jane duran
a coolness can enter the page / open endearments in grey ink
ON A CLEAR DAY is a collaboration between the poet Jane Duran and the artist publisher Julie Johnstone.
The text throughout the book is the single poem ‘On a Clear Day 1973’ by Jane Duran, first published in her collection the clarity of distant things, Carcanet Press, 2021. This poem forms part of a sequence of poems, gridlines, inspired by the life and work of Agnes Martin. The poem has 9 lines (4 couplets and a single last line); these are spread among the pages of this collaborative book.
On a Clear Day is the title of a portfolio of thirty screenprints made in 1973 by Agnes Martin. The portfolio of square screenprints by Agnes Martin can be viewed on the MOMA website.
The artwork and design are by Julie Johnstone in response to Jane Duran’s poem and to On a Clear Day by Agnes Martin. The line works operate within a notional framework of three vertical and three horizontal lines, effectively a small open grid. Only one vertical and one horizontal line is visible at any one time. Also, the changing tint of black applied to each line is either 30% or 45%. Throughout the book there are all of the possible permutations of the two-line partial grids.
on a clear day | poem by Jane Duran; artwork and design by Julie Johnstone | large square book | h260mm x w260mm; 36pp | printed inkjet on Bockingford watercolour paper 190gsm, with a tracing paper end paper | 5-hole binding in linen thread | hand torn | open edition | 2023 | £35 | purchase
Please note this is a quiet, minimal and tactile book that is difficult to fully represent in photographs.
‘Duran peppers her interpretations with brief details from Martin’s life, but overall these are quiet poems of intense visual concentration that attempt to access the paintings’ deepest recesses.’ Ryo Yamaguchi for the Poetry Foundation
Read about Jane’s Duran’s full collection on the Carcanet Press website
Jane Duran was born in Cuba and raised in the USA and Chile. In 1995 Enitharmon published her first full collection, Breathe Now, Breathe which won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Enitharmon also published 4 subsequent collections, including Coastal (2005) and Graceline (2010) which were both PBS Recommendations. She received a Cholmondeley Award in 2005.
Part of a project responding to Agnes Martin.
Visit the Agnes Martin page for more details and other works