244

Emil James Bisttram

1895 - 1976

Marine Patterns, 1950

oil on linen
signed and dated lower right: BISTTRAM / 50
45 x 40 in. (114.3 x 101.6 cm.), frame: 46 x 41 x 2 1/4 in. (116.8 x 104.1 x 5.7 cm.)

  • Provenance: Private Collection, California

    Emil James Bisttram was a Hungarian-born American modernist who made his career in New Mexico and co-founded the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938 with Raymond Jonson. Trained in New York, he moved to Taos in 1930, where he opened the Bisttram School of Art and became a pivotal teacher. A 1931 Guggenheim Fellowship took him to Mexico to study mural technique with Diego Rivera, and he later executed several New Deal/post-office murals. In the mid-to-late 1930s his work turned decisively non-objective: luminous, geometrically structured paintings guided by dynamic symmetry, theosophical ideas, and a search for the "spiritual in art." With TPG peers (including Agnes Pelton, Lawren Harris, William Lumpkins, and others), Bisttram pursued radiant, architectonic abstractions meant to evoke inner states rather than depict the visible world. Over a long Taos career he also painted Southwestern subjects and taught generations of artists. Today he's recognized as a key bridge between Southwest regional art and American spiritual abstraction.
  • Condition: This piece is in very good condition overall. The painting exhibits vibrant colors, a tight canvas, and appears unblemished upon first sight. There are two minor surface scuffs in the varnish approximately 11 inches up and 1 inch in from lower left corner. Margin edges of the canvas show very minor scattered specs of pigment loss consistent with the previous framing. Under black light this painting appears untouched and unblemished.

    A condition report for this lot is available upon request and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.

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November 8, 2025 1:00 PM MST
Santa Fe, NM, US

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