Jackson Mac Low

Curriculum Vitae

Education

New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, Illinois, 1935-39

University of Chicago, 1939-43: A.A., 1941; graduate-level studies in philosophy, poetics, and English, 1941-43

Brooklyn College, 1955-58: B.A. cum laude, Classical Greek, 1958

Summary of Publications, Recordings, Radio Works, Exhibits, Readings, and Performances

31 plus books (see bibliography)

32 performance scores and broadsides published, 1968-96

Three records, including one CD; and five audiotapes published, 1975-93

Contributor to two double-CD anthologies of verbal &/or musical works, 1991-93

Contributor to CD-ROM anthology of verbal, musical, &/or visual works, 1995

Works published in 92 anthologies, exhibition catalogues, and other collections, 1959-2000

Works published in one or more issues of over 60 different periodicals before 1975

Works published in one or more issues of over 90 different periodicals, 1975-2000

Portfolio of serigraphs of 1961 poem/performance score-drawings published, Verona, 1985

Six verbal drawings/performance scores and musical scores published as large prints on cloth, Verona, 1989

Six radio works produced and broadcast in Germany and one in the United States, 1981-87Visual artworks and scores exhibited in U.S., U.K., Canada, Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, Australia, etc., 1963-2000

Personal readings and performances, alone or with other performers, most often with Anne Tardos, throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, 1960-2000

Live and broadcast performances of his works by other individuals or groups in North and South America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, 1962-2000

Fellowships, Grants, Awards, Professional Memberships

Grant from American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1971

Grant from P.E.N. American Center, 1974

Member, P.E.N. American Center, 1974 to present

Madeline Sadin Award (for poetry), New York Quarterly, 1974

Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) Fellowship in Multimedia, 1973-74

Member, panel selecting CAPS Fellows in Poetry for 1975-76

CAPS Fellowship in Poetry, 1976-77

Judge, Literature, 1978-79 Grants-in-Aid to Individual Artists Program, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, 1979

Fellowship in Creative Writing, National Endowment for the Arts, 1979

Grant from P.E.N. American Center, 1982

Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry, 1985

Co-winner, San Francisco State University Poetry Center Award for Book Published in 1984, 1985

Member, Artists’ Certification Committee, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, 1985-88; Appeals Panel, 1990-92

Fulbright Grant for lectures, readings, workshops, and performances throughout New Zealand, 1986

Composer’s Grant from Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, New Zealand, 1986

Fellowship in Poetry, Artists’ Fellowship Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, 1988

Member, Poets Advisory Committee, Poets House, New York City, 1988 to present

Member, Poetry Society of America, 1988 to present

Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1988

Member, Poetry Fellowship Panel, New York Foundation for the Arts, 1991

Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1991

Co-Awardee, The America Awards for Literature: 1994—Poetry Award, for 42 Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters (Barrytown NY: Station Hill, 1994) [other co-awardee: Robert Creeley for Echoes]

One of 3 Judges for The America Awards for Literature 1995—Award for Belles Lettres & Collections, 1994-95

Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1998

Winner, Dorothea Tanning Prize, The American Academy of Poets, 1999

Teaching

New York University, American Language Institute, Instructor, English Composition, 1966-73

Mannes College of Music, New York City, Instructor in English, 1966

Many short-term residencies, some connected with readings and performances, 1966-2000

State University of New York, Albany, NEA-sponsored Writer-in-Residence, 1984

University of Auckland, keynote speaker and reader-performer at the conference of the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association, 1986

State University of New York, Binghamton, Visiting Professor of Creative Writing, 1989

Temple University, Philadelphia, Visiting Writer in the Creative Writing Program, 1989

University of California, San Diego, Regents’ Lecturer, 1990

State University of New York, Buffalo, Lecturer, Seminar Participant, and Reader of his own poetry, 1990, 1997

Schule für Dichtung in Wien, Vienna, Creative Writing Teacher and Lecturer, 1992, 1993

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Teacher in MFA Program, Reader, and Performer, 1994

Brown University, Providence, R.I., Teacher of Creative Writing, Reader, and Performer, 1994

Fondation Royaumont, Asnières (Oise), France, participant in translation seminar with French and American poets and other linguists translating some of his recent poems into French, 1996

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Reader, Seminar Participant, and Panel Member, 1997

Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, Teacher of Creative Writing, Reader, Performer, and Panelist, 1975, 1991, 1994, 1999

Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, Distinguished Visiting Writer for Fall 2000 in MFA Creative Writing Program and Reader of his own poems in Creative Writing Reading Series, 2000

Artistic and Publishing Projects, Editorships, Readings/Performances, Radio Productions, Festivals, Conferences, etc.

Poetry Editor, Resistance magazine, 1950-54

Poet and composer reading and performing his own works, alone or with other performers throughout North and South America and Europe, from 1960 on

Co-publisher, An Anthology, edited by La Monte Young, 1961-63

First literary editor of Fluxus, 1961-1963

Poet-composer of performance works realized in several European Fluxus festivals, 1962-63

Poetry editor, Win magazine, New York, c. 1967-72

Participating artist, Art and Technology Program, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969

Participant (composer, poet, performer) NY Festivals of the Avant-Garde, dir. Charlotte Moorman, 1964-80

Lecturer, composer, poet, and performance artist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, 1975

Poet-composer and performer of radio works, Hörspiel program, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1986

Radio work produced by Sound Foundation, New York City, broadcast by National Public Radio stations, 1984

Performer in Anne Tardos’s video work Ami Minden, MoMA, New York, 1985

Keynote Speaker, reader, and performance artist, Australia-New Zealand American Studies Association Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 1986

Participant (composer, performer, writer, panelist), John Cage Festival-Symposium, Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Conn., 1988

Participant (writer, composer, performer), “Performing Language” (conference and festival), SUNY, Binghamton, 1988

Participant (panelist, writer, performer), Fine Arts Festival, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1989

Participant (panel moderator, writer, performer), John Cage Symposium, Strathmore Hall Arts Center, Rockville, Md., 1989

Participant (composer, writer, performer), Milanopoesia (Milan), 1989

Participant (composer, writer, performer), Steirischer Herbst (Graz),1989

Participant (composer, writer, performer), Zwischentöne (Cologne), 1989

Participant (composer, writer, performer), 3rd Heidelberger Festival für experimentelle Literatur und Musik (Heidelberg), 1989

Two-day workshop on text-sound compositions w. Anne Tardos: Verein für experimentelle Musik, Munich, 1989

Composer, writer, and performer in concert w. Anne Tardos: Stichting Logos, Ghent, 1989

Composer-performer in “Spoken Music,” S.E.M. Ensemble program also including John Cage, Dick Higgins, and Anne Tardos, and works by Emmett Williams, 1990

Poet-reader, Avec magazine reading, Galerie Lelong, NYC, 1990

Performer in The City Wears a Slouch Hat (John Cage & Kenneth Patchen) with Essential Music, RAPP Arts Center, NYC, 1990

Poet-reader, Small Press Distribution, Berkeley; National Poetry Week Festival, San Francisco, 1990

Poet-reader, The Poetry Project, St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery Church, NYC, 1990

Composer and performer, S.E.M. Ensemble concerts, NYC, 1991

Poet-reader, Ear Inn, Granary Books, and elsewhere in NYC, 1991

Poet-reader and composer-performer, Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, 1991

Composer of choral work premiered by the choir of the First Unitarian Society, Madison, WI, 1991

Poet-reader teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, composer-performer with Anne Tardos, and panelist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, 1991

Composer of instrumental work premiered by austraLYSIS, Sydney, Australia, 1991

Speaker (presenting a paper including a poem of his) at the conference: “The disappearing pheasant: Italian poetry today,” Casa Italiana, NYU, 1991

Panelist, “Symposium on Buddhism and Poetry,” Poets House, New York, 1991

Poet-Reader, Ear Inn, New York, two readings, 1992

Composer, poet, and performer in a concert with the S.E.M. Ensemble, with Anne Tardos, “Fluxus” artists, and an orchestra, 1992

Composer, poet, and performer in joint concert with Anne Tardos, including instrumentalists, Experimental Intermedia, NYC, 1992

Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, Bard College, Annandale, NY, 1992

Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, FluxusVirus festival, Cologne, 1992

Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, Poésies Sonores, Sound Poetry Festival, Geneva, 1992

Participant (reader of works by John Cage), Musicircus, Symphony Space, New York, 1992

Composer, poet, and performer in joint concert with Anne Tardos, Experimental Intermedia, New York, 1993

Composer, poet, and performer in joint concerts with Anne Tardos, Vienna and Budapest, Szeged, and Szentendre, Hungary, 1993

Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos in a reading of their poetry and a performance of their first collaborative painting/score in memory of John Cage, Biblio’ s, New York, 1993

Performer in S.E.M. Ensemble concert including works by Kotik, Feldman, and Vivaldi, 1993

Composer, essayist, and performer with Anne Tardos during “Days of Silence,” (conference and performance festival dedicated to John Cage and his works), Warsaw, 1993

Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos during John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1993

Writer-performer with four-hour showing of the Beach* Movie version of his Tree* Movie during Cage’s Rolywholyover, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1993

Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos, Fluxus Vivus, Arts Club, Chicago, 1993

Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos, “Word(s)ound--text-based sound art and poetry,” Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, 1993

Poet-reader, Ear Inn, New York, 1993

Performer in Anne Tardos’s multimedia work for the orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in her work for speakers and instrumentalists Among Men, New York, 1994

Poet-reader, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery Church, New York, 1994

Participant (discussing Tardos’s Among Men) in panel on performance at Poetry Project, St. Marks Church, NY, 1994

Composer-performer, with Anne Tardos and Kenneth King, and panelist in Poets House “Poetry and Dance” program, Judson Memorial Church, New York, 1994

Teacher in MFA Program, poet-reader, and composer-performer, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1994

Teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, and composer-performer with Anne Tardos in a program of their works, and panelist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, 1994

Poet-reader and composer-performer with Anne Tardos in a program of their works connected with John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, 1994

Writer-performer with four-hour showing of the “Beach version” of his Tree* Movie, in Rolywholyover, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, 1994

Poet-composer and performer of simultaneities with Anne Tardos, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 1994

Collaborative composer-performer with Anne Tardos: two performances (one a performance of their Cellular Dialogue) in “SEOUL-NYMAX” performance festival, Anthology Film Archives, New York, 1994

Narrator with S.E.M. Ensemble in 12-hour concert, “400 Years of Music in Prague,” Winter Garden, World Financial Center, 1994

Teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, and composer-performer, Brown University, 1994

Collaborative composer-performer in with Anne Tardos in their Cellular Dialogue, Biblio’s, New York, 1994

Collaborative composer-poet-performer with Anne Tardos in Cellular Dialogue with Embedded Performance Works by Tardos and Mac Low, The Kitchen, New York, 1995

Collaborative poet-composer-performer with the composer-performer Pauline Oliveros in A Forties Opera, combining his improvisatorily regulated reading of recent poems from his series 154 Forties with Oliveros’s instrumental and vocal improvisation, Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School, New York, 1995

Poet-composer-performer with Anne Tardos and reader of his own recent poems from the series 154 Forties in “The End of Language: a Symphosophia on Experimental, Visual, and Concrete Poetry since 1960” at Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1995

Collborative poet-performer with the composer-performer Pauline Oliveros in A Forties Opera, combining his improvisatorily regulated reading of recent poems from his series 154 Forties with Oliveros’s instrumental and vocal improvisation, Rhinebeck Performing Arts, Rhinebeck, NY, 1995

Participant (panel member presenting a paper) in “Here Comes Everybody: The Music, Poetry, and Art of John Cage” at Mills College, Oakland, Calif., 1995

Poet-reader at Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz; and at Copperfield’s Book Store, Sebastopol, CA; and poet-reader in duo with Steve Benson at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, 1996.

Performer in Anne Tardos’s Among Men, a Hörspiel for speakers of five languages and five instrumentalists, produced at and broadcast by Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, 1996

Poet, composer, and performer in program with Anne Tardos of their recent musical and performance works (with flutist Andrew Bolotowsky,) and including Tardos’s Edit Mode, a work for video, spontaneously choosing and showing fragments of Among Men, and other videos, and for poet spontaneously choosing words, phrases from his/her poems and from Mac Low’s new works Laboratory Fantastication, for speakers and instrumentalist(s), and Fieldpiece 1, for speakers, Roulette, New York, 1996

Composer, poet, and performer in Laboratory Fantastication,with Tardos and himself, speakers, and violinist Theresa Solomon in an S.E.M. Ensemble program, directed by Petr Kotik, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 1996

Poet and participant in seminar translating several poems from his 154 Forties into French, with many French, and a few American, poets and other translators, L’Abbaye de Royaumont (Fondation Royaumont), Asnières (Oise), 1996

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Bernard Heidsieck reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s video Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems, L’Abbaye de Royaumont, Asnières, 1996

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Bernard Heidsieck reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems while a short permanent edit by Tardos of her videotape was projected, La Maison des Ecrivains, Paris, 1996

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Juliette Valéry reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems.at the studio of Alexandre Delay, Bouliac, near Bordeaux, 1996

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Juliette Valéry reading their French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode at Centre International de Poésie Marseille (Centre de Vieille Charité), Marseilles, 1996

Performer in Anne Tardos’s multimedia work Among Men, WDR Acoustica International, 1996

Poet reading recent poems, mostly from 154 Forties, sharing program with Paul Metcalf at St. Marks Poetry Project, New York, 1996.

Poet and performer with Anne Tardos in their new collaborative work Provence, comprising a videotape Tardos edited from video tapes she shot in France during summer 1996 and a performance work on Provence for two speakers at The Kitchen, New York, 1996

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties and performing a duo with Joan Retallack, at Ear Inn, New York, March 1997

Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties and performing a duo with Anne Tardos, Poets Theater, New York, May 1997

Poet, composer, and performer at a celebration of his 75th birthday, reading a recent poem and performing a duo with Anne Tardos (combining his Gatha for her and a recent performance poem of hers); others performed a work of his for speaker and instrumentalist and presented their own performance art, poetry, and music; the magazine Crayon presented their first issue, a 313-page Festschrift and CD, New York University, September 1997

Poet, lecturer, and seminar participant, reading from 154 Forties and other work and discussing his own work in seminars and lectures as part of a celebration of his 75th birthday, State University of New York at Buffalo, October 1997

Composer, poet, and performer in concert, with the East Buffalo Media Association in honor of his 75th birthday, of selected works for speakers and instrumentalists, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, October 1997

Poet, participant in seminars, and panel member, reading from 154 Forties and more recent work, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November P1997

Poet-Composer of The Pronouns (dance-instruction poems), performed by Clarinda Mac Low, Danspace, St. Mark’s Church, New York, December 1997

Poet reading and discussing his recent poetry, Brooklyn College, March 1998

Poet reading recent poems, Segue at HERE, New York, March 1998

Poet reading recent poems, benefit reading for Object and Torque magazines, March 1998

Poet reading recent poems, Double Happiness, New York, October 1998

Poet reading recent poems in connection with exhibit of show of paintings and other visual works involving language, including works by Mac Low and by Anne Tardos, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, November 1998

Poet presenting retrospective reading and performance of his poems, 1955–1998, and with Anne Tardos, of a 1980 work for speaker-vocalists and/or instrumentalists, DIA Center for the Arts, New York, December 1998

Co-composer-poet and performer in For Dick Higgins, a memorial work for speaker-vocalists and percussion composed and performed collaboratively by Anne Tardos and himself, and performer in works by Higgins and others as member of S.E.M. Ensemble Orchestra, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, December 1998; and Dick Higgins Memorial, Judson Memorial Church, New York, December 1998; and during New Year’s Day Benefit Marathon Reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, January 1999

Poet reading his own poems, Double Happiness. new York, January 1999

Reader of works by William Burroughs in group reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, February 1999

Poet reading his own poems, Dactyl Gallery, New York, February 1999

Poet-performer, of collaborative work with Anne Tardos, Peoples Poetry Gathering, Cooper Union, New York, April 1999

Poet-performer, of collaborative work with Anne Tardos, Memorial Banquet for Armand Schwerner, Teachers and Writers, New York, April 1999

Reader of poems by Philip Whalen, in group reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, May 1999

Poet reading his work and presenting paper, Conference on Poetry and Pedagogy, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, June 1999

Poet-reader and teacher of performance writing, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, July 1999

Participant in panel discussion on John Cage and his work, with Alison Knowles and Merce Cunningham, New School for Social Research, New York, October, 1999

Performer, with Anne Tardos of collaborative work by them, Memorial program for Dick Higgins, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 1999

Composer-poet in concert of his and Anne Tardos’s works for speaker, singer, and/or instrumentalists, Roulette, New York, November 1999

Composer & Guest Performer in a work of his performed also by speaker- instrumentalists of the S.E.M. Ensemble Orchestra, in a concert also including works by Bach, Cage, Morton Feldman, and Richard Strauss, at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, December 1999

Reader at beginning of the 26th and last New Year’s Marathon Reading of Gertrude Stein’s the Making of Americans, December 1999

Performer with Anne Tardos of poem for two readers. New Year’s Day Benefit Reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, January 2000

Introducer of the video, The Language of Music—Conversations with Grete Sultan, Westbeth, New York, April 2000

Reader of his own poetry and participant in “A New Language: Russian and Amrican Poetry Today,” conference of Russian and American poets, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, April 2000

Poet reading his own poems and performing collaboratively written group of performance poems with Anne Tardos, KGB (performance space), New York, May 2000

Reader of a poem of his in the award ceremony of The American Academy of Poets, honoring him for receiving the Dorothea Tanning Prize, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, May 2000

Poet reading his own poems, Bjørnson Festival, Molde, Norway, August 2000

Distinguished Visiting Writer for Fall 2000 in MFA Creative Writing Program and reader of his own poems in Creative Writing Reading Series, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, October 2000

Exhibits (Group Shows Unless Otherwise Specified)

Exhibitor, poetry environment room: large drawings/scores, transparencies, computer printout “Sound at P.S. 1,” NYC, 1979

Exhibitor (visual works, performance scores), “Fluxus S.P.Q.R.,” Galleria. F. Borghese, Rome, May-June 1990

Exhibitor (painter, poet, composer, performer), “Ubi Fluxus ibi motus” pavilion, Venice Biennale, May- Sept., 1990

Exhibitor (graphic artist, composer), “Fluxus!” Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, June-July 1990

Exhibitor, construction plaque, “Fluxus Closing In,” Salvatore Ala Gallery, NYC, 1990

Exhibitor, poem-paintings, Emily Harvey Gallery, NYC, December-January.1990-91 & Dec.-Jan. 1991-92

Exhibitor, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg, November - December 1991

Exhibitor, Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck, November - December 1991

Exhibitor, North Dakota Museum of Art. Grand Forks, January - February 1992

Exhibitor, Istituto Italiana di Cultura, Toronto, March 1992

Exhibitor-performer, in his and Tardos’s collaborative painting-score dedicated to the memory of John Cage, “FluxAttitudes,” The New Museum, New York, 1992-93

Exhibitor of drawings and other visual art works and a videotape (realizing a movie scenario of his), with which he performed four hours, and realizer of performance pieces with Anne Tardos, in John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1994, and the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York, 1995

Exhibitor (as above), The De Menil Collection, Houston, 1994-95

Exhibitor, Cork, Ireland, 1994

Exhibitor of visual works published by, and in the collection of, Francesco Conz, Verona, in group exhibits throughout Europe, Australia, etc., 1994-99.

Exhibitor in show of works involving language and visual art, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase, NY, 1999

Exhibitor of a collage in “Collages d’hier et d’aujourdhui,” Paris, Galerie Lucien Durand Le Gaillard, Paris, 1999–2000

Exhibitor Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, 2000

Posthumous Exhibitions:

2009 - 2014: “Tree Movie” at MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona)

2010: “Tree Movie,” collection Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

2011: “Typewriter poems” in group show, Paris: Galerie 1900-2000

2012: Solo show, Paris: Galerie 1900-2000, exhibition of collages and constructions from the 1940s to 60s

2013: Group show, Madrid: Reina Sofia Museum in the exhibition +- 1961 Founding the Expanded Arts

2016-17: “Tree Movie” in the exhibition “Albert Oehlen: Woods Near Oehle” Cleveland Museum of Art

2016: “Gitanjali for Iris” Paris: Galerie Patrick Seguin in the exhibition “Carte Blanche to Karma”

2017: “First Milarepa Gatha” audio recording in the exhibition Carré d’Art de Nimes, Centre Pompidou

2017: Solo show “Jackson Mac Low: Lines Letters Words” at the Drawing Center, New York

 

Copyright © by Anne Tardos, Executor of the Estate of Jackson Mac Low. All rights reserved.