Visual Poetry Revolution
Vivid, bold, and grotesque - calligrammes changed the modern artistic landscape, blending the borderlines of art and literature.
Matthew Weinberger, New York Is (2024) Photographer Matthew Weinberger
France, 1918, Guillaume Apollinaire created his unique piece, taking its roots back from Ancient Greece and reinventing the terrain of French literature. Calligrammes can be seen as a pure form of free verse, beloved poems where rhyme isn’t essential. It’s all about rhythm and flow. Open in its form, it puts aside all the rules and follows the guidance of natural, irregular speech. Free verse appeared as an ideal medium for Apollinaire to bring his artistic sight to life. Playing around with lines and phrases like a child, the daring visionary brings into essence one of the most extraordinary poetic forms. Valorous, bold, audacious - that’s how I saw Calligrammes at first. Apollinaire described his work as “an idealization of free verse poetry and typographical precision in an era when typography is reaching a brilliant end to its career, at the dawn of the new means of reproduction that are the cinema and the phonograph” (Guillaume Apollinaire, in a letter to André Billy).
Showcasing bizarre figures and alluring pages with images and senses - reading calligrammes resembles looking at a children's book. You can spin it around and read it upside down to understand the poem. It's there not just to deliver its message textually but also to be visionary. For someone who has fallen in love with poetry and free verse long ago, this vivid form brought my passion for literature to a new level. Awakening my senses and letting me play with my imagination, solving puzzles to read a poem hidden behind curling lines - this piece is the ultimate cure.
Guillaume Apollinaire – L’oiseau et le bouquet, Public Domain
Extending its impact far beyond the terrain of literature, calligrammes blend visual arts and poetry. By intertwining words with visual imagery, calligrammes challenged conventional perceptions of how poetry should be experienced. This fusion invited readers to engage not only intellectually but also visually and emotionally, breaking away from traditional literary constraints.
What is more, is how calligrammes reshape the medium of message delivery. Its influence can be seen in multiple modern movements like concrete poetry and digital poetry, where words are arranged spatially to evoke deeper meanings or emotional responses. These forms continue to push boundaries, inspiring new generations to explore the possibilities of integrating text and image.
Guillaume Apollinaire - Venu de Dieuze, Public Domain
In the realm of the digital age, calligrammes resonate more than ever with their visually oriented spectrum. Offering a refreshing perspective on monotonously textually overloaded senses, encouraging us to rethink how we interact with language and imagery, its legacy remains as a bold imagery of artistic blend.
