Untitled (Geometric Abstraction) 1950

Emil Bisttram made this geometric abstraction using monochromatic tones. I imagine him in the studio, reworking the image, shifting it, and puzzling it into place. What I love about abstract images like this one is that they are suggestive of a world. Is it landscape, seascape, or even skyscape? I notice birds, or, at least, shapes that are a little bird-like, and then the sky and the ground seem to shift and change. I wonder if Bisttram was looking at the world in his own way and transcribing it to his plate. He was part of the Transcendental Painting Group, so maybe it wasn't so much about what he saw, as what he felt. For me, this evokes the art of early twentieth-century abstractionists like Kandinsky, who also used shapes to build a sense of feeling. It's a reminder that artists are always in conversation, building on each other's ideas and experiences. Painting is like that – a constant process of reinterpretation and reinvention.