Robert Creeley is known for his countless awards and more than 30 volumes of poetry. Gus Blaisdell, who died last fall, is remembered for his 25 years of teaching at UNM, his poetry and essays.
Get the two long-time friends together talking about poetry and art, have UNM Media Arts instructor Bryan Konefsky and his class tape the talk, and the film, "Robert Creeley and Gus Blaisdell in Conversation" is born.
The UNM Art Museum will screen the tape tonight, two-and-a-half years after it was filmed.
In February 2001, the museum brought the traveling exhibition, "In Company: Robert Creeley's Collaborations" along with Creeley himself to UNM to talk about his numerous projects visual artists.
When Creeley arrived, museum officials asked him if he would be willing to let Konefsky film a walk around the museum to document the visit. Kathleen Howe, associate director of the Art Museum, said he was a little hesitant, as he didn't want to speak with an art historian.
"He wanted to talk to someone who really understood his work - that was Gus," she said.
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Blaisdell had known Creeley since the '50s when Creeley was in the master's program at UNM.
In the video, the two talk about Creeley's writings and their influence on artists such as Georg Baselitz, Francesco Clemente, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana and Susan Rothenberg. They go through the show, which displays more than 200 works of poetry, art and prose in the 35- minute film.
"He (Creeley) hung out with the whole crew of Allen Ginsberg and the writers of the '50s and '60s," Howe said. "If you look at any anthology of American poetry he's there."
Besides influencing artists and writers for more than 50 years, Creeley has won the Guggenheim Fellowship twice, the Robert Frost Medal, was on a Fulbright Fellowship twice and is considered a major 20th-century poet.
"He's a hot-ticket poet," Howe said.
"Robert Creeley and Gus Blaisdell in Conversation," is being shown for the first time tonight, and then will be given to the Fine Arts Library.
Donations to the Gus Blaisdell Scholarship in Critical Writing in the UNM Department of Media Arts may be made at the door.
What: "Robert Creeley and Gus Blaisdell in Conversation"
When: Tonight, 5:30 p.m.
Where: UNM Art Museum
Price: Free
