Emil Bisttram
Geometric Abstraction
1939

About the Item

A beautifully composed, large-scale, geometric abstraction encaustic, with fresh colors, on fibrous buff, wove paper; the image extending to the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Signed and dated, lower left; estate stamped lower right, verso. The artist’s delicately stippled rendering in contrasting values produces the effect of shimmering color. In 1938 Emil Bisttram was one of the founding members of the Transcendental Painting Group in New Mexico. Seeking to emphasize the spiritual in art and it's value as a positive force in society, the group's member artists contributed to the early development of non-objective modernism in the Southwestern United States. Emil Bisttram held that the spiritual beliefs of native cultures like the American Indian had a link to the divine that had been lost by western religions. Bisttram's encaustic geometric works are precisely crafted, meditative explorations on his personal connection to these inner spiritual realities—his personal 'mandalas'. Created between 1936 and 1947, the artist never exhibited his encaustic works and only showed them privately toward the end of his life. A unique and relatively unexplored genre in the artist's highly acclaimed and otherwise well-documented oeuvre, they stand as essential and seminal works of the Transcendental Painting Group. Bisttram was extremely active in the artistic growth of New Mexico throughout his life in Taos. In 1952 he co-founded the Taos Art Association, and in 1959 he won the Grand Prize for painting at the New Mexico State Fair. In 1975 the state honored Bisttram by declaring April 7 (the artist's birthday) 'Emil Bisttram Day', a state holiday. The artist is the recipient of numerous awards and is represented in many major US museums including, Joslyn Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, dates back to ancient Greece. Traditionally colored pigments were added to heated beeswax, the oldest known pigment binder, to create the paint medium. The encaustic medium, similar in appearance to oil painting, can be applied to any number of surfaces from paper to stone. It allows for a great variety of texture and has the advantage of not yellowing, of weathering well, and of being unaffected by moisture. The final surface may be polished with a soft cloth to create a luminous sheen.

Creator:

Emil Bisttram (1895 - 1976, American, Hungarian)

Creation Year:

1939

Dimensions:

Height: 12.375 in (31.44 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)

Medium:

Encaustic

Movement & Style:

Abstract Geometric

Period:

Mid-20th Century