I first learned about the artist Joe Brainard in two articles published in Art In America in July 1997, written by Edmund White and by Carter Ratcliff. I saved those features and came across them recently. Sharing my renewed enthusiasm for this artist with a friend, he informed me that he had seen a wonderful retrospective of Joe Brainard at the Berkeley Art Museum last year and that he had purchased a fine catalogue of the exhibit. I was delighted to find this incredible catalogue at Amazon.com. A tremendous overview of this underappreciated genius with relevant text and fantastic color reproductions of exhibited work. Amazing to see work created 20-30 years ago that has so obviously influenced a generation of contemporary artists. This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in contemporary art. If you don't know the work of Joe Brainard, this retrospective will impress, and if you are already an admirer of this extraordinary talent, this is a must have for your art library.

I saw this book recommended by one of my favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (he wrote THE HOURS). Michael teaches a Creative Writing course at Columbia University and I'm sure he implores his students to read this one. It is an easy, simple read of "I REMEMBER..." lines of memories from the 1940s and 1950s. It is a 'must read' for any writer who has writers block as it will spur new ideas into one's head, encouraging one to write their very OWN 'I Remember' lines. I really enjoyed it, relating and laughing several times--I ended up finishing it in one day as a break from another book.

Yes, and we remember you, Joe. Lovely man (not that I ever knew the geezer) and the originator in this work of the Je me souviens format for which Georges Perec (of the pretentious/ludicrous Oulipo group)is always given credit. Did Georges discover Joe via Harry Mathews? Anyways, he wouldn'ta minded. An American original; pity he never turned his hand to opera libretti. When can we expect the Collected Writings please?

I didn't think it could be done, but Joe Brainard has managed to keep me interested through a book-length poem! It's all about the pop culture references and those universal moments of feeling just plain odd. Every stanza begins with "I remember", but he manages not to make it boring at all.

"Special care is language," wrote Ted Berrigan about Bill Berkson's early poems of the 1960s. Now we have what might be termed 'the middle period' -- Berkson's poetry and "extended prose" from the mid-1970s to 1989. There are stories and abstractions, a lot of weather, domestic affairs, changes of light, relaxed saxophone-type solos over catchy themes. But this is polyphonic poetry. No narcissism: the focus on what is there; the objective, the realization, delight.