Isabel Bishop Early Sketchbook c. 1928 - 1936

Editor: This is "Isabel Bishop Early Sketchbook" made between 1928 and 1936, with ink drawings on paper. It really captures fleeting moments of everyday life; very immediate. What strikes you about Bishop’s process in creating these images? Curator: I’m drawn to the accessibility of Bishop's material choices here. The mass production of paper and ink during the early 20th century meant art-making became less exclusive. Sketchbooks become democratized spaces for artists. How might these sketches relate to Bishop’s broader social views and later oil paintings? Editor: Well, her later works seem more polished. Here the hurried lines capture people "on the go", while the urban crowd is perhaps both her subject and market? It feels very "of the moment". Curator: Precisely. And the method mimics the content. Notice how the brisk, economic strokes mirror the pace of city life, the materials are of their time? Are the scenes reflecting mass culture and changing social interactions? Bishop engages in a dialectic with the labor inherent in depicting laborers and urban subjects. How can the act of observation, transformed into these ink sketches, be related to broader notions of labor and class in 1930s New York? Editor: I hadn't considered that connection before, that the speed of production in Bishop’s process mirrors the speed of life around her. Curator: Consider the very act of sketching, the time it takes, the consumption of materials, even the eventual potential market of her finished work; this all reflects complex relationships of labor and social value within capitalist society. Bishop's sketches point to art making as yet another type of work, entangled within complex economic systems. Editor: That’s a great perspective! I will remember this approach when looking at the materials and historical contexts in my studies.