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Bisttram, Emil

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Bisttram-Emil-Avatar-Lord-of-Fire-1952-unframed-edit Avatar Lord of Fire 1952 Oil on canvas 48 x 36 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Action-Painting-1959-unframed Untitled 1959 Oil on board 67 x 51 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Blue-Moon Untitled Encaustic 1939 - Blue crescent Encaustic on paper 7 x 5 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Blue-Trapezoids Untitled Encaustic 1939 - Blue Trapezoids Encaustic on paper 7 x 5 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Yellow-Rectangle Untitled Encaustic 1939 - Yellow Rectangle Encaustic on paper 7 x 5 inches Signed & dated: lower left
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1944-floating-angular-loops Untitled Encaustic 1939 - Angular Loops Encaustic on paper 7 x 5 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-emil---musical-rhythms-unframed Musical Rhythms 21 x 15 inches Mixed media on paper Signed: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Illustration-for-Perfume-Ad-unframed-edit Illustration for Perfume Ad Gouache on paper 16 x 12 inches Initialed: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Ascension-1964-unframed-edit Ascension 1964 48 x 36 inches Acrylic on canvas Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Primitive-Forms-1952-edit Primitive Forms 1952 15 3/4 x 17 1/2 inches Charcoal on paper Signed: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Pastel-1940-unframed-edit Untitled Abstraction 1940 23 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches Pastel on paper Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil---Hopi-Dancers-1966-unframed-edit Hopi Dancers 1966 20 x 16 inches Oil on board Signed & dated: bottom center
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Bisttram-Emil---Figures-unframed-edit Figures 7 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches Charcoal on paper
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Bisttram-Emil---Praying-Man-unframed-edit Praying Man 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches Charcoal on paper
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Bisttram-Emil---Praying-Woman-unframed-edit Praying Woman 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches Charcoal on paper
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Bisttram-Emil---Rearing-Horse-unframed-edit Rearing Horse 8 3/4 x 7 3/8 inches Charcoal on paper Initialed: bottom right
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Bisttram-Emil---Abstraction1956-unframed-edit Abstraction 1956 7 1/8 x 9 inches Blue ball-point pen on paper Initialed & dated: bottom center
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Untitled 1937 Untitled 1937 Encaustic on paper 8 x 6 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Indian-Symbols-Abstraction Indian Symbols Abstraction 1939 Mixed media on paper 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Untitled 1940 Untitled 1940 Encaustic on paper 8 x 6 inches Signed & dated: lower right
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Bisttram-Emil-Avatar-Lord-of-Fire-1952-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Action-Painting-1959-unframed
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Blue-Moon
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Blue-Trapezoids
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1939-Yellow-Rectangle
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Encaustic-1944-floating-angular-loops
Bisttram-emil---musical-rhythms-unframed
Bisttram-Emil-Illustration-for-Perfume-Ad-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil-Ascension-1964-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil-Primitive-Forms-1952-edit
Bisttram-Emil-Untitled-Pastel-1940-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Hopi-Dancers-1966-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Figures-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Praying-Man-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Praying-Woman-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Rearing-Horse-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Abstraction1956-unframed-edit
Untitled 1937
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Indian-Symbols-Abstraction
Untitled 1940
Untitled 1941
Untitled 1943
Bisttram-Emil---Figurants-1954-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---The-Cliff-Monhegan-1925-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Bird-and-Chalice-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Abstract-Boats-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Enc-Landscape-1939-edit
Bisttram Emil - Untitled Encaustic lndscp 3 1937 unframed
Bisttram Emil - Untitled Encaustic lndscp 4 1937 unframed
Bisttram Emil - Untitled Encaustic lndscp 5 1937 unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Encaustic-lndscp-2-1937-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Encaustic-lndscp-1937-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Enc-1937-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Enclosed-Rhythms-1954
Bisttram-Emil---Abstract-Canyon-1958-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Mosaic
Bisttram Emil - Wind Blown unframed
Bisttram Emil - The Fiery Chalice unframed
Bisttram Emil - Expelled unframed
Bisttram Emil - Encaustic Pyramids unframed
Bisttram-Emil---New-Mexico-Landscape-1944-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Dark Star unframed
Bisttram Emil - Nocturnal unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Agricultural-abstraction-unframed-edit
Bisttram-Emil---Rectangular-Movement-1940-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Bucephalus-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Encaustic-1937-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Triangle-and-Sun-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---After-the-Blizzard-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Waterfall unframed
Bisttram Emil - Right into Space unframed
Bisttram-Emil---The-Combat-1932-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Quetzaquetz-1954-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Moon-Magic-1960-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-unframed
bisttram-emil---Brotherhood
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Adobes-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---The-Stream-Unto-Eternity-1937-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Taos-Modern-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Spring-Thaw-unframed
Bisttram,-Emil---the-Sentinels
Bisttram-Emil---Adobe-Church
Bisttram_Emil_White-Noise-unframed
Bisttram, Emil - Transcendental Abstraction unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Adam-Eve-and-the-First-Born-1931-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Nuclei-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---The-Family-1932-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Encaustic-1940-medsize-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Ranchos-Church-1938-unframed-edit
Bisttram Emil - Song of the Wind unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Rectangle-and-Sun
Bisttram-Emil---Sunlight-in-the-Canyon-Taos-NM-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Untitled Landscape unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-1940-unframed (2)
Bisttram-Emil---Abstract-Flower-1944-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-Encaustic-1939-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Holocaust unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Untitled-enc-1940---3-bk-lines-unframed
bisttram-fiesta-in-taos
Bisttram-Emil---Descending-unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Red-Rain-1969-edit-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Abstract with Arrows unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Mask-unframed
The Miracle
Bisttram-Emil---Sails-in-the-Night-1965-unframed
Bisttram Emil - Dance of the Sea Urchins unframed
Bisttram-Emil---Ranchos-Church-WC-unframed
aa Seeking-Works-image
Emil Bisttram was born in Hungary, near the Romanian border, in 1895. When he was 11 years old, his family immigrated to New York City. Emil grew up in the tenement buildings that had become the destination for so many Eastern European immigrant families. He was a talented artist, and after a few years began his schooling at the National Academy of Art and Design, then Cooper Union, Parsons, and The Art Student’s League. Most of his studies were completed through night courses, as he was working as a commercial artist to support himself. His eagerness to study would translate to a love of and great skill for teaching. He began teaching soon after completing school, first at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, and then at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum.

Bisttram first visited Taos during the summer of 1930. He went initially to escape the hardship of life in New York following the stock market crash. His first visit, however, was nearly his last. While enthralled by the beauty of New Mexico, Bisttram was endlessly frustrated by his first attempts at painting there: “Whenever I tried to paint what was before me I was frustrated by the grandeur of the scenery and the limitless space. Above all a strange, almost mystic quality of light.”

Perhaps frustrated by what may be perceived as his own limitations as an artist, Bisttram returned to New York. If indeed he was frustrated at that time, it couldn’t have lasted long, as the very next year he won a Guggenheim fellowship to study mural painting. The fellowship enabled Bisttram to travel to Mexico where he studied mural painting with the world famous muralist Diego Rivera. Numerous mural commissions were to follow throughout his career, including murals for the Department of Justice in Washington D.C., The Taos County Courthouse, New Mexico, and the Federal Courthouse in Roswell, New Mexico.

After his time with Rivera was through, Bisttram returned immediately to Taos, and that same year founded the Taos School of Art, of which he would remain the director for the rest of his life. Bisttram came to be much admired as a teacher. He was an extremely articulate individual, and was as skilled at explaining concepts of composition, drawing and painting as he was at applying those concepts to his own paintings. The school was very well attended, particularly during the summer months. Further demonstrating his skills as an administrator, the following year Bisttram started the first commercial art gallery in Taos, the Heptagon Gallery.

Bisttram first came to Taos as a representational painter. His canvases show stylized renderings of Native American dancers, portraits of natives and Mexicans, as well as depictions of local architecture. However, he began to experiment with non-objective (ie. Abstract) forms in his paintings. He became heavily influence by the work and philosophy of the painter Wassily Kandinsky. Indeed, in many of Bisttrams canvases, the influence of the Russian is evident in the bright colors, and abstract forms that he began to employ. In 1938 Bisttram, along with Raymond Johnson and several other painters, founded the Transcendental Painting Group in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The aim of the group was to work to bring painting beyond the appearance of the physical world. Work of this type had begun in Europe at least two decades previously, but this was something new to America. Despite the stated goal, Bisttram often maintained elements that were at least semi-representational in his canvases.

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