Elmer Bischoff
 | This article includes alist of references,related reading,orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations.(April 2024) |
Elmer Bischoff | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 8, 1916 California, US |
| Died | March 2, 1991(aged 74) |
| Education | University of California |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Bay Area Figurative Movement |
| Spouse | Adelie Landis Bischoff |
Elmer Nelson Bischoff(July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991),[1]was an American visual artist, from theSan Francisco Bay Area.[2]Bischoff, along withRichard DiebenkornandDavid Park,was part of the post-World War IIgeneration of artists who started as abstract painters and found their way back to figurative art.
Biography
[edit]Elmer Bischoff, second child of John and Elna (néeNelson) Bischoff,[1]and grew up inBerkeley, California.He was the second-generation Californian, a son of a father ofGermandescent, and a mother of mixedSwedish-Ecuadorian origin.
He entered theUniversity of California, Berkeley,in September 1934, completing his master's degree in May 1939, and immediately started teaching art atSacramento High School(1939–41). During his years at university, one teacher had influenced him most: the highly independent-mindedMargaret Peterson (artist),whose total dedication to her teaching, and insistence on the ethical value of art, were to have a great impact on the artist Elmer Bischoff would be.World War II,however, was to change Bischoff's life. In 1941, he served as a lieutenant colonel in intelligence services of theUnited States Army Air ForcesinEngland,stationing nearOxford,and only coming back to the US in November 1945.
After the war, back in San Francisco, Bischoff found himself once more in the midst ofavant-gardeartistic ebullience - mi xing, among other painters (and to name but two), with such artists asMark RothkoandClyfford Still.In January 1946, a golden opportunity was offered him: one of his artist friends,Karl Kasten(himself a war veteran, like Bischoff) suggested Bischoff as art teacher for a position still available, at San Francisco'sCalifornia School of Fine Arts.It was then that Bischoff entered a faculty which already included some of the most talented new artists of post-war America. It is there that he eventually metDavid ParkandRichard Diebenkorn.In 1973, Bischoff was elected into theNational Academy of Designas an Associate member, and became a full member in 1985.
While distinct fromexpressionist artthat came from Europe, art of theBay Area Figurative Movementdisplays the immediacy and warmth that one sees inabstract expressionistpainting. Elmer Bischoff was older than Diebenkorn, and he had experiences in the world that led to his taking an independent turn in painting. Bischoff's quiet and lyrical paintings were serious in a different way from the painting which was being taken seriously at the time; and which saw the rise ofAbstract expressionism.
A retrospective of Elmer Bischoff's work,Grand Lyricist: The Art of Elmer Bischoff,was offered by theOakland Museum of California,November 3, 2001- January 13, 2002. TheCrocker Art Museum(California), thede Young Museum,theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden(Washington D.C.), theHonolulu Museum of Art,theKemper Museum of Contemporary Art(Kansas City, Missouri), theMuseum of the National Academy of Design(New York City), theMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston(Texas), theOklahoma City Museum of Art,theOrange County Museum of Art,The Phillips Collection(Washington D.C.), theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art,and theSmithsonian American Art Museum(Washington D.C.) are among the public collections holding works by Elmer Bischoff.
Bischoff was the father of composerJohn Bischoff.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^abJones, Caroline A. (1990).Bay Area Figurative Art, 1950–1965.Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.University of California Press.p. 182.ISBN978-0-520-06842-1– via Google Books.
- ^Perrone, Jeff (1975-06-01)."Elmer Bischoff".Artforum.Retrieved2024-04-02.
External links
[edit]Reference books
[edit]- Elmer Bischoff: the Ethics of Paint(monography),Susan Landauer,2001, Oakland Museum of California-University of California Press.
- Marika Herskovic,American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,Archived2007-09-29 at theWayback Machine(New York School Press, 2003.)ISBN0-9677994-1-4.p. 38-41
- Marika Herskovic,American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless(New York School Press, 2009.)ISBN978-0-9677994-2-1.p. 44-47
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1916 births
- 1991 deaths
- 20th-century American male artists
- 20th-century American painters
- American abstract artists
- Abstract expressionist artists
- American Expressionist painters
- American Figurative Expressionism
- American contemporary painters
- American male painters
- American people of Ecuadorian descent
- American people of German descent
- American people of Swedish descent
- Artists from Berkeley, California
- Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Military personnel from California
- Painters from California
- San Francisco Art Institute alumni
- United States Army colonels
- United States Army Air Forces officers
- United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
- University of California, Berkeley alumni