Elmer Bischoff Originsl Vintage SF Bay Area Figurative American Expressionist Portrait in Landscape Oil Painting
Original vintage expressionistic and lyrical portrait of a woman sitting on a sunlit bench by Bay Area Figurative movement artist Elmer Bischoff (1916-1991). The oil painting has all of the expressive details and vibrant colors of the artist's best works. The painting's medium is an oil on loose canvas, and measures approximately 11" x 15", plus frame. With the original vintage frame, the painting measures approximately 15.2" x 18.2". There are a couple of issues with the condition. There is some abrasion and missing paint along the lower edge of the canvas, where the painting was stapled to the frame, and the lower edge of the frame wore through the paint, decades prior. Additionally, there is missing paint due to abrasion in the woman's/subject's dress. The painting is stiill permanently attached by staples, to the original frame.The painting is signed in the far lower left corner, currently under the frame, with the artist's initials, "EB". The painting is estimated to have been created approximately 1955. All paint present is original to the painting. Please review all images as beneficial and supplemental to the stated condition report.
Elmer Nelson Bischoff was an American painter born in Berkeley, California. He is recognized as a key figure, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, in the development of the San Francisco Bay Area Figurative art movement.
Bischoff studied at the Unuversity of California, Berkeley, and served in the military in World War II. He taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and later at the University of California at Berkeley.
Initially working in Abstract Expressionism, Bischoff, along with Park and Diebenkorn, shifted towards figurative art in the 1950s, leading to the establishment of the Bay Area Figurative movement. He continued to explore both figuration and abstraction throughout his career.
Bischoff's paintings are known for their sensual and lyrical quality, influenced by his love of music like New Orleans jazz.
The Bay Area Figurative movement was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, focusing on recognizable imagery, particularly figurative portraits, the California landscape, jazz scenes, and domestic narratives.
Bischoff's early work was influenced by Picasso, and by later artists such as Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. He also referenced 19th century Romantics like Delacroix and Turner.
Despite being in a region known for its natural beauty, Bischoff rarely worked from life, preferring to paint from memory, or a combination of memory and invention. His paintings often display a tension between beauty and underlying anxieties. Bischoff's work is characterized by active, geometric shapes, a hazy, painterly style, and a lyrical quality. He used heavy paint application, flattened space, and gestural brushwork.
Elmer Bischiff's work has been featured in retrospective exhibitions, including those at the Oakland Museum of California, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His art is held in significant collections and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. An influential teacher in the Bay Area, Bischoff's legacy continues through his impact on a generation of painters. Recent exhibitions, such as the 2020 Survey at the Marin Museum of Contemporaey Art, continue to shpwcase his paintings and drawings.
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