Portrait and Dream
New and Selected Poems
Titled after a Jackson Pollock painting at once figural and abstract, this collection spans nearly fifty years of Bill Berkson’s poetry in all its deftness and variety. His poems, full of nuance, intensity, and exuberant wit, spread meaning across the page like quicksilver. Engaging in a mix of topics and styles, Berkson deals with aspects of the observable world, dreams, art, elements, and ecstasy to create a body of work suffused with light.
Born in New York, Bill Berkson is a poet, art critic, and teacher. Formerly a professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, he lives in San Francisco and New York.
Bill Berkson is an influential art critic, teacher, curator, and poet. He has collaborated with many artists and writers, including Alex Katz, Philip Guston, and Frank O'Hara and his criticism has appeared in ArtNews, Art in America, and elsewhere. The former director of Letters and Science at the San Francisco Art Institute, he lives in California and New York.
