Guy Davenport

Guy Davenport, 77, writer and artist, died Jan. 4 in Lexington, Ky., of lung cancer. Recognized equally for his modernist-influenced short stories and wide-ranging literary essays, Davenport also wrote evocatively about visual art, contributing essays to books on Paul Cadmus and Charles Burchfield. His 1989 volume, A Balthus Notebook, is a diaristic appreciation of the painter. In 1996, New Directions published Erik Anderson Reece's monograph on Davenport's own art, A Balance of Quinces: The Paintings and Drawings of Guy Davenport. A gifted draftsman, Davenport illustrated a number of books, including Hugh Kenner's Counterfeiters (1985). One of Davenport's last projects was coorganizing an exhibition of photographs by his late friend Ralph Eugene Meatyard at the ICP in New York [to be reviewed in a future issue] and writing an essay for the accompanying catalogue. Among his many honors was a 1990 MacArthur Foundation grant.

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