Untitled 1946

Elmer Bischoff made this untitled painting with delicate strokes and washes, mostly in browns, tans, and creams. I wonder, was it like a daydream unfolding? I imagine Bischoff hovering over the surface, coaxing these shapes into being, almost willing them to appear. You can see how thinly the paint is applied, these transparent layers allowing light to pass through. It’s as though the painting is breathing. Look at those spindly lines, like whiskers, holding up those hovering forms. It kind of reminds me of Arthur Dove, but also a bit of de Kooning in its playful ambiguity. There’s a lightness to the composition, a real freedom. Bischoff is playing! I can almost feel his touch as he moved the brush across the canvas, searching, discovering, and inventing. I think painters are always having a conversation, you know? Each stroke, each color, each form is both a response to what came before and an invitation to what might come next. It’s not about answers, but about keeping the conversation alive, generation after generation.