Yes, I’m still working like crazy on the master bedroom and making great progress… but lets face it taking pictures of paint drying is not so fantastic. For you or me. HA!HA!
It has always been my intention to share more than just renovation work on this blog as we are hunters and collectors of many cool and funky finds and love to share. Ten years ago it was much easier to find something FANTASTIC but it’s getting more and more difficult. I think blogs, television, ebay, and the internet in general has made people think twice about the things they are selling. BOO HOO! We had many good years of GREAT finds and still score on occasion
This was a definite score… except we really didn’t know it for quite a while.
One day Richie came home from an estate sale with this…
This painting showed up with piles of other finds and Richie asked if I liked it. Of course I did but we had so much art and were running out of room on the walls so I really didn’t pay much attention to it. It sat in our garage for months.
Many friends and visitors would come over and we’d ask them if they wanted it and nobody seemed too interested. It continued to sit in my 98 degree garage. (not good!)
Then one day we were cleaning some “stuff” out and I just saw it like I was seeing it for the first time and decided I HAD TO HAVE THAT in the house. Immediately! The frame was in really bad shape and the mat was all stained and faded looking.
It sat in my garage for a while because it needed a little “fixing” before I could hang it and while it sat there an artist friend of ours named Herman Hugg came by for a visit and it quickly caught his eye. Herman is a pretty great artist himself and knew we had something. Here’s a few examples of Herman’s art.
images via amset.org
Regardless of who or what we had I was keeping it so the plot only thickened and got more exciting for me. Sure enough, I “Googled” Emil Bisttram and BAM… he was a sought after artists that I knew nothing about. Turns out this $5.00 find was really something special. When we took it apart to fix the frame and cut a new mat the artist had written in pencil his name and TAOS NM (New Mexico).
So I guess you could say I’m really proud to have this. And not because he’s “somebody” but because it’s a beautiful modern piece that I almost let get away.
There was lots of info on him and most of his paintings have been sold in auctions for $3,000 to $120,000.
- 1895 Born April, 7
- 1906 Immigrated to America, New York City
- 1915 Forms the country’s first free-lance advertising art agency
- 1920 Began teaching at Parson’s School of Art and Design, New York
- 1923 Began teaching at the Master Institute of the Roerich Museum, New York
- 1931 Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Mexico with Diego Rivera
- 1932 Becomes a resident of Taos (1932-1976), opens Heptagon Gallery, and founds the Taos School of Art, later known as the Bisttram School of Fine Art
- 1933 Becomes supervisor for Treasury Relief Act Project, awarded Taos courthouse mural commission
- 1938 Co-founds the Transcendental Painting Group in Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 1941 Opens the Bisttram School of Fine Art in Phoenix, Arizona
- 1951 Co-founds the Taos Artists Association
- 1970 Named to the New Mexico Art Commission
- 1975 April 7th is declared Emil Bisttram Day, a New Mexico state holiday
- 1976 Dies February 26, from cancer at age 81
Here are a few examples of his work. If you want to know more I encourage you to google him online and read about him. He’s had an interesting life. His work is really diverse and beautiful. As a mid-century modern girl his “mexico modern” paintings blow my mind. I hope to one day find another one. But I bet it won’t be fore $5.00. HA!
So now we have a beautiful modern Emil Bisttram painting hanging in the hallway. It’s a lovely greeting as you enter the house each day. I’m so happy to have it. How do you feel about art? And do you have any original art in your home?
