Three Figures 1946

Elmer Bischoff made "Three Figures," maybe in the 40's, with oil on canvas, and it feels like he was really thinking about how to make something new out of old shapes. The colors here are quiet – ochres, greens, pinks – like they’ve been sitting in the sun for a while. Look at how the paint sort of melts together, so thin in places, so you can see the canvas, and thicker in others, giving a body to these strange, almost bird-like forms. It’s funny how the lines shoot out from the center of each figure, trying to describe something we can’t quite name. It makes me think about how much of painting is about the push and pull of control and letting go. It reminds me a bit of Picasso, but maybe even more, Arthur Dove. Both artists were trying to find the abstract spirit within the everyday. For Bischoff, it’s like he’s building and unbuilding at the same time, inviting us to see figures in a space that’s always shifting.