James Emil Bisttram

Watercolor on paper, signed Bisttram lower right. Measures 17.75” x 22.5” and with frame 25” x 29.75”. With gallery description label on back describing the location as the coast of ...

Encaustic signed and dated lower right. Painting measures: 9 x 7 inches. Presents in a simple wood frame. Born in Hungary Emil James Bisttram (1895-1976), studied at the National Academy of Design, Cooper Union and the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in New York City. He later became an instructor at the New York School. In 1930, Bisttram visited Taos, New Mexico for the first time, but found he was blocked from painting by the “grandeur of the scenery and the limitless space.” Instead, he went to Mexico to study fresco painting with Diego Rivera, becoming influenced by the strong realism and sculptured surfaces. One year later, Bisttram returned to Taos, and established the Taos School of Art. His work at the time remained realistic. In the mid-1930s, Bisttram painted under the WPA. By 1938 he founded the Transcendental movement in New Mexico as he turned toward non-objectivity, where paintings were composed of universal, rather than physical, forms. Bisttram did not limit himself to a non-objective style, however, but also painted realistic subjects. Known as a modern Taos painter...