A Blake first

Last Sunday’s article featuring the current William Blake exhibition at the Huntington Library rightly notes Blake’s enduring impact upon artists today (“He Set Imagination Free,” Jan. 19).

It should be noted that the Huntington illustrated that notion in dramatic form. In November 1999, for the first time in its history, the museum organized a solo exhibition of works by a contemporary painter. Los Angeles artist Ruth Weisberg was invited to create a body of work based upon any work of art in the Huntington’s collection.

The exhibition, Ruth Weis- berg’s “Canto V: Whirlwind of Lovers” was inspired by Blake’s own Canto V in which he interpreted one of the best known passages from “Dante’s Inferno.” For this exhibition, Weisberg’s work included drawings and monotypes as well as a monumental scale drawing measuring 12 feet by 24 feet.

Jack V. Rutberg

Los Angeles