First Happenings: Adrian Henri in the ‘60s and '70s

Fascinating exhibition at the ICA on the work of the Merseybeat poet Adrian Henri who had also trained as a painter and who ran ‘happenings’ in Liverpool.

I have always loved Henri’s poems and have a beloved copy of the Penguin anthology “The Mersey Sound” so I was really pleased that they included a recording of him reading his work. It was lovely to hear “Without you” read by the author. It never fails to make me smile.

The happens sound wonderful and there were lots of posters and flyers for them as well as some of his art works, often Leger like collages using adverts and text. I liked a campaign he ran to memorialise bits of Liverpool which were being destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s and his campaign slogan of “Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust, If the bombs don’t get you, the planner must”!

Most interesting was a signed copy of Howl by Ginsberg signed for Henri after Ginsberg had stayed with his on a visit to Liverpool. Also a picture called “Entry of Christ into Liverpool” which combined portraits of culturally influential people of the time. An idea which may have been taken by by Peter Blake for the Sergeant Pepper cover.

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