Elmer
Bischoff Paintings
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries
20 East 79 Street, New York
October 29 to November 30, 2002
review by AMBER
FOGEL
Rocks,
1950. Oil on canvas, 50 x 49¾ inches; (images: Estate of Elmer
Bischoff, courtesy Salander O'Reilly Galleries, LLC)
By focusing on the early
and late abstractions and leaving out the figurative works for which
he is best known, this exhibition offers a very clear look at Elmer
Bischoff's search for individuality. From the beginning of his career
in 1947, Bischoff was tied to a specific school or style of painting.
Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko, the bookend exemplars of west coast
abstraction in the post-World War II era, influenced Bischoff while
he was a teacher at the California School of Fine Art. His earliest
abstractions reference their work and that of other CSFA colleagues.
At the same time, the works search for Bischoff's own distinctive style,
most notably through the use of color and an exploration of the expanse
of the canvas.
1952 marked the end of Bischoff's
first abstract phase. At this time, he turned to figurative works as
part of the triumvirate of the Bay Area Figurative movement, which included
David Park and Richard Diebenkorn. This period was the longest of his
career and served as the catalyst that propelled him into art-world
stardom. In 1972, when solidarity among the figurative artists dissolved,
Bischoff once again turned to abstraction and freely explored his own
sensibilities.
Untitled, 1948. Oil
on canvas, 59½ x 53 inches
Untitled (1948) is
one of the 'beast paintings" inspired by close friend and associate
Hassel Smith. This image succeeds "by dint of [Bischoff's] passion
for color" according to Bill Berkson, in his introduction to Susan
Landauer's 2001 monograph on the artist [details].
Decadent crimson and orangey ochre compete in horizontal and vertical
slashes that recall the blistered marks of Still. Blacks and dark greens
give the image an edge that is contradicted by the playfulness of the
red and yellow. The paint is laid thickly but makes no peaks of impasto.
Instead, it is layered like thick icing. From the upper-left corner,
a red square gives birth to an alien-dog creation, its face like an
African mask. The surface takes on a deliciousness that is betrayed
by the beastliness of the image.
Bischoff's experimentation
with the oil medium could produce great richness and opacity of color
and interesting surface effects, but in a work like Rocks (1950)
[pictured above] he could push color too far. The murky maroon in this
painting verges on the muddy and crowds the front of the image, making
it heavy.
The works that pull in recognizable
imagery strive toward wide expanses and built-up views. The River
(undated) combines Rothko-inspired color fields with pure 1950s
gestural painting. Bulky curved swaths of white and blue simulate the
water rushing over the rocks. The motion of the brush provides the element
of perspective, forcing the color fields in the painting either to protrude
or to recede, and gives a dynamism that is counteracted by the verticality
of the green tree-trunk in front and a horizontality created by the
foliage at the top of the image.
#1,
1974. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 84½ inches
Bischoff's need to work from
edge to edge remains even in his later abstract works. The first of
his numbered abstractions, #1 (1974), is the strongest work in
this exhibition. Switching to acrylics, Bischoff works leanly and makes
changes rapidly and spontaneously. Broad, solid forms of color are carried
over from his early work. Color and form are evenly balanced as in the
early works, but there is still enough going on under the surface of
the paint to keep the eye interested. There are references to his figurative
work: an outline of a foot here, a leg there. Yet, there is also a lightness
and translucency that produces a profound feeling of relaxation. Released
from all previous constraints, Bischoff uses his own language to convey
a joyful enthusiasm. It is here that one sees Bischoff's abstractions
as distinctly his own.
In his paintings of the late
1970s, the effect is more Kandinsky or Miró, more improvisational
and constellation-like despite their gridded underpinnings. All over
effects predominate over distinct color forms. Bischoff uses the brushiness
and transparency of acrylic to create compositions that are explosive,
their linear forms not referential of any particular object or figure.
These images, such as #25 (1977) display what Susan Landauer calls "a
spirit of freedom, of complete abandonment to whim and caprice."
Indeed, what this exhibition
shows is Bischoff's sloughing off of his personal and artistic baggage,
the "vestiges of object and place with their attendant volume and
mass," as Landauer puts it. Submerged in the twenty years he worked
with the figure, Bischoff's artistic individuality shines through his
pursuit of personal expression.
#25, 1977. Acrylic
on canvas, 95¼ x 80¾ inches
