Bill Berkson
Encyclopedia
Bill Berkson is an American poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties.
East Side, the only child of Seymour Berkson, general manager of International
News Service and later publisher of the New York Journal American, and the
fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. He studied at Trinity School, Lawrenceville,
Brown University, Columbia, The New School for Social Research and New York
University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
Having begun writing poetry at Lawrenceville, encouraged there by such teachers
as John Silver and the eminent Emily Dickinson scholar Thomas H. Johnson, he
went on to study short story writing with John Hawkes and prosody with S. Foster
Damon at Brown. But his full commitment to poetry was prompted under the
tutelage of Kenneth Koch
in spring, 1959 at the New School for Social Research.
It was also through Koch that he was introduced to the poetry and arts community
loosely termed the New York School
, which in turn led to close friendships with
Frank O’Hara and such senior artists as Philip Guston
and Alex Katz
, as well as with
poets and artists of his own generation such as Ron Padgett
, Joe Brainard
, George
Schneeman, Ted Berrigan
, Anne Waldman
, Jim Carroll
and others.
After leaving Columbia in 1960, he started work as an editorial associate at ARTnews,
where he continued for the next three years. During the remainder of the 1960s, he
was a regular contributor to both ARTnews and Arts, guest editor at the Museum
of Modern Art, an associate producer of a program on art for public television, and
taught literature and writing workshops at the New School for Social Research and
Yale University.
After moving to Northern California in 1970, Berkson began editing and publishing a
series of poetry books and magazines under the Big Sky imprint and taught regularly
in the California Poets in the Schools program.
In 1975 he married the artist Lynn O’Hare; their son Moses Edwin Clay Berkson was
born in Bolinas, California, on January 23, 1976. He also has an adopted daughter,
Siobhan O’Hare Mora Lopez (b. 1969) and three grandchildren, Henry Berkson and
Estella and Lourdes Mora Lopez. New friendships in the California years have
included those with Joanne Kyger, Duncan McNaughton, and Philip Whalen.
Berkson is the author of some twenty collections and pamphlets of poetry—including most
recently Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems and Lady Air.His poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies and have been translated into French, Russian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czechoslovakian, Rumanian,
Italian, German and Spanish. Les Parties du Corps, a selection of his poetry
translated into French, will appear from Joca Serie in Spring 2011. Other recent
books are What’s Your Idea of a Good Time: Letters & Interviews 1977-1985 with
Bernadette Mayer; BILL with drawings by Colter Jacobsen; Ted Berrigan with George
Schneeman and Not an Exit with Léonie Guyer .
Beside the aforementioned collaborations, he has done extensive projects with visual
artists Philip Guston
, Alex Katz
, Joe Brainard
, Lynn O’Hare, and Greg Irons
, as
well as with the poets Frank O’Hara, Larry Fagin
, Ron Padgett
, Anne Waldman
and
Bernadette Mayer
.
In the mid-1980s Berkson resumed writing art criticism on a regular basis,
contributing monthly reviews and articles to Artforum from 1985 to 1991; he became
a corresponding editor for Art in America in 1988 and has also written frequently
for such magazines as Aperture, Modern Painters, Art on Paper, artcritical.com and
others. In 1984, he began teaching art history and literature and organizing the public
lectures program at the San Francisco Art Institute
, where he also served as interim
dean in 1990 and Director of Letters and Science from 1993 to 1998. He retired from
SFAI in 2008 and now holds the position of Professor Emeritus. During the same period,
he was also on the visiting faculty of Naropa Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts,
Mills College and continues to lecture widely in colleges and universities. He has published
three collections of art criticism,to date, the latest being For the Ordinary Artist: Short
Reviews, Occasional Pieces & More.
As a sometime curator, he has organized or co-curated such exhibitions as Ronald
Bladen: Early and Late (SFMoMA), Albert York (Mills College), Why Painting I &
II (Susan Cummins Gallery), Homage to George Herriman (Campbell-Thiebaud
Gallery), Facing Eden: 100 years of Northern California Landscape Art (M.H. de
Young Museum), George Schneeman (CUE Foundation), Gordon Cook: Out There
(Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis) and George Schneeman in Italy
(Instituto di Cultura Italiano, San Francisco).
In 1998 he married the curator Constance Lewallen, with whom he lives in the Eureka
Valley section of San Francisco.
Berkson’s archive of literary, artistic and other materials, including extensive
correspondence and collaborations with O’Hara, Guston, Brainard, Mayer and others
through the years is maintained in the Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd
Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Poetry
Life
Born in New York on August 30, 1939, Bill Berkson grew up on Manhattan’s UpperEast Side, the only child of Seymour Berkson, general manager of International
News Service and later publisher of the New York Journal American, and the
fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. He studied at Trinity School, Lawrenceville,
Brown University, Columbia, The New School for Social Research and New York
University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
Having begun writing poetry at Lawrenceville, encouraged there by such teachers
as John Silver and the eminent Emily Dickinson scholar Thomas H. Johnson, he
went on to study short story writing with John Hawkes and prosody with S. Foster
Damon at Brown. But his full commitment to poetry was prompted under the
tutelage of Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77...
in spring, 1959 at the New School for Social Research.
It was also through Koch that he was introduced to the poetry and arts community
loosely termed the New York School
New York School
The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...
, which in turn led to close friendships with
Frank O’Hara and such senior artists as Philip Guston
Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
and Alex Katz
Alex Katz
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
, as well as with
poets and artists of his own generation such as Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. Bean Spasms, Padget's first collection of poems, was published in 1967 and written with Ted Berrigan...
, Joe Brainard
Joe Brainard
Joe Brainard was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book and album covers, theatrical sets and costumes...
, George
Schneeman, Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan
-Early life:Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in...
, Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
, Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll
James Dennis "Jim" Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.-Biography:Carroll was born to a...
and others.
After leaving Columbia in 1960, he started work as an editorial associate at ARTnews,
where he continued for the next three years. During the remainder of the 1960s, he
was a regular contributor to both ARTnews and Arts, guest editor at the Museum
of Modern Art, an associate producer of a program on art for public television, and
taught literature and writing workshops at the New School for Social Research and
Yale University.
After moving to Northern California in 1970, Berkson began editing and publishing a
series of poetry books and magazines under the Big Sky imprint and taught regularly
in the California Poets in the Schools program.
In 1975 he married the artist Lynn O’Hare; their son Moses Edwin Clay Berkson was
born in Bolinas, California, on January 23, 1976. He also has an adopted daughter,
Siobhan O’Hare Mora Lopez (b. 1969) and three grandchildren, Henry Berkson and
Estella and Lourdes Mora Lopez. New friendships in the California years have
included those with Joanne Kyger, Duncan McNaughton, and Philip Whalen.
Berkson is the author of some twenty collections and pamphlets of poetry—including most
recently Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems and Lady Air.His poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies and have been translated into French, Russian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czechoslovakian, Rumanian,
Italian, German and Spanish. Les Parties du Corps, a selection of his poetry
translated into French, will appear from Joca Serie in Spring 2011. Other recent
books are What’s Your Idea of a Good Time: Letters & Interviews 1977-1985 with
Bernadette Mayer; BILL with drawings by Colter Jacobsen; Ted Berrigan with George
Schneeman and Not an Exit with Léonie Guyer .
Beside the aforementioned collaborations, he has done extensive projects with visual
artists Philip Guston
Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
, Alex Katz
Alex Katz
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
, Joe Brainard
Joe Brainard
Joe Brainard was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book and album covers, theatrical sets and costumes...
, Lynn O’Hare, and Greg Irons
Greg Irons
Greg Irons was a poster artist, underground cartoonist, animator and tattoo artist. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he moved to San Francisco, California, in 1967, where he soon found work doing posters for Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium.After working on the film Yellow Submarine, he...
, as
well as with the poets Frank O’Hara, Larry Fagin
Larry Fagin
Larry Fagin is an American poet, editor, publisher, and teacher, and a member of the New York School.-Biography:Born in Far Rockaway, New York City, Fagin grew up in New York, Hollywood, and Europe. He began associating with other poets and writers in 1957, meeting David Meltzer in Los Angeles,...
, Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. Bean Spasms, Padget's first collection of poems, was published in 1967 and written with Ted Berrigan...
, Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
and
Bernadette Mayer
Bernadette Mayer
Bernadette Mayer is a poet and prose writer. In 1967 she received a BA from New School for Social Research. She has since edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci and the United Artists Press with Lewis Warsh...
.
In the mid-1980s Berkson resumed writing art criticism on a regular basis,
contributing monthly reviews and articles to Artforum from 1985 to 1991; he became
a corresponding editor for Art in America in 1988 and has also written frequently
for such magazines as Aperture, Modern Painters, Art on Paper, artcritical.com and
others. In 1984, he began teaching art history and literature and organizing the public
lectures program at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, where he also served as interim
dean in 1990 and Director of Letters and Science from 1993 to 1998. He retired from
SFAI in 2008 and now holds the position of Professor Emeritus. During the same period,
he was also on the visiting faculty of Naropa Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts,
Mills College and continues to lecture widely in colleges and universities. He has published
three collections of art criticism,to date, the latest being For the Ordinary Artist: Short
Reviews, Occasional Pieces & More.
As a sometime curator, he has organized or co-curated such exhibitions as Ronald
Bladen: Early and Late (SFMoMA), Albert York (Mills College), Why Painting I &
II (Susan Cummins Gallery), Homage to George Herriman (Campbell-Thiebaud
Gallery), Facing Eden: 100 years of Northern California Landscape Art (M.H. de
Young Museum), George Schneeman (CUE Foundation), Gordon Cook: Out There
(Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis) and George Schneeman in Italy
(Instituto di Cultura Italiano, San Francisco).
In 1998 he married the curator Constance Lewallen, with whom he lives in the Eureka
Valley section of San Francisco.
Berkson’s archive of literary, artistic and other materials, including extensive
correspondence and collaborations with O’Hara, Guston, Brainard, Mayer and others
through the years is maintained in the Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd
Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Awards
- Dylan Thomas Memorial Poetry Award, The New School for Social Research, 1959
- Poets Foundation Grant, 1968
- Yaddo Fellowship, 1968
- Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, National Endowment for the Arts, 1980
- Briarcombe Fellowship, 1983
- Marin Arts Council Poetry Award, 1987
- Artspace Award for New Writing in Art Criticism, 1990
- Visiting Artist/Scholar, American Academy in Rome, 1991
- Fund for Poetry Grant, 1994, 2001
- San Francisco Public Library Laureate, 2001
- Guest of Honor, Small Press Distribution Open House, 2004
- Paul Mellon Distinguished Fellow (lecture), Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 2006
- “Goldie” for Literature, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, 2008
- Balcones Poetry Prize, Austin, Texas, 2010
- Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM) grants for publishing, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978
- Honorable Mention, Editor's Fellowship, CCLM, 1979
- NEA, Small Press Publishing Grants, 1975, 1977
Sources
- Contemporary Authors, Volume 180, Gale Research
- Ron Padgett, ed., World Poets, Volume 1, Scribners, 2002
- Terence Diggory, Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets, Facts on File, 2009
- Daniel Kane, All Poets Welcome, University of California Press, 2003
- Steven Clay and Rodney Philips, A Secret Location On The Lower East Side,
- Granary/NY Public Library, 1998
- Who’ s Who in American Art, 2009
- Constance Lewallen, Joe Brainard: A Retrospective, Granary Books, 2001
- Ron Padgett, ed., Painter Among Poets: The Collaborative Art of George Schneeman, Granary Books, 2004
External links
Interviews & Reviews- In conversation with Robert Glück
- In conversation with David Levi-Strauss
- 20 Questions with Bill Berkson
- Bill Berkson on Morton Feldman
- In conversation with Jarett Earnest
- Schwabsky on For the Ordinary Artist
- Interview on Art Practical
Poetry