Press Censorship: Austin Kleon's 'Newspaper Blackout'

The Poetic Way To Censor The Press

When it comes to Austin Kleon’s Newspaper Blackout Poems, less is most definitely more.

The artist, who lives in Texas with his wife and dog, describes himself as a 'writer who draws'.

He creates his work by taking a permanent marker and blotting out the majority of a newspaper page, leaving only a handful of meaningful words behind.

The resulting pieces discuss everything from marriage to creativity to agoraphobia.

“I started making them in 2005 when I was right out of college and facing a nasty case of writer’s block,” he told HuffPost UK Culture.

His work has been widely acclaimed. The New Yorker has said that his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everyone else is declaring it dead”.

The artist has published two books, Steal Like An Artist and Newspaper Blackout, which can be found on his website, and also manages a Tumblr blog where he encourages readers to submit their own blackout poetry.

We’ve got a selection of his images below, let us know your favourites.

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