Voice of Silence
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This original painting by Emil Bisttram was painted in 1970. Bisttram passed away several years later in 1976.
Emil Bisttram’s art is grounded in geometrical symbolism. While not always discernable, Bisttram’s seeking of art as a means to initiate one’s exploration of universally held eternal truths was ever present in his abstract works. He sought to communicate ideas of principles, of humanity’s constant search for our higher meaning and our best way of living. In this manner, Bisttram’s art carries an underlying philosophy.
Bisttram was born in Hungary on April 7th, 1895. His family immigrated to New York when he was 11 years old. Bisttram was a talented artist in his youth and his studies moved him from the National Academy of Art and Design, to Cooper Union, Parsons, and The Art Student's League.
1931 marked a major year in Emil Bisttram's life, seeing him move to Taos, New Mexico and also earn a Guggenheim Fellowship, which furthered his study of mural painting and brought him to Mexico to work with Diego Rivera. Perhaps Bisttram's most significant mural is "Contemporary Justice and Woman," which was painted in 1939 at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington D.C.
Emil Bisttram's lifework is often most quickly recognized in his founding of the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938. Along with fellow painters Raymond Jonson, Agnes Pelton and others, Bisttram moved the western American art scene forward. Group exhibitions featuring their work were shown at the Museum of Non-Objective Art, now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in 1940, 1944 and 1950.
In 1973, April 7th, Bisttram's birthday, became known as "Emil Bisttram Day" in the state of New Mexico, as established by Governor Bruce King, during the first of his three terms as Governor of the state. Bisttram's legacy is reflected in the public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Albuquerque Museum, Harwood Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum and many others.
"Voice of Silence" is signed and dated by the artist on the bottom right corner of the panel. It is titled on the back of the panel. The painting's provenance is available upon inquiry.
