Isabel Bishop, Two Women Standing, circa 1940s, ink and ink wash on paper, 7 × 4 inches. Museum purchase, 2017.07.01. © Estate of Isabel Bishop, courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York, image David Dietrich. This work by Isabel Bishop, who recorded life on the streets of New York, captures two female friends in ink. She focused on her immediate environment around 14th Street and Union Square, where she lived and worked for over 55 years. Bishop herself maintained a close circle of artist friends later known as the Fourteenth Street School—including Reginald Marsh, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, and Kenneth Hayes Miller.
CURATOR’S TAKE
Associate Curator Cindy Buckner poses some fun storytelling possibilities:
Two Women Standing is a lovely drawing that has no clear narrative—are the two women momentarily turned away from one another in order to greet a third approaching friend? Or could they be bored with each other, on the alert for a more interesting companions?
Why do you think these women are standing there?
