Elyssa Rundle (1932 – 1994) opened a studio on West 23rd Street in New York City and became a member of the New York School of Gestural Abstract Expressionism.
From 1989 to 1992 she donated her time to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center in New York City where she created portraits of people living with AIDS. According to the artist:
“…the catalyst for this project was grief. The loss of friends whom I loved left me bereft, angry, and powerless. There was nothing in their place….time ran out, just as it runs out on the many friends of people with AIDS.”
Three years after Rundle’s death, her collection of work won a grant from the Judith Rothschild Foundation established for the purpose of bringing recognition to highly talented, deceased artists. In 1998 her portraits where exhibited at The Berman Museum of Ursinus College in a show titled The Spirit of the Paint.
From the exhibit catalogue: “These pictures are stoic and haunting and forever preserve the memory of individuals and families who suffered from this disease.”

​John Russell, Chief Art Critic Emeritus at the New York Times, contributed to the catalogue. Of the AIDS sufferers’ portraits he wrote: “She [Rundle] did not do it from curiosity, or from pity. She did it from the wish to give back to her sitters the human dignity at which nature was eating away, day by day. They were not made to look like sick people. They sat up straight and looked out without fear. Nothing was faked. These were truthful images that would give lasting comfort. There is something very grand about these portraits… and it came not from charity but from love.”
       
​From Rundle's estate we have acquired 53 of these oil on canvas portraits along with 9 self portraits. They are striking, effective, most in simple wood frames. On the back of each is the name(s) of the subject(s). All are for sale with a portion of proceeds going to aids-related charities. Most are roughly 19" x 25", except for the full length portrait which is 81" tall.     All are displayed below.