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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2000.32
People
Emil Bisttram, American (Nadlac?, Hungary 1895 - 1976 Taos, NM)
Title
Spirit Forms
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1942
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/185853

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions
59.8 x 44.6 cm (23 9/16 x 17 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: graphite, l.r.: BISTTRAM
  • inscription: verso, l.l., graphite: EB #7
  • inscription: verso, l.l., graphite: 11/89; 7-90; 7-91; 7-92; 6/93; 7/94
  • inscription: verso, l.r., graphite: Emil Bisttram / SPIRIT / FORMS

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[G. W. Einstein Co., Inc., New York, New York]. [Skinner, Inc., Boston Massachusetts], sold; to Charles Young, Glastonbury, Connecticut, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2000.

NOTE: Provenance information taken from the curatorial file.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Susan Alyson and Charles M. Young
Accession Year
2000
Object Number
2000.32
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Commentary
About 1925, Bisttram gave up a brief, but successful, commercial art business to become a full-time painter and teacher. From 1925 to 1930 he taught at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum in New York, a school founded by the Russian mystical philosopher and painter Nicholas Roerich, which fostered spiritual ideas drawn from Theosophy and occult philosophy. In 1932 Bisttram settled in Taos, and he eventually played an important role in establishing Taos as a regional center for the visual arts. He studied with Diego Rivera in Mexico in 1931 and worked as a muralist in the mid-1930s. A founder of the Transcendental Painting Group, Bisttram proceeded from the realism documented in the Fogg's watercolor, "Storm Clouds" (1997.209), to a non-objective art with a strong spiritual component, although he continued to produce both realist and abstract works throughout his career. "Spirit Forms," with its reference to Navajo sand painting in both design and texture, is characteristic of one aspect of his work.

Publication History

  • American and European Paintings and Prints, auct. cat., Skinner, Inc. (Boston, MA, March 10, 2000), no. 411, repr.

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu