I. B. Singer, 1985
Acrylic on linen, 56” x 36”
Issac Bashevis Singer, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, is considered to be one of the greatest storytellers of all time. His stories are often described as parables or tales. He was born in Poland and moved to New York in 1935 with his brother Issac, also a great Yiddish writer. In New York, he worked for the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish paper that was widely read by the new Jewish immigrants to New York. His short stories were published in the Forward and he continued to contribute to the publication throughout his career. Singer wrote in Yiddish that was translated into English. Much of his work was set in his native Poland and evoked existential and spiritual questions by using folk tales and parables. He died in 1988 at the age of 87.
I moved to New York in 1980 landing on 88th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue on the Upper West Side. I was introduced to the work of Singer by a close Mississippi friend, Ben Walley, the same person that introduced me to Faulkner’s work seven years earlier. I read everything of Singer’s I could get my hands on. Singer often had lunch in a diner on Broadway and 87th, a diner where I often ate and had become friendly with the waiters. One day the waiters introduced me to him and his assistant, Deborah, and I shared that I was a painter and asked if he would pose for a portrait. He agreed. I ran home and got my camera and quickly took photographs.
Acrylic on linen, 56” x 36”
Issac Bashevis Singer, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, is considered to be one of the greatest storytellers of all time. His stories are often described as parables or tales. He was born in Poland and moved to New York in 1935 with his brother Issac, also a great Yiddish writer. In New York, he worked for the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish paper that was widely read by the new Jewish immigrants to New York. His short stories were published in the Forward and he continued to contribute to the publication throughout his career. Singer wrote in Yiddish that was translated into English. Much of his work was set in his native Poland and evoked existential and spiritual questions by using folk tales and parables. He died in 1988 at the age of 87.
I moved to New York in 1980 landing on 88th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue on the Upper West Side. I was introduced to the work of Singer by a close Mississippi friend, Ben Walley, the same person that introduced me to Faulkner’s work seven years earlier. I read everything of Singer’s I could get my hands on. Singer often had lunch in a diner on Broadway and 87th, a diner where I often ate and had become friendly with the waiters. One day the waiters introduced me to him and his assistant, Deborah, and I shared that I was a painter and asked if he would pose for a portrait. He agreed. I ran home and got my camera and quickly took photographs.