Contemporary Art

ELMER NELSON BISCHOFF
(American, 1916-1991)

Four Figures and Two Boats, 1966
Oil on canvas
Gift of the New Art Collectors 1985.9

In this dreamlike painting of a seaside idyll, California native Elmer Bischoff endowed his mysterious, faceless figures with magisterial simplicity that recalls the heroes and goddesses from Greek and Roman art and mythology. Indeed, Bischoff hoped that his anonymous nudes, painted against a backdrop of calm waters bordered by dramatic rocks, would transcend a particular time and place and induce a “unity of feeling.” Bischoff’s muted, low-key palette of greens, blues, and whites—punctuated by the reddish purple garment of the figure in the foreground—is heightened by his painterly brushstrokes that extend to the edge of the canvas.

Bischoff was a leader of the Bay Area Figurative School, a group of San Francisco abstract painters that focused on figural subjects from around 1952 to the early 1970s. Bischoff’s style during this period, which merges expressionist brushwork with representational imagery and strong color influenced by the region, has often been termed “abstract impressionist.” This label suggests that he was heir to the legacy of painters like the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who also painted scenes of nudes in landscapes with classical overtones.