Joe Brainard

Both, genuinely. He trained and worked mainly as a visual artist—collage, painting, assemblage—but he approached writing with equal seriousness, never seeing the two as distinct careers. His most renowned piece, *I Remember*, seamlessly bridges both realms.

*I Remember* is a memoir composed of hundreds of short fragments, each starting with "I remember." Brainard developed it over several years beginning in 1970. Its appeal lies in the mix of radical honesty and structural simplicity—stripping away the typical memoir elements like narrative arcs, self-justification, and dramatic pacing to focus solely on the memories, which are presented plainly. Since then, writers and educators have adopted this form, and French author Georges Perec created his own version, directly inspired by Brainard's work.

The New York School was a group of poets and painters active in the mid-twentieth century, including notable figures like Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and Larry Rivers. They believed that art should be vibrant and reflective of the present, engaging in conversation and drawing inspiration from painting, music, and popular culture. Brainard was a perfect match for this ethos; he was always collaborating, illustrating books, designing covers, and applying his artistic vision to all his work. He also played a key role in maintaining the social fabric of the community.

He distanced himself from the art world around the mid-1970s and never really made a comeback. He never offered a clear public reason. Some say he was unhappy with the commercial side of art, while others suggest personal issues played a part. He lived a quiet life in New York until he passed away in 1994.

He embraced the visual style of American comics — panels, speech bubbles, bold outlines — and transformed it into a serious artistic and poetic medium at a time when very few in the fine art world were doing so. He teamed up with New York School poets to produce works that merged comic strips and poetry, using the form to express real emotions rather than just humor or entertainment.

It’s one of the easiest literary works to dive into from the twentieth century. Each piece is just a sentence or two, written in straightforward language, and you can start reading from any page. Readers who feel daunted by poetry often find *I Remember* to be refreshingly approachable — it feels like someone is simply sharing their thoughts, which is precisely the point.

He was openly gay and wrote about desire, attraction, and gay life with a straightforwardness that was rare for his time. In *I Remember*, memories of sexual awakening and longing are woven together with recollections of television jingles and school lunches — all presented with the same candid honesty. This refusal to treat some experiences as more significant than others is what makes the book resonate so deeply.

The catalogue from the 2001 retrospective at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery is a helpful resource, and the Drawing Center in New York has featured his work as well. His collages and assemblages deserve a closer look—they share the same qualities as his writing: humorous, precise, and subtly touching.