Art Review: Various: "Summer Reading"

The badly rusted typewriter that sits in the middle of the George Krevsky Gallery belongs to Lawrence Ferlinghetti. At least for now. The Smithsonian Institution may acquire the Remington manual that typed out poems in the 1960s, gallery manager Lori Sottile says — all the more reason to visit "Summer Reading" before the poet's device disappears from San Francisco forever. Words and images — what George Krevsky calls "the relationship between the written word and its visual counterpart" — are what unite the paintings, photographs, lithographs, etchings, and the archaic letter machine on display. Its signed initials, writing mantra painted above the letters ("Look! + Think!"), and curious backstory (left in City Lights' basement, it somehow wound up in an employee's garden) make the typewriter — along with its accompanying Ferlinghetti poem and painting — the exhibition's standout. Other highlights include two sketches/reflections by writer Barry Gifford, an intense street photo by Richard Nagler, and four Ben Shahn lithographs that illuminate the moving words of Rilke. For extra pleasure, visitors can peruse books by the featured artists. This is "multimedia" in the old-fashioned sense of the word.