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Links, reviews, etc. - Week ending 26 January 2008

It seems to have been a slow week for things relating to Sylvia Plath, though that is not always a bad thing.

  • Sue Hutchison has an obituary for the late Diane Middlebrook in the San Jose Mercury News.

That's about it!! On Thursday I visited the art gallery of Pierre Menard at 10 Arrow Street in Cambridge to view the exhibit on The Writer's Brush. Most of the artworks are for sale, including the "self-portrait" of Sylvia Plath. For just $35,000, you can own the image which appears to the left... The portrait used to be for sale via Ken Lopez, a high-end book dealer with quality stock, however I no longer see it listed on his website.

If I remember correctly, there was some controversy over this "Self-portrait". It is debatable, for example, that this is actually Plath pictured. I see very little resemblence. The provenance supports that this is Sylvia Plath's artwork, however.

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  1. Anonymous14 August, 2008 17:32

    Hi Peter - Kim here. I don't believe that this is a self portrait of Plath, although that is how it has been advertised and now apparently sold. Even though Ken Lopez finally admitted that neither Warren or Frieda believed it was Plath, but was instead a school friend of Plath's (name escapes me), he still insisted that it was a self portrait. Of course, a self portrait of Plath would sell for more than a portrait by Plath. Not only does it look nothing like Plath, the person in the portrait has blue eyes. I have no doubts really that it is BY Plath, but OF Plath - sorry, I don't believe so.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna17 February, 2014 11:00

    Hi Peter, this is a pretty old post and maybe also old new for you, but as I was researching some Sylvia Plath self-portraits, I checked the website of Ken Lopez and found the following description of the painting:
    "A 19" x 25" portrait by Plath of her high school classmate and friend Arden Tapley, executed in pastels. Undated, but probably from 1950, the year both of them graduated from Wellesley High School." (...) Arden Tapley's daughter recalled that her mother often spoke of her high school friendship with Sylvia, and that both were rather "shy, sensitive girls who naturally gravitated toward each other." She said that when she first saw the image she immediately recognized it as her mother, and in that sense Plath did capture an essence of her young friend. (...) A powerful image of a close friend by the noted writer while she was still a high school student."
    Source: http://www.lopezbooks.com/item/15999/

    So, definitely NOT Plath! ;)

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter K Steinberg17 February, 2014 11:42

    Anna,

    Thanks for looking into this, and oh so many years later. Definitely with you and Kim on this!

    pks

    ReplyDelete

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