A Shared Life (The Lives and Work of Edwin Denby, Rudy Burckhardt, and Yvonne Jacquette)

The intertwined lives and work of three artists—poet and critic, photographer and filmmaker, and painter and printmaker—as a model of creative collaboration in the mid-twentieth century.

Edwin Denby, Rudy Burckhardt, and Yvonne Jacquette were central to the New York art world from the 1930s through the 1980s, collaborating with such prominent cultural figures as Orson Welles, George Balanchine, Willem de Kooning, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Alex Katz, Paul Bowles, Larry Rivers, Robert Wilson, Arshile Gorky, Red Grooms, and Joe Brainard, along with many other painters, dancers, musicians, and poets. 

Their story unfolds against the context of World War II, the rise of the art market, and profound changes related to sexual and gender norms. Pursuing the question, what are the qualities necessary to live a life devoted to the arts, the book posits one as to be able to live apart from the demands of conventional society. Denby, Burckhardt, and Jacquette lived simply, relying on each other for support and critical feedback, and benefitting from access to the work of other inventive artists, an exchange represented in oil painting, watercolor, pen and ink drawing, 16-millimeter film, beautifully crafted small-press poetry books, literary journals, personal letters, flyers for film screenings and poetry readings, and family photographs.  

Another essential part of this story connects the rising New York art world with rural Maine, highlighting how artists sought a quieter and more nature-centric summer environment. In abandoning orthodoxy as it related to family relations and personal life, and choosing art and friendship above all else, these three artists show a way forward, where enjoying and making art are central to appreciating the fragility and beauty of life.