Elmer Nelson Bischoff
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, artist Elmer Nelson Bischoff (1916-1991) was an integral figure in a generation of post-WWII artists who began their careers as abstract painters, later moving towards figurative painting. Bischoff received his master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1939, and after graduating he became an art teacher at Sacramento High School. In 1941, Bischoff left the United States to serve in the army as a lieutenant colonel and was stationed in England until 1945. When he returned from the war, Bischoff was offered a position teaching at San Francisco's California School of Fine Arts. Here he met artists including David Park and Richard Diebenkorn, whose work varied greatly from the abstract expressionist works that were popular at the time. Bischoff was inspired by these figurative works, and his post-war paintings possess a warmth and quietness; portraying figures in relaxed postures with soft, muted colors.
Bischoff's work appears in a number of permanent collections across the United States, at institutions including the Oakland Museum of California; the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Museum of the National Academy of Design in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Oklahoma City Museum of Art; SFMoMA; …
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, artist Elmer Nelson Bischoff (1916-1991) was an integral figure in a generation of post-WWII artists who began their careers as abstract painters, later moving towards figurative painting. Bischoff received his master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1939, and after graduating he became an art teacher at Sacramento High School. In 1941, Bischoff left the United States to serve in the army as a lieutenant colonel and was stationed in England until 1945. When he returned from the war, Bischoff was offered a position teaching at San Francisco's California School of Fine Arts. Here he met artists including David Park and Richard Diebenkorn, whose work varied greatly from the abstract expressionist works that were popular at the time. Bischoff was inspired by these figurative works, and his post-war paintings possess a warmth and quietness; portraying figures in relaxed postures with soft, muted colors.
Bischoff's work appears in a number of permanent collections across the United States, at institutions including the Oakland Museum of California; the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Museum of the National Academy of Design in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Oklahoma City Museum of Art; SFMoMA; the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.; the Crocker Art Museum; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; and more.
