Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14

Emil James Bisttram
Precipitation, 1960s Abstract Oil Painting of Floating Shapes, Purple White Gray

1961

About the Item

Original 1961 mid-century modern abstract painting by New Mexico Transcendentalist, Emil Bisttram (1895-1976). Abstract floating shapes painted in shades of purple, blue, gray, white and black. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 33 x 37 x 1 ¾ inches. Image size is 32 ½ x 36 ¼ inches. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a complete condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Emil Bisttram grew up in the tenements of New York City after his family emigrated from Hungary when he was a young boy. Bisttram studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. During his training, Emil studied under Ivan Olinsky, Leon Kroll, Howard Giles, and Jay Hambidge. Bisttram later taught at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, Parson's School of Design, and at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum in New York. Bisttram opened the nation's first freelance advertising art agency by the age of twenty-one. However, he soon abandoned the business in pursuit of a career in Fine Art. In 1930, the artist made his first visit to Taos, New Mexico, where he reportedly found himself "blocked" by the open spaces, intense light, and color that define the region. In 1931, he traveled to Mexico where he studied mural painting with Diego Rivera on a Guggenheim Fellowship. While Emil was in Mexico, his wife lived in Taos where the couple established permanent residence upon his return. In Taos, Bisttram opened the area's first commercial art gallery, the Heptagon Gallery. He also founded the avante-garde Taos School of Art, later known as the Bisttram School of Fine Art. In 1934, Bisttram was among artists selected to paint murals for the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). While commissioned by the W.P.A., Bisttram worked on murals in the County Courthouse in Taos and he completed a mural in the Justice Department Building in Washington, D.C. Although he continued with representational painting, much of Bisttram's work in the late 1930's became increasingly abstract. Along with Raymond Jonson and seven other artists, Bisttram founded the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938. The group's goal was to "carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world." Exhibited: Philadelphia Watercolor Club, 1926 (prize), 1931 (medal); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1926-28, 1933, 1941, 1954; American Watercolor Society, 1927 (prize), 1930 (prize), 1931 (prize); Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery, 1932, 1935; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1951; Martin Diamond Fine Art, 1984. Works held: Roerich Museum, New York; Albright Art Gallery; Taos County Courthouse; Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (mural); United States Post Office, Ranger, Texas (mural). Further Reading: Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, Charles C. Eldredge, Julie Schimmel & William H. Truettner, published by Abbeville Press, New York for the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1986.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.; Modernist Themes in New Mexico: Works by Early Modernist Painters, Barbara G. Bell, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1989.; Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898-1950, Dean A. Porter, Tessa Hayes Ebie and Suzan Campbell, Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 1999.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds., Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols. ©David Cook Galleries, LLC
  • Creator:
    Emil James Bisttram (1895-1976, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1961
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 33 in (83.82 cm)Width: 37 in (93.98 cm)Depth: 1.75 in (4.45 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Frame Included
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
    very good to excellent vintage condition.
  • Gallery Location:
    Denver, CO
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 148891stDibs: G14010527342
More From This SellerView All
  • 1950s Abstract Painting New York Skyline Cityscape, Buildings, Blue Yellow Red
    By Charles Ragland Bunnell
    Located in Denver, CO
    Vintage 1950s original signed abstract painting of New York City by Charles Ragland Bunnell from 1951, cityscape mid century modern skyline. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 21 ⅜ x 26 ⅜ x 2 inches. Image size is 19 x 24 inches. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a complete condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the artist: Charles Bunnell developed a love for art at a very young age. As a child in Kansas City, Missouri, he spent much of his time drawing. When he was unable to find paper he drew on walls and in the margins of textbooks for which he was often fined. Around 1915, Bunnell moved with his family to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in World War I and later used his GI Training to study at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) during 1922 and 1923. In 1922, he married fellow student, Laura Palmer...
    Category

    1950s Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • 1950s Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting, Blue Brown Orange Sage Green
    By Charles Ragland Bunnell
    Located in Denver, CO
    Abstract expressionist oil painting on board from 1955 by Charles Bunnell. Abstract shapes in layers of sage green, light blue, brown, gold, and black. Presented in a custom frame, o...
    Category

    1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Oil

  • Nude Side View, Abstract Figurative Oil Painting of a Female Figure, Pink Blue
    By Martin Saldana
    Located in Denver, CO
    Abstract figurative nude portrait of a female surrounded by birds and floral arrangements, oil on board by Martin Saldana (1874-1965) titled 'Nude Side View'. Presented in a custom frame measuring 28 ¾ x 21 inches; image size is 20 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches. Painting is in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. About the Artist: Born Mexico 1874 Died 1965 Born in 1874, Saldaña grew up at Rancho Neuvo in Mexico. In 1950, at the age of 76, he began attending children's art classes at the Denver Art Museum. For the next fitfteen years, Saldaña Imaginatively documented whimsical memories from his childhood in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, portraying ranch life, landscapes, and his great love of animals. The prolific artist painted every day, completing a new piece about every three days and amassing an impressive body of work for the former cook at the Denver landmark, the Brown Palace...
    Category

    Early 20th Century Abstract Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Masks And Flowers, Semi Abstract Vintage 1984 Painting, Red Yellow Green Pink
    By Edward Marecak
    Located in Denver, CO
    Masks And Flowers, vintage original 1984 oil painting on board by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), semi abstract, cubist style painting of tribal mas...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Oil

  • Diana and the Three Fates, Vintage 1970s Semi Abstract Figural Oil Painting
    By Edward Marecak
    Located in Denver, CO
    Diana and the Three Fates, vintage 1970s semi abstract oil painting on board by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Female nude figure of the the Roman virgin goddess, Diana, the protector of childbirth reclining with vases of flowers and the Three Fates looking on. Semi abstract, cubist style painting in bright colors of pink, fuchsia, green, yellow, orange, blue, brown, purple and red. Unframed, custom framing is available. In situ photos are frame mocks ups, the piece is currently unframed. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf," awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier ouevre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee, and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...
    Category

    1970s Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Fertility Goddesses, Abstract Nude Figures 1950s Oil Painting, Pink, Blue, Green
    By Edward Marecak
    Located in Denver, CO
    Fertility Goddesses, original abstract figurative painting, vintage 1950, by 20th century Denver modernist artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). ,Three nude female figures with fruit. ...
    Category

    1950s Abstract Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

You May Also Like
  • Antonio Buonfiglio - CENERE ALLA CENERE - Black/white
    Located in Stienta, IT
    Mixed media oil and ash on canvas. In Antonio Buonfiglio's works, the pictorial surface takes on a thick, vibrant consistency, almost stretching ou...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Antonio Buonfiglio - DOUBLE TROUBLE - Neutral color
    Located in Stienta, IT
    Mixed media and oil on board. In Antonio Buonfiglio's works, the pictorial surface takes on a thick, vibrant consistency, almost stretching out to ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Antonio Buonfiglio - OUT OF RED - Red - Oil Painting
    Located in Stienta, IT
    Technique Mixed oil on wood. The artist, In order to give more character and personalization to this work of great effect and color, decorates the painting with his own fingerprints. In Antonio...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • From the beginning (Sin dall'inizio)
    Located in Milano, MI
    In the compositions, the gaze is attracted by an interplay of harmonious balances between full and empty spaces, which compel the regarding to an observation dynamic approach in orde...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Mixed Media

    Materials

    Mixed Media, Oil, Board

  • Composition abstraite/Abstract composition
    Located in Montfort l’Amaury, FR
    Reference number A214 The painting is not framed but it could be with a natural oak floated or black frame (see how it would look like on the simulation photo. Price for the frame : ...
    Category

    1970s Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Edge
    Located in Austin, TX
    Oil on board. Signed and dated lower right and verso, titled verso. 36.25 x 48 in. 40.5 x 52.25 in. (framed) Framed in contemporary silver, tiered floater frame. Dennis Eugene Norman Burton was a Canadian modernist who was born in Lethbridge, Ontario. He attended the Ontario College of Art from 1952 to 1956, and worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a graphic designer until 1960. Inspired by a 1955 exhibition of the “Painters Eleven” at Toronto’s Hart House, as well as American Abstract Expressionist artists such as Robert Motherwell, Jack Tworkov, and Willem de Kooning, Burton shifted his focus toward abstraction in the mid-1950s. Burton showed with the famed Isaacs Gallery in Toronto, becoming one of the youngest members on the gallery’s roster. A talented musician, he also played saxophone in the Artist’s Jazz Band in Toronto - a pioneering Canadian free-jazz group...
    Category

    1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Masonite, Oil, Board

Recently Viewed

View All