Ted Joans

Untitled Collage With Langston Hughes and Andre Breton

1992

Collage, found images, pencil, pastel on paper

14 x 17 inches

Signed and dated 2 III, 92

overall good condition, scattered creases

Ted Joans (1928-2003) was a poet and artist and influential figure in the beat movement. His poetry and performances drew on jazz, surrealism and the African American oral tradition. He is considered by some to be a forerunner of the poetry slam movement. With a degree in fine arts from Indiana University, Joans made paintings, assemblages, collages and drawings. He was friends with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and roomed with Charlie Parker in New York. He is known as the originator of the Bird Lives graffiti ubiquitous after Parker's death.

These collages juxtapose the portraits of two important influences on Joans' career: Langston Hughes, who encouraged Joans' poetry early on, and Andre Breton, who welcomed him into the surrealist movement. Joans famously said, Jazz is my religion and surrealism is my point of view.