For many, the house and the household serve a singular purpose: they are an extension of ourselves to anyone who may peek inside, manifested through tangible objects. Yet, for the poet Robert Duncan and artist Jess, they are two autonomous objectives—both physical and imaginary—that just so happen to amalgamate into a unitary space over the course of their marriage, which spanned from 1951 until Duncan’s death 37 years later. Tara McDowell, Associate Professor and Director of Curatorial Practice at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, writes of the striking difference in her book _The Householders_, out now from MIT Press, which allows the reader to peek behind the proverbial curtain of the enigmatic couple’s life, and to gain an understanding of how their sacred domain nurtured their creative endeavors and spirits.
A GATHERING OF “THE MAIDENS” AT JAMES BROUGHTON’S HOME FOR HIS BIRTHDAY, 1962. PHOTO: HARRY REDL. REPRINTED FROM THE HOUSEHOLDERS: ROBERT DUNCAN AND JESS BY TARA MCDOWELL, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE JESS COLLINS TRUST.
The various San Francisco abodes in the Polk Gulch, Lower Pacific Heights, and Mission District neighborhoods, of which Duncan and Jess called their own throughout their lives together, became a precondition to their art-making. Duncan writes of Jess, whose primary medium was collage, “What he has achieved is totally his, but in every detail derivative.” Jess, the more private of the two, cheekily expressed his agreement in his book of collages, _O!_. Tucked into the top right corner of the book’s cover, a slim speech bubble quotes sixteenth-century French essayist, Michel de Montaigne: “I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own.” Duncan’s oeuvre was reflective of the works foundational to his upbringing; to him it was merely proof that the world is recurrent.
JESS “EX. 1—LAYING A STANDARD: TRANSLATION #1” 1959. OIL ON CANVAS. 23 X 15 IN. TIBOR DE NAGY GALLERY. © THE JESS COLLINS TRUST. REPRINTED FROM THE HOUSEHOLDERS: ROBERT DUNCAN AND JESS BY TARA MCDOWELL, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE JESS COLLINS TRUST.
Pioneers in the domestic sphere, their habitat served not only as a space to mark art, it was an art, and a radical one at that. Highly curated and adorned with items representative of their origins, there were floor-to-ceiling shelves overflowing with books—many about mythology and fairy tales, a stained-glass window handmade by the couple, and a window shade printed with an image of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (another famous same-sex pair, whose image poetically shielded Duncan and Jess from the judgmental gaze of the outside world).
Duncan and Jess dared to co-habitate during the discriminatory midcentury—a time infamous for the Lavender Scare, police raids against gay establishments, wrongful and premature deaths of high-profile gay pioneers Alan Turing and Harvey Milk, and the Cold War’s threats of mutually-assured nuclear annihilation, the “epoch of the greatest cold,” as Duncan puts it. In spite of decades of adversity, the two stood their ground where it seemed to be crumbling, serving as contrarians (as they both enjoyed) to backwards societal structures, but paradoxically, to modernity as well.
PINNING BOARD FOR “NARKISSOS,” UNDATED. PAPER, IMAGES, AND TEXTS PINNED TO BOARD. 58 X 42 IN. © THE JESS COLLINS TRUST. REPRINTED FROM THE HOUSEHOLDERS: ROBERT DUNCAN AND JESS BY TARA MCDOWELL, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE JESS COLLINS TRUST.
Like many refugees from society’s cruelties, the smattering of dwellings held a sacred place in the lives of the two men, to the point of cutthroat defensiveness. Operating as an alternative, yet parallel structure to a stereotypical 1950s home, their household was an anchor of self-preservation and stability, open only to those who proved themselves worthy. Duncan and Jess were notorious for guarding their home with an innate fierceness, though it, like any sacred space in an adverse socio-political climate, was certainly worth protecting.
Nobody speaks to the importance of the household’s capacity to anchor and preserve more than Duncan himself. In his publication of collected poems, _A Book of Resemblances_, he writes, “The form of elements in commotion, clouds, fire, smoke, the sea, and the household kept (the work of art as hearth of feeling) in the midst of catastrophe.” A home is not merely a representation of the self; we are lucky if it can evolve into a space of creativity. At its very core, a home is a shell that protects the most authentic self. There is a tragic irony that the city where the men were able to establish such an ironclad sense of belonging now faces the world’s most severe housing crisis, which began in the aftermath of Duncan’s death from a contemporary threat: the unfettered tech industry. The couple’s 19th century Victorian at 3267 20th Street is valued at a cool $3.5 million—a far cry from the lifestyle they afforded.
JESS “CAKE WALK WITH PRINCESS” 1954. COLLAGE. 37 X 23 1/2 IN. © THE JESS COLLINS TRUST. REPRINTED FROM THE HOUSEHOLDERS: ROBERT DUNCAN AND JESS BY TARA MCDOWELL, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE JESS COLLINS TRUST.
Tara McDowell’s Householders is a stark reminder that the world’s ever-shapeshifting perils (be it unrestrained greed, surveillance, or rise of autocracies) must contend with the might and resolve of united communities on the margins, chosen families, and the authentic, creative self.
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