Christopher Knowles (born 1959) is an American poet and painter. He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on May 4, 1959, and has received a diagnosis of possible brain damage. He is often referred to as

autistic The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

."Ars Longa: Encore" (The Poetry of Christopher Knowles)
by Eric Konigsberg, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', April 15, 2013 In 1976, his poetry was used by Robert Wilson for the avant-garde

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

Philip Glass opera, ''

Einstein on the Beach ''Einstein on the Beach'' is an opera in four acts composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson, who also collaborated with Glass on the work's libretto. The opera eschews traditional narrative in favor of a formali ...

''.''

The Andy Warhol Diaries ''The Andy Warhol Diaries'' is the dictated memoirs of the American artist Andy Warhol, posthumously published. It was edited by his frequent collaborator and long-time friend, Pat Hackett. Warner Books first published it in 1989 with an introdu ...

'', p. 294, Wilson describes his discovery of the then 13-year-old Knowles in the extended notes to the

Tomato Records The Tomato Music Co. Ltd., also known as Tomato Records, is an American independent record label founded in New York City in 1977 by music manager Kevin Eggers. It was a successor to his previous record labels Utopia and Poppy, the label was self- ...

release of ''Einstein on the Beach'': Wilson cast the teenager Knowles in a number of his productions, including ''Einstein on the Beach''. In 1978, the American poet John Ashbery wrote in the magazine '' New York'' of a volume of Knowles's poetry: Early in 2013, Knowles presented several of his poems in a reading at

Gavin Brown's Enterprise Gavin Brown's enterprise was an art gallery with venues in New York City and Rome owned by Gavin Brown between 1994 and 2020. In 2020, it merged with Gladstone Gallery. History Broome Street The gallery was established by Gavin Brown in 1994 on ...

in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to th ...

which had mounted an exhibition of his paintings. The same year, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

acquired several of Knowles' paintings, or rather "typings" or "typed designs" – pictures created with a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

and using colored ink to make patterns from letters and numbers. He starts the pictures with his signature and works his way up and to the left, Knowles said, painting all the reds, then all the blues, and so on, his father, Edward, added. One of his pictures consists only of the words " John Simon pollute your anger", inspired by the art critic's dismissive treatment of Robert Wilson (Simon had described Wilson as a

charlatan A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. Synonyms for ''charlatan'' include '' ...

and accused him of exploiting Knowles). In 2015

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

, staged "Christopher Knowles: In A Word", a solo exhibition of work spanning Knowles' career. The exhibition traveled to the

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a not-for-profit institution in the Museum District, Houston, Texas, founded in 1948, dedicated to presenting contemporary art to the public. As a non-collecting museum, it strives to provide a forum for visual ...

in 2017.

Collections

* NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid / Barcelona, SP *

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

, Brooklyn, USA * Fogg Museum, Cambridge, USA *

Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

, Rotterdam, NL * Museum Ludwig (Dr. Peter Ludwig), Cologne, DE *

Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, US

Collections

References

Further reading