Exchanging Hats: Paintings

By Elizabeth Bishop

Book Overview

When the distinguished art critic Meyer Schapiro said that Elizabeth Bishop "writes poems with a painter's eye," Bishop was "very flattered: I'd love to be a painter." The fact is--though not many knew it--she painted throughout her life, as this handsome book, reproducing in full color forty of her works, demonstrates. The paintings were tracked down, identified, and collected by the poet and art writer William Benton, who arranged the first exhibit of Bishop's artwork (twenty-seven pieces) in January 1993 at the East Martello Tower Museum as part of the Key West Literary Seminar on Bishop's writing.

Probably the best-known paintings are the three or four that decorated the dust jackets of earlier editions of her books, but most of her artwork has never been reproduced. Some, like E. Bishop's Patented Slot-Machine, come as a total surprise.

William Benton gives the provenance, dimensions, and (where possible) the date of each work. In the second half of the book, he also cites many painterly passages from Bishop's writing. Typically, after admitting that occasionally she painted "a small gouache or watercolor," Bishop asserted: "They are Not Art--NOT AT ALL." William Benton concludes, "They are, though." In paperback for the first time since its publication, this edition of Exchanging Hats is sure to generate a renewed appreciation for this multi-talented artist.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374533431
• ISBN13: 9780374533434
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Poet's Paintings

Elizabeth Bishop was an elusive and multi-faceted woman. Gaining a glimpse of her through her poetry, some details through her prose, she has remained enigmatic, despite the many volumes of criticism and biography dedicated to her life and art. Her paintings show us another side of her creativity, and in "Exchanging Hats" we are provided with a greater depth of understanding of her creative abilities. The paintings themselves, spare and pragmatic, are as geographical and domestic as her poetry. More subtle than they first appear,they illuminate her life from a different perspective. For anyone interested in Bishop,this book is essential.