First published 2017
Jack Kerouac created more than novels that captured postwar America and sparked the counterculture movement. The Beat Generation founder also produced extensive visual art that remained hidden for decades in his Massachusetts hometown. Sandrina Bandera reveals this unknown dimension of Kerouac's creativity through 80 paintings and drawings, most never before published. The collection spans portraits of figures from Joan Crawford to William S. Burroughs, reflecting Kerouac's connections to New York School artists in the late 1950s. Bandera examines how Kerouac applied his spontaneous bop poetics to canvas and paper, exploring his relationships with Europe, religion, fashion, and 1950s New York. The book traces Kerouac's complex creative process and positions his visual work within American artistic culture, demonstrating how the same energy that drove his literary achievements flowed into his painting and drawing.
Genres: biography, art, literary-fiction, 20th-century, art-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: creative-process, hidden-talents
Setting: Massachusetts, New York
Period: 1950s
176 pages · Hardcover · Skira