The Opaque Decanter

Poetry, art, and art history mingle in the crucible of Dammann's new book. The resulting alchemy creates an intensely evocative, you-are-there experience that transports the reader straight into the world portrayed in each of the paintings in the book, most of which are instantly recognisable masterpieces by such artists as Van Gogh, Picasso, Goya, and Manet. Dammann's poetry is robust and masculine, yet is presented with subtlety and wit. Here is a brand new structure that is fine poetry, classic prose, succinct and witty art history, and a wise, unique viewpoint, all rolled up together and integrated and streamlined into its own form. Standing in the Musee d'Orsay or making sketches in a sidewalk cafe on the streets of Montmartre, Dammann is a regular guy with a thoroughly contemporary mind who uses art and poetry as a means of inhabiting the imaginative world of the artists who made those environs great.