Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint
"Elmer Bischoff is one of the small handful of truly fine artists at mid-century and beyond working in Northern California. His art is of national importance. In Susan Landauer he has the author who can bring his life and art to us."—Walter Hopps, Twentieth Century Curator, The Menil Collection"This first substantial monograph on Elmer Bischoff offers a warm appraisal of a deacon of West Coast painters, justly celebrated for his lifelong navigation of the "tightrope" between abstract painting's sensual materiality and the ethical implications of a figurative art. Susan Landauer meets her own high standards of nuanced social history, and Bill Berkson's brief introduction is studded with gems."—Caroline Jones, author ofBay Area Figurative Art"Susan Landauer’s new monograph is a welcome addition to Twentieth Century Bay Area art history. She is a specialist, who explores the life and work, attitudes and ideals of this important artist, his European and American influences, in parallel with those of his famous colleagues, Richard Diebenkorn and David Park. She brings historical understanding and esthetic subtlety to the study as she digs into the artist’s esthetic and educational philosophy, the relation between painting and improvised jazz, temporary blocks and personal crises, as well as his complete reinventions of his drawing and painting. All this is set in the context of the life of art in the Bay Area community (1940-1990) and results in a readable work of value to professionals while remaining accessible to more casual readers."—Gerald Nordland, author ofRichard Diebenkorn