Isabel Bishop’s (1902–1988, American) career is defined by graphic representations of her principal subject matter: urban women. Although her early artwork depicted realistically rendered nudes, upon her move to Union Square in New York City, Bishop began to draw, etch, and paint the urban working class. The subject preoccupied her for the remainder of her career and was central to her affiliation with the Fourteenth Street School art movement, which sought to convey the experience of ordinary people. Working alongside artists Kenneth Hayes Miller and Raphael Soyer, she became enamored with New York’s downtown inhabitants such as manual laborers, shop attendants, and derelicts. In her poetic renditions, Bishop captured their everyday activities in a large body of work dedicated to walking figures. Students Walking (1971) exemplifies the approach and composition for which she is best known.
–Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections