Two Bathers 1960

Elmer Bischoff painted "Two Bathers" with oil on canvas, and it looks like he was really going for it. The brushstrokes are so loose, almost like he was wrestling with the paint. You can practically feel the energy of his hand moving across the canvas. Look at the figure in the foreground, the way he’s used these fleshy pinks and browns, and then that stark white towel, like a burst of light. It's not about perfect realism; it's about capturing a feeling, a moment. I am really drawn to that little patch of green just behind the bather's legs. It looks like he flicked the paint on there, a total afterthought, but it adds so much life to the composition. Bischoff was part of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, and you can see that influence here. It’s as if he’s saying, "Let’s bring the figure back, but let’s do it with all the freedom and experimentation of abstract expressionism." It reminds me a little of early de Kooning, this push and pull between abstraction and representation.