RON HENGGELER

September 23, 2024
Impressions of Ferlinghetti

An exhibit in 6 vignettes

On September 12th, I attended the opening of a new exhibit at the San Francisco Historical Society Museum.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is known the world over as a poet, publisher, painter, activist, bookstore proprietor, and cultural icon. The San Francisco Historical Society is proud to host this new exhibit in celebration of our local legend.

Ferlinghetti | An exhibit in 6 vignettes focuses on different aspects of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's life, shown from a new perspective —his own. The exhibit draws all of its material from his personal effects, his personal library, his paintings, and other unique artifacts from his life and times.

September 13, 2024 -- March 26, 2025

San Francisco Historical Society Museum

608 Commercial Street, San Francisco

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is known the world over as a poet, publisher, painter, activist, bookstore proprietor, and cultural icon. The San Francisco Historical Society is proud to present this exhibit in celebration of our local legend.

Ferlinghetti An exhibit in 6 vignettes focuses on different aspects of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's life, shown from a new perspective —his own. The exhibit draws all of its material from his personal effects, his personal library, his paintings, and other unique artifacts from his life and times.

The 6 in the exhibit title is a reference to the "6 Poets at 6 Gallery" event in 1955 that Ferlinghetti attended, along with Jack Kerouac and many others, where Ginsberg first read "Howl." The event featured readings by Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and was emceed by Kenneth Rexroth. It was a watershed moment and has come to be known as the birth of the Beats.

A vignette is a brief but powerful scene. This exhibit, told in 6 vignettes, is Ferlinghetti's story and is a celebration of the long life and powerful impact of San Francisco's local legend.

Curated by Sarah Stangle In collaboration with Chris Buck, Kristin Scheel, & Mark Scheuer

Vignette 1 | His Story
-This vignette features personal artifacts and ephemera that highlight Ferlinghetti's personal story and public life.

LAWRENCE MONSANTO FERLINGHETTI
Yale law students in the 1960s said that the faculty was divided into two camps: old turks and young fogeys. Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti might say that describes much of America today. Larry Ferlinghetti graduated from our School of Journalism in 1941. After taking a doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1951, he settled in San Francisco, where he became co-owner of the City Lights Bookshop, the country's first all-paperbound bookstore. Out of the bookstore grew the City Lights publishing house, and out of that came Allen Ginsberg's Howl in 1956. Howl precipitated Ferlinghetti's arrest on obscenity charges. The resulting trial, like the Scopes Trial or the March on Selma or the Roe v. Wade decision or the Stonewall Riot, was one of the defining moments of modern American culture. It changed our concept of art and our notions of the artist's role in public affairs. Ferlinghetti emerged vindicated, the Beat movement became a household word, and Larry became one of its most eloquent spokesmen. Ferlinghetti has authored several important collections of poems, most notably A Coney Island of the Mind. He continues his work today, most recently publishing "A Buddha in the Woodpile," which has this to say about the Waco incident: "If the inner ears of the inner sanctums / had only been half open / to any vibrations except / those of the national security state / and had only been attuned / to the sound of one hand clapping / and not one hand punching / Then that sick cult and its children / might still be breathing / the free American air / of the First Amendment." In appreciation for his seminal role in the development of modern American poetry, the University is pleased to present to Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti this Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Lorenzo Ferlinghetti

Vignette 2 | City Lights Story
-This vignette includes historical highlights and materials related to City Lights, landmark bookseller and publishing house, known for their commitment to innovative writing and progressive ideals.

City Lights

Vignette 3 | Salon Wall Pairings
This vignette features a curated selection of Ferlinghetti's paintings, representative of his lifelong dedication to visual expression. The paintings are paired with books, artifacts, ephemera from his personal library, and quotes. The pairings add another dimension to each painting, offering unique insight into the influences on his life and work.

"Despair is Seated on a Bench..." (After Jacques Prévert "Paroles")
9/2001
50" x 45"
Paired with:
Paroles, Jacques Prévert, 1949 (in French)
Selections from Paroles, Jacques Prévert, 1965 (translated into English)
Paroles was first published by Liberairie Gallimard in 1949. The English translations first appeared in book form in the US in the Pocket Poet Series, translated from French by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and published by City Lights Books in 1958. In 1965, this volume Selections from Paroles was then published by Penguin using Ferlinghetti's English translations. The painting title is the title of a poem in
Prévert's collection.

From the 6 Vignettes Brochure that accompanies the exhibit.

Samothrace
2/1/2009 (Repainted)
42" x 56"
Paired with:
Postcard of Victoire de Samothrace from the Louvre, 1989
Image of the Winged Victory of Samothrace from the Louvre website
From the Louvre website, "The Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the most famous statues at the Louvre, graces the top of the monumental Daru staircase. This spectacular setting was carefully chosen to showcase the masterpiece of Greek Hellenistic art...The Winged Victory of Samothrace was placed in her new home on the upper landing in 1883, some 20 years after the statue was discovered." Ferlinghetti would have first seen the sculpture during his time at the Sorbonne in 1950, where he earned his doctorate and studied comparative literature and delivered his thesis (in French) on "The City as a Symbol in Modern Poetry." He attended the Sorbonne on the Gl Bill, after having served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during WWII.

From the 6 Vignettes Brochure that accompanies the exhibit.

Motherwell, Motherwell!
1991
60" x 60"
Paired with:
Photos of the back of the painting, showing writing in Ferlinghetti's hand that reads "Robert Motherwell Master of Abstract Dies. - NY Times Headline, July 18, 1991"
Quote from a Ferlinghetti interview in 2005 called "Lyricizing Non-Lyrical
Reality" with Aryanil Mukherjee
Photo of Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his studio at Hunters Point Shipyard, Brian Flaherty, 2016
As the lead-in sentence of a Huffington Post interview in 2016, at the age of 97, Ferlinghetti said "I always wanted to paint like Motherwell...but then the damn figure keeps entering in." The context was talking about his generation's New York School of painting.
Motherwell was an influence in style, and an influence in subject based on the title of this painting from 1991. Enough so that he chose to note the headline from the NY Times announcing Motherwell's death on the back of the piece.
In this extended quote from a 2005 interview Ferlinghetti draws comparisons between the Abstract Impressionist painters of New York, like Motherwell, de Kooning, Kline, and the Beat Poets that were coalescing in San Francisco.

From the 6 Vignettes Brochure that accompanies the exhibit.

Samothrace
2/1/2009 (Repainted)
42" x 56"
Paired with:
Postcard of Victoire de Samothrace from the Louvre, 1989
Image of the Winged Victory of Samothrace from the Louvre website
From the Louvre website, "The Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the most famous statues at the Louvre, graces the top of the monumental Daru staircase. This spectacular setting was carefully chosen to showcase the masterpiece of Greek Hellenistic art...The Winged Victory of Samothrace was placed in her new home on the upper landing in 1883, some 20 years after the statue was discovered." Ferlinghetti would have first seen the sculpture during his time at the Sorbonne in 1950, where he earned his doctorate and studied comparative literature and delivered his thesis (in French) on "The City as a Symbol in Modern Poetry." He attended the Sorbonne on the Gl Bill, after having served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during WWII.

From the 6 Vignettes Brochure that accompanies the exhibit.

Rodin #6 (Rodin's Funeral, 1917)
8/1994
30" x 34"
Paired with:
Ferlinghetti's notebook from a trip to Paris in 1999, written in French and English This painting incorporates an image from the funeral of sculptor Auguste Rodin in France in 1917, silk-screened onto the canvas. It is one of just a few of Ferlinghetti's paintings that incorporate silk-screened elements.
In the notebook from Ferlinghetti's 1999 trip to Paris he writes, "The most extraordinary discovery at the Museé Rodin that I made today was the rare film made by Sacha Guitry of Rodin's funeral at Meudon." He goes on to write that "The photo I used of Rodin's funeral for photo silk-screen painting must have come from the black and white film showing the whole funeral, the burial, and the speeches..." The screen used to create the piece can be seen in the case in Gallery B.

From the 6 Vignettes Brochure that accompanies the exhibit.

Vignette 4 | Re-Work Practice
Ferlinghetti's painting process was iterative at times.
Like the process of editing a written work, he would paint on a canvas, then re-paint over it, and then paint over it again. This vignette highlights the re-work practice.

Vignette 5 | Captain Ferling
This vignette features a projected stream of black and white images that Ferlinghetti took with a Navy-issued camera in 1944 while he was in command of a submarine chaser amidst the D-Day invasion off the coast of Normandy.
They were found in a binder tucked in his writing desk by a friend in 2018.

"My subchaser (the USS SC1308) was a commissioned U.S. Navy ship, and we could stock everything that the big ships had. And so we ordered every book in Random House's Modern Library. Every cranny and nook aboard our little ship was crammed with books."
— Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Photo of Captain L. Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 photos that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

D Day Normandy

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 photos by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

One of the many circa 1944 photos by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Photo by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

One of the many circa 1944 photos that is projected on the museum wall as part of a slide show.

Vignette 6 | Final Works
Ferlinghetti lived a long, creative life. He continued to express himself through words and paintings until his death at the age of 101, just shy of his 102nd birthday.
This vignette features his final works.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as San Francisco's first poet laureate, called attention to moments of life and light across the city. As a publisher, he cultivated a generation of brave new voices. Today, City Lights Booksellers is a San Francisco landmark and a touchstone for free thinkers and writers from all over the world.
Ferlinghetti An exhibit in 6 vignettes shares the story of his life and light. The San Francisco
Historical Society is delighted to collaborate with another local literary # it, 826 Valencia. Via their 2024 program theme, "Write Here, Write Now," young writers were invited to reflect on their experience of San Francisco in this moment. Their poems are on display in the museum's Lower-Level Gallery.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is known the world over as a poet, publisher, painter, activist, bookstore proprietor, and cultural icon. The San Francisco Historical Society is proud to host this new exhibit in celebration of our local legend.

Ferlinghetti | An exhibit in 6 vignettes focuses on different aspects of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's life, shown from a new perspective —his own. The exhibit draws all of its material from his personal effects, his personal library, his paintings, and other unique artifacts from his life and times.

Curated by Sarah Stangle
In collaboration with Chris Buck, Kristin Scheel, & Mark Scheuer

Special thanks to Lorenzo Ferlinghetti.