Portrait of Bob Bishop with the Museum of American Folk Art199227 5/8 x 19 5/8 " (70.2 x 49.8 cm)
Frame: 29 1/8 x 21 1/8 x 1 1/2 " (74 x 53.7 x 3.8 cm)Acrylic and graphite on MasoniteGift of Karen Lubetkin2025.8.101579739320Malcah ZeldisPaintingsupper center: 'MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART / GIFTSHOP'; 'EVA AND / MORRIS / FELD / GALLERY' [twice]
center: '1935 ROBERT BISHOP 1991'
lower left: IRT U[P]TOWN'
lower right: 'BUS STOP'center left: 'M. ZELDIS #2'http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster26670http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12346http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster11265New YorkNew YorkUnited StatesNew YorkPaintingsRecent AcquisitionsAmerican Folk Art MuseumNew YorkObject information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgPortrait of a larger than life man holding a banner. Behind him is a stylized cityscape, interpretation of the 2 Lincoln Square gallery. In the mid and foreground is a park scene with benches and trees, a subway station, bus stop, and pedestriansMalcah Zeldis’s portrait is a memorial to Robert Bishop (1938–1991), an influential and innovative director of the American Folk Art Museum (then-named the Museum of American Folk Art), who held his post from 1977 until his death in 1991 at age 53 from AIDS-related complications. Bishop would be credited with “discovering” the work of Malcah Zeldis. In this painting, the director is depicted standing in front of the Museum’s newly opened branch at 2 Lincoln Square in Manhattan, which Bishop helped to establish in April 1989 as “The Eva and Morris Feld Gallery.”
In a recent phone conversation, Zeldis’s daughter recalled Bishop’s impact on the artist, “She adored him. He was a champion of her work and a lovely man; they were friends.” Bishop was one of the earliest collectors and promoters of the artist’s brightly colored, story-driven paintings. This portrait, depicting Bishop towering over the pedestrians below him in Lincoln Square, alludes to the man’s outsized impact on Zeldis’s career. In 1988, he helped organize a solo show of her work, presented by the Museum of American Folk Art at New York University. It was the first single-artist exhibition in the Museum’s history to feature a living artist.http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster26670http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12346http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster11265http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster26670http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12346http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster11265http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster26670http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12346http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster1126519921992 2025 8 1 Object information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgPortrait of a larger than life man holding a banner. Behind him is a stylized cityscape, interpretation of the 2 Lincoln Square gallery. In the mid and foreground is a park scene with benches and trees, a subway station, bus stop, and pedestriansMalcah Zeldis’s portrait is a memorial to Robert Bishop (1938–1991), an influential and innovative director of the American Folk Art Museum (then-named the Museum of American Folk Art), who held his post from 1977 until his death in 1991 at age 53 from AIDS-related complications. Bishop would be credited with “discovering” the work of Malcah Zeldis. In this painting, the director is depicted standing in front of the Museum’s newly opened branch at 2 Lincoln Square in Manhattan, which Bishop helped to establish in April 1989 as “The Eva and Morris Feld Gallery.”
In a recent phone conversation, Zeldis’s daughter recalled Bishop’s impact on the artist, “She adored him. He was a champion of her work and a lovely man; they were friends.” Bishop was one of the earliest collectors and promoters of the artist’s brightly colored, story-driven paintings. This portrait, depicting Bishop towering over the pedestrians below him in Lincoln Square, alludes to the man’s outsized impact on Zeldis’s career. In 1988, he helped organize a solo show of her work, presented by the Museum of American Folk Art at New York University. It was the first single-artist exhibition in the Museum’s history to feature a living artist.