Frank O’Hara (1926–66,) fully Francis Russell O’Hara, was an American poet and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, O’Hara became prominent in New York City’s art world. His poetry reflects his close ties to the art world in New York City.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, O’Hara was educated at the New England Conservatory, Harvard, and Michigan. He served in the South Pacific and Japan as a sonar operator during World War II.
A composer and musician, O’Hara began writing poetry when he moved to New York City in 1951. He was a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.
O’Hara collaborated with the painters Larry Rivers, Jackson Pollock, and Jasper Johns on ‘poem-paintings.’ Their work highly influenced his verse. O’Hara’s works of poetry include Meditations in an Emergency (1956) and Lunch Poems (1964.)
O’Hara worked at New York’s Museum of Modern Art throughout his life. He served as editor for Art News magazine 1953–55 and often contributed art criticism to the magazine. He also wrote numerous plays. He was killed in a dune buggy accident on Fire Island, New York, when he was 40. The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1972) won the National Book Award.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Frank O’Hara
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
—Frank O’Hara
Topics: Beauty
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