BILL by Bill Berkson and Illustrated by Colter Jacobsen, SIGNED, RARE

Berkson, Bill. San Francisco: Gallery 16 Editions, 2008. 

English Language, First Edition, Fine/As New 4to, 9 1/4" x 7 1/4"

ISBN: 97809777744251

SIGNED, pictorial paper over boards with Colter Jacobsen illustration of astronaut on a manilla folder to the cover. Pristine aside from mild bumping to head and foot, tightly bound, clean interior. Graphite illustrations are drawn directly into typewritten text. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Bill Berkson to Whitney Chadwick and Robert Bechtle: "To Whitney and Bob, with love from the 'real' Bill, May 1, 2008."  Bill Berkson (August 30, 1939 – June 16, 2016) was a poet, critic, and teacher associated with the poetry and arts community called the New York School, where he became friends with notable artists and poets including Frank O'Hara, Philip Guston, Alex Katz, Ted Berrigan, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll, and many others. He was an editor and contributor for ARTnews, guest editor for MoMA, editor for Art in America, critic for Artforum, contributor to Aperture, Modern Painters, Art on Paper and others, taught at Yale University and the San Francisco Art Institute, where he also served as Dean for a short time and Director of Letters and Science. This book was published the year Bill Berkson retired from San Francisco Art Institute. Acquired from the private library of photorealist, Robert Bechtle and art historian, Whitney Chadwick. A lovely copy with rich Northern California association value.

Whitney Chadwick, (1943- ) Author and Art Historian who wrote, Women, Art, and Society, and Women Artists of the Surrealist Movement, as well as one of the authors behind Confessions of a Guerilla Girl, Chadwick made seismic waves in both art history and gender studies academic circles, forcing reexamination of women and queer artists than had been systematically excluded from the record. 

Robert Bechtle (1932-2020) was an American Phtorealist painter, printmaker, and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His insistence on realism at a time when abstract-informed figuration was en vogue brought wide criticism in the U.S. when he was widely celebrated in Europe. Gradually, his attention to objective reporting in everyday American domestic life brought him into the mainstream. He is considered to be among the most accomplished realism artists of his time.