 2016 deaths Writers from New York (state) Jewish American poets Jewish American artists University of California, San Diego faculty New York University alumni Brooklyn Technical High School alumni City College of New York alumni 21st-century American Jews