Elizabeth Bishop: Objects & Apparitions

Today established as one of the twentieth century’s most important poets, Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) was also a gifted artist and collector of art and artifacts, many of which were collected from her years in Brazil. Objects and Apparitions explores for the first time Bishop’s art: her delicate, miniaturist watercolors and gouaches of domestic vignettes; her tenderly fabricated, Cornell-esque constructions; and several works of art from her own collection, including family portraits and a bird cage modeled on a medieval cathedral. Many of these are reproduced here for the first time in full color, alongside poems, archival photographs and essays by Bishop scholars Joelle Biele, Dan Chiasson and Lloyd Schwartz that discuss Bishop’s art and its relationship to her poetry. Published for a critically acclaimed show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, this handsomely produced volume shows Bishop’s visual instincts to be as flawlessly poised and exquisite as her poetical sensibility.