West Corridor, Knox Building

Celebrated American poet Robert Creeley (1926–2005) had a connection to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now the Buffalo AKG Art Museum) that spanned more than forty years, from speaking to artist collaborations. His first engagement with the museum was in March 1965, when he took part in the Poetry Today symposium for The Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today. The sixteen-day event attracted more than 300,000 guests and received nationwide acclaim. During the symposium, Creeley stated, “Whatever provokes in me this response to the innate rhythm of a poem, whatever it is, one singly follows one’s own answer,” expressing his deeply felt and responsive style.

The poet collaborated with some of the most celebrated contemporary artists, forming lasting relationships with them before the actual “work” took place. Artist Alex Katz, a collaborator on Edges, stated, “Working with Bob makes me feel bright.” In May 1972, Marisol wrote a letter to Creeley after receiving the text for Presences: A Text for Marisol (1976), “It is really amazing how you could do something so close to me from seeing me so few times.” Creeley mirrored Marisol’s sculptural process in his prose, creating what he called an “active complement.”

“All I ever wanted was a place,” Creeley writes, in a 1988 collaboration with artists Robert Therrien and Michel Butor. The poet arrived in Buffalo in 1966, teaching at the University at Buffalo for more than thirty years. He was the inspiration behind Just Buffalo Literary Center and went on to co-found UB’s Poetics Program. In his later years, he was often called “the man in Black Rock.” On this centennial of his birth, we celebrate the indelible mark Creeley made on the literary and artistic life of this place.