{"id":61213,"date":"2013-10-22T13:15:44","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T17:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=61213"},"modified":"2013-10-22T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T19:08:08","slug":"art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/","title":{"rendered":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Installation<\/a>

Installation view of “John Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things,” at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John Ashbery, instead of the crusty German phenomenologist. Is Heidegger suggesting that material things possess an essence, an abstract quality that both defines and constitutes, say, a shoe\u2014its shoeness? Perhaps, but Ashbery, in fact, offers a more straightforward assessment of the unseeable stuff that makes stuff stuff in the opening lines of \u201cGrand Galop\u201d: \u201cAll things seem the mention of themselves.\u201d Such are my thoughts as I roam the rooms of Ashbery\u2019s Hudson, New York, home \u2026 well, only to the degree that the galleries at Loretta Howard<\/a>, in Chelsea, have been decorated with trompe l\u2019oeil drawings\u2014wainscoting, doorways, mantels\u2014to look like the rooms of the poet\u2019s well-appointed nineteenth-century house.<\/p>\n

Thoughtfully curated by Loretta Howard Gallery and poets Adam Fitzgerald and Emily Skillings, the show offers a selection of Ashbery\u2019s own paintings, prints, collages, bric-a-brac, and furniture; it\u2019s all cozily arranged to conjure as much domestic atmosphere as might be had in a gallery space. Kitschy figurines, VHS tapes (Daffy Duck and Jack Benny among them), bawdy toys, and hand-painted plates line the shelves of cabinets and bookcases that could have been lifted whole from Ashbery\u2019s parlor. Other items, like the French Provincial chairs and Oriental rugs, have been. They complement a piano drawn on a wall on which are hung several selections of early twentieth-century sheet music (\u201cMr. and Mrs. Is the Name,\u201d \u201cFlirtation Walk\u201d), as if resting on the instrument\u2019s music desk.<\/p>\n

Alongside such homey items (the cartoons playing on the TV jangle in a familiar way with the filigree wallpaper designs) are pieces by many of the poet\u2019s friends and artistic confederates, such as Joan Mitchell, Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, Trevor Winkfield, Jess, Alex Katz, Jane Freilicher, and Willem de Kooning. There\u2019s a gem\u00fctlich vibe, equal parts wry and melancholic, generated by this assemblage of things cultural that ably recalls the mood and manner of Ashbery\u2019s writing. To elucidate this point, the curators include wall text featuring apt passages of his verse that treat the world, if not the mind, as a congeries of curios, a kind of Cornell box. Of course, the show includes a few of those; with poems populated by Popeye, Henry Darger, Chopin, Faust<\/i>, Parmigianino, and a myriad of other, less identifiable references, it\u2019s no surprise that Ashbery is a devotee of Cornell\u2019s eclectic connoisseurship. Both share an affinity for the metaphysique d\u2019ephemera<\/i>, an aesthetic that elevates the trivial to the transcendent. <\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/a><\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s well-known portrait of Ashbery\u2014it graces the cover of his first Library of America volume\u2014depicts him in his late twenties, his face in profile, his seated figure slightly off-center and recessed in the frame. Painted around the time Ashbery published his first book, Some Trees<\/i>, the portrait is classical in composition, restrained in palette. Porter\u2019s muted tones and contemplative regard reveal Ashbery\u2019s observational mien\u2014he\u2019s not looking at the viewer but outside the picture, somewhere we can\u2019t see. It is as if Porter caught the poetic persona behind this opening line of \u201cThe Instruction Manual,\u201d from that first book:<\/p>\n

\n

As I sit looking out of a window of the building
I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses
of a new metal.
I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an
inner peace,
And envy them\u2014they are so far away from me! \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The show suggests that there are different kinds of collectors. Unlike those detailed in Werner Muesterberger\u2019s Collecting: An Unruly Passion<\/i><\/a>, Ashbery isn\u2019t an obsessive\u2014a Robert Opie\u2013type who acquires a museum\u2019s worth of supermarket goods\u2014but rather appears to be someone who simply arrives at the objects he collects; they are ready to be plucked up from his path as he makes his way among friends, passing fancies, nostalgic affections, and sundry oddities. Instead of the scholarly verve driving many collectors, something like the associative logic that arranges the images in his poems determines Ashbery\u2019s acquisitions. These objects\u2014not individually, but collectively\u2014evoke the multifariousness of consciousness, instead of its broodful, innermost zones.<\/p>\n

Or so I speculate. Because, after all, what do I know about how Ashbery came to own the things he owns. I do know that this show could be the prop room for his verses, a place where totems of high and low, irony and utter seriousness await staging. To be sure, such connections constitute, for me, the great drama of the poems. And those points of contact spark in conversation with Ashbery, too. I visited the house in Hudson many years ago and was duly enchanted by its grandeur, the movie-set staircase (there\u2019s a painting of it and other interiors by Archie Rand in the show) with its polished banisters. In an upstairs room, John Yau, Joseph Donahue, David Kermani, Ashbery, and I watched a TV show featuring old B movies that had been overdubbed with wisecracking, deliberately anachronistic dialogue. Ashbery was heading to New York the next day for the big 1986 PEN Congress, and someone asked him what he thought of the controversy roiling around one of the invitees, then\u2013Secretary of State George Schultz. \u201cWell,\u201d he offered, \u201cI\u2019ve always liked Peanuts<\/i>.\u201d Between the TV show and Ashbery\u2019s ongoing commentary, I felt sure the materials for a poem were gathering with him as he sat there on the couch.<\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/a><\/p>\n

To scan these rooms is to carom across decades and oceans, as well as across small worlds of sensibility\u2014from the Utagawa Kunisada woodblock prints, with their floral-draped and delicate maidens, to Shirley Goldfarb\u2019s painterly detonation, titled Storm<\/i>; from Jane Freilicher\u2019s still life Peonies<\/em> to Henry Darger\u2019s collage of military figures; from Mark Tobey\u2019s airy brushwork in World Dust<\/em> to Joe Brainard\u2019s palpably dense collage Madonna<\/em>; from ceramic cocker spaniels to a video cassette of Fritz Lang\u2019s The Spiders<\/i>. The ricochets impact gently (after all, there are even antimacassars on the chairs in this comfy home), but no less bracingly. It\u2019s the sly jolt that arises from untested circuits, fresh neural pathways flashing to life. Another bit from \u201cGrand Galop\u201d comes to me\u2014\u201cFor things can harden meaningfully in the moment of indecision\u201d\u2014and I remember that night in Hudson years ago: among these things, amid their thingness, I realize that I\u2019m standing inside one of Ashbery\u2019s poems.<\/p>\n

Albert Mobilio\u2019s most recent book of poems is <\/em>Touch Wood<\/a>. A volume of short fiction, <\/em>Games and Stunts, will be published next year.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things<\/a>\u201d is on view at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, through November 2.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John Ashbery, instead of the crusty German phenomenologist. Is Heidegger suggesting that material things possess an essence, an abstract quality that both defines and constitutes, say, a shoe\u2014its shoeness? Perhaps, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[9527,35,12024,5091,12025,12022,12026,6580,2996,12023,8590,6494,6870,5234,4742,10992,4133,165,4748],"class_list":["post-61213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-alex-katz","tag-art","tag-assemblage","tag-chopin","tag-collecting","tag-fairfield-porter","tag-fritz-lang","tag-henry-darger","tag-interior-decorating","tag-jane-freilicher","tag-jess","tag-joan-mitchell","tag-joe-brainard","tag-john-ashbery","tag-joseph-cornell","tag-martin-heidegger","tag-peanuts","tag-poetry","tag-willem-de-kooning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArt House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2253\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2092\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Albert Mobilio\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Albert Mobilio\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Albert Mobilio\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ea8eb6cb0d8c6463f8c7f3f8ebd5c975\"},\"headline\":\"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\"},\"wordCount\":1169,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349-1024x950.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alex Katz\",\"art\",\"assemblage\",\"Chopin\",\"collecting\",\"Fairfield Porter\",\"Fritz Lang\",\"Henry Darger\",\"interior decorating\",\"Jane Freilicher\",\"Jess\",\"Joan Mitchell\",\"Joe Brainard\",\"John Ashbery\",\"Joseph Cornell\",\"Martin Heidegger\",\"peanuts\",\"poetry\",\"Willem de Kooning\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\",\"name\":\"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349-1024x950.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg\",\"width\":2253,\"height\":2092,\"caption\":\"Installation view of \\\"John Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things.\\\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ea8eb6cb0d8c6463f8c7f3f8ebd5c975\",\"name\":\"Albert Mobilio\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4e3c9e7b707862b074c3cab085a765d001579089862889ab8e6c6a736afe9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4e3c9e7b707862b074c3cab085a765d001579089862889ab8e6c6a736afe9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Albert Mobilio\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/amobilio\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio","description":"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio","og_description":"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2253,"height":2092,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Albert Mobilio","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Albert Mobilio","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/"},"author":{"name":"Albert Mobilio","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ea8eb6cb0d8c6463f8c7f3f8ebd5c975"},"headline":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d","datePublished":"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/"},"wordCount":1169,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349-1024x950.jpg","keywords":["Alex Katz","art","assemblage","Chopin","collecting","Fairfield Porter","Fritz Lang","Henry Darger","interior decorating","Jane Freilicher","Jess","Joan Mitchell","Joe Brainard","John Ashbery","Joseph Cornell","Martin Heidegger","peanuts","poetry","Willem de Kooning"],"articleSection":["Arts & Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/","name":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d by Albert Mobilio","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349-1024x950.jpg","datePublished":"2013-10-22T17:15:44+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-22T19:08:08+00:00","description":"October 22, 2013 \u2013 So just what is the \u201cthingness of the thing\u201d that Heidegger was talking about? The phrase\u2019s riddlesome poetry could easily have been penned by John","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/JA-11-e1382040279349.jpg","width":2253,"height":2092,"caption":"Installation view of \"John Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things.\""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/art-house-on-john-ashbery-collects\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Art House: On \u201cJohn Ashbery Collects\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ea8eb6cb0d8c6463f8c7f3f8ebd5c975","name":"Albert Mobilio","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4e3c9e7b707862b074c3cab085a765d001579089862889ab8e6c6a736afe9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4e3c9e7b707862b074c3cab085a765d001579089862889ab8e6c6a736afe9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Albert Mobilio"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/amobilio\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61213"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61588,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61213\/revisions\/61588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}