| The Morrison Triptych | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | T. E. Breitenbach |
| Year | 1971 |
| Type | Oil on wood panel |
| Dimensions | 61 cm× 122 cm(24 in× 48 in) |
| Location | Collection of the artist |
The Jim Morrison Triptych is a 1971 oil painting by American artist T. E. Breitenbach (best known for his painting Proverbidioms ) in collaboration with Jim Morrison of The Doors. It was initially intended for use on Morrison's An American Prayer album, and completed shortly before Morrison's death.
In the fall of 1970, while at college, Breitenbach sent pictures of his surrealistic artwork to Jim Morrison and offered to paint an album cover. Morrison accepted and sent Breitenbach his ideas for the painting, along with two autographed, private editions of his poetry. Morrison liked the finished product and asked if he could use it on an album of poetry he was working on. This was his An American Prayer album published seven years after Morrison's death. Unfortunately, the album’s producers were not aware of Morrison’s intention to use the painting. The existence of this lost painting collaboration came to light decades later, when the artist posted it on his website. [1]
Morrison sent the artist these suggestions for the painting, "Try doing a triptych. The left panel depicting a radiant moon-lit beach and an endless stream of young naked couples running silently along the water's edge. On the beach, a tiny infant grins at the universe and around its crib stand several ancient, old people ... The center, a modern city or metropolis of the future at noon, insane with activity ... The last panel, a view through a car windshield at night on a long straight desert highway." [2]
Morrison biographer Jerry Hopkins, in a letter to Breitenbach, explained the meaning of the painting: "the beach scene ... is a variation on a dream he told several people he had ... The center would be an extension of his interest in chaos and insanity ... and the final panel refers to a scene from his childhood when he and his father came upon an overturned truck, dead and injured Indians scattered 'on dawn's highway bleeding.' (See the lyric of Peace Frog.") [2] Biographer Stephen Davis suggests, "These vivid scenes of death and rebirth were reflective of the new beginning Jim himself was seeking." Davis also suggests that Jim had in mind two recent poems "Vast Radiant Beach" and "Come, They Crooned the Ancient Ones". [3]
Many years later, Breitenbach turned an idea from Morrison's poems "The Lords" and "The New Creatures" into an illustrated fantasy novel titled Grumparar's the New Creatures: An Adventure and Field Guide. Morrison described the Lords as a hidden, secretive group that somehow controlled us from behind the scenes, though in Breitenbach's book these characters are far less sinister.
Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.
An American Prayer is the ninth and final studio album by the American rock band the Doors. Following the death of Jim Morrison and the band's breakup, the surviving members of the Doors reconvened to set several of Morrison's spoken word recordings to music. It was the only album by the Doors to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Spoken Word" category.
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"Peace Frog" is a song by the Doors, which was released on their fifth studio album Morrison Hotel in 1970. Guitarist Robby Krieger explained that the music was written and recorded first, with the lyrics later coming from poems by singer Jim Morrison. Although the song was never released as a single in the US, it was issued as the B-side of "You Make Me Real" in France.
The Mérode Altarpiece is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The three panels represent, from left to right, the donors kneeling in prayer in a garden, the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, which is set in a contemporary, domestic setting, and Saint Joseph, a carpenter with the tools of his trade. The many elements of religious symbolism include the lily and fountain, and the Holy Spirit represented by the rays of light coming through from the central panel's left hand window.
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The American Night is a volume of poetry written by Jim Morrison, front-man for the 1960s psychedelic rock group the Doors, and published posthumously in 1991, 20 years after his death by Random House under the trade name imprint Villard Publishing. The book is structured into 10 sections. The title is eponymous with a poem that appears on the album An American Prayer, itself a collection of spoken word and musical vignettes released in 1978.
The Lost Paris Tapes is the title given to a recorded collection of unedited poems and songs by rock musician and poet Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors. Although Morrison intentionally made the recordings, they are considered bootlegs because they were never officially released to the public in their unedited form by Morrison or his heirs.
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Mariana is an 1851 oil-on-panel painting by John Everett Millais. The image depicts the solitary Mariana from William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, as retold in Tennyson's 1830 poem "Mariana". The painting is regarded as an example of Millais's "precision, attention to detail, and stellar ability as a colorist". It has been held by Tate Britain since 1999.
James Douglas Morrison was an American singer, songwriter and poet who was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his energetic persona, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, erratic and unpredictable performances, along with the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most influential frontmen in rock history. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture's top rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.
The Master of the Morrison Triptych is the name given to an unknown Early Netherlandish painter active in Antwerp around 1500-1510. He is named for the Morrison Triptych, now in Toledo, Ohio, United States, which is described below.
Jan de Beer, formerly known as the Master of the Milan Adoration was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and glass designer active in Antwerp at the beginning of the 16th century. He is considered one of the most important members of the loose group of painters active in and around Antwerp in the early 16th century referred to as the Antwerp Mannerists. Highly respected in his time, he operated a large workshop with an important output of religious compositions.
Thomas E. Breitenbach is a self-taught American artist best known for his painting Proverbidioms, a raucous and comical depiction of over 300 common proverbs and clichés. He also collaborated with Jim Morrison of The Doors, shortly before Morrison's 1971 death, on a painting intended for use on his An American Prayer album.
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The Black Triptychs are a series of three triptychs painted by the British artist Francis Bacon between 1972 and 1974. Bacon admitted that they were created as an exorcism of his sense of loss following the suicide of his former lover and principal model, George Dyer. On the evening of 24 October 1971, two days before the opening of Bacon's career-making retrospective at the Grand Palais, Dyer, then 37, alcoholic, deeply insecure and suffering severe and long-term depression, committed suicide through an overdose of drink and barbiturates in a room at the Paris hotel Bacon had allowed him to share during a brief period of reconciliation following years of bitter recrimination.
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4. Genesis Publications (2022) A Guide to the Labryinth; The Collected Works of Jim Morrison. (see pages 187-189 about the Breitenbach Collaboration), ISBN 978-1-90566-270-8