August 10, 1998

UCSC's Patchen collection featured in London exhibits

Art by Kenneth Patchen (more)

By Barbara McKenna

Items from the UCSC collection of poet/novelist/artist Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) traveled the globe recently for an exhibition and lecture in London. The Patchen items, which are housed in Special Collections in the University Library, were the focus of events at two major London venues--the Tate Gallery and the Royal Festival Hall's Poetry Library.

Several Patchen prints were featured in an exhibition at the Poetry Library that ran through June. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Tate Gallery hosted a reading and discussion on Patchen and his work entitled "Image and Rhythms: A Celebration of Kenneth Patchen."

Participating in the May 18 event was eminent poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose artwork is archived in Special Collections, as well as Bernard Kops and Michael Horovitz, two well-known British writers profoundly influenced by Patchen's writing. Patchen's widow, Miriam Patchen, and UCSC librarian Rita Bottoms were also in attendance. Bottoms, head of Special Collections, coordinated the transport to and exhibition of the items in London.

"UCSC's Special Collections is home to a rich and extensive archival collection," Bottoms said. "We were thrilled to be able to make these wonderful works available for the public view."

This recent exhibition is just one of many in which UCSC has participated in recent years. Items from the UCSC archives of Patchen, Ferlinghetti, Lou Harrison, Edward Weston, and Graham Nash and Nash Editions have been featured in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the M. H. de Young Museum, the Naropa Institute, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome, Italy), the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Butler Institute of American Art, and at many other venues.

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