Hands Off Mayakovski
| Date: | 1977
|
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Size inches: | c. 15 3/4 x 13 3/4 |
| Size cm: | 40 x 35
|
| Signature: | Unsigned on the face, inscribed on the reverse |
| |
| Location: | New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut |
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Gift of the Estate of George Deem,1913. Accession Number 2013.54.56
Painting inscribed by the artist on the reverse: Hands off / Mayakovski / oil on canvas 1977 / 40 X 35 cm / 16 X 14 inches / George Deem.
Scanned slide available showing reverse of canvas.
Reference
Vermeer,
The Milkmaid, c. 1658-60. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Aleksandr Rodchenko, photo portrait of Mayakovsky seated on a chair designed by Rodchenko, 1924
Reference
"Hands Off China!" by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1927. Agitverse: "War -- / daughter of imperialism / stalks / a specter through the world. Workers, roar: Hands Off China!" Quoted by George Deem, "Extra Genre,"
WhiteWalls #6, Summer 1981, p. 17.
Photolithograph from the painting
Title
Hands Off Mayakovsky. Paper size 25 3/4 x 21 1/4, Image size 19 x 16 3/4 inches. Edition 300, 1980, 8 colors. Printer: Jorge Dumas NY (JD), Atelier Dumas, New York. Signed by the artist lower right, Printer's imprint lower left.
Poem by Etel Adnan
With the 1980 photolithograph from George Deem's 1977 painting Hands Off Mayakovsky hanging on the wall of her writing room, Etel Adnan in 2002 wrote 13 Mayakovsky poems. The poems are addressed to Mayakovsky:Maiakovsky, where are you? (First line, Poem 1).The 13 poems were published under the title "Maiakovsky" in the anthology enough, Editors: Leslie Scalapino & Rick London, O Books, Oakland, California, 2003. Etel Adnan sent a copy of enough to George Deem, with an enclosed postcard note to Ronald Vance:
I have written these Mayakovsky poems last year. Read them in Italy, with simultaneous translation. In Napoli the morning paper singled them out (from the 15 or so poets of the Festival). Then they came out in Enough. Georges will be happy, I think, to read them. The one concerning him is dedicated to him, of course. I hope his operation (hip replacement surgery) goes well. Then he will be running ... to Paris!!! Love to you both, Etel.
Poem number 10 is the poem Etel Adnan refers to as concerning George Deem.
10
There was, long before you and I
were born, a woman, with a blue
apron, pouring milk in a
painter's cup
Then you appeared,
tall, wild and unconcerned,
on the lit stage of her
kitchen
The years were turbulent,
students were reading you in
their beds in their seasons of
high fever
and Vermeer was working on your
portrait.
In October 2003 George Deem did go to Paris where he visited and had lunch with
Etel Adnan.
