The streamlined setting of Allegory of Mourning (1929) shows the influence of the stylized approach to allegorical painting developed by Nicholas Roerich, the then well-known philosopher-painter known for his vibrantly colored symbolic landscapes of whose teachings Bisttram became a follower. Bisttram had found his experience working on the busy tableaux in Diego Rivera’s History of Mexico murals in Mexico City less than satisfying. Here he clears the deck of extraneous figures to present a simple act of mourning, composed according to the principles of Dynamic Symmetry, a theory of composition based on geometric proportional relations found in Egyptian, Islamic, and Classical Greek art. The scene—an allegory similar to others from this period of Bisttram’s work—presumably presents the aftermath of a death at sea, signaled by the sailing ship seen in the distance. Several generations of mourners are present; in addition to the older standing figure and more supple kneeling one, Bisttram includes a child running towards her mother who holds a baby. The generative nature of life after death is subtly conveyed in an evening atmosphere of pinkish blue light. This work was particularly important to Bisttram as he created a lithograph version of it, titled The Wake (Peace).

Two decades later, Bisttram used the verso of the canvas for a new painting, Crucifixion (1953), a densely articulated abstract depiction of the Calvary complete with stylized figures of Mary and other mourning figures near the foot of the Cross. Other midcentury works by Bisttram such as the large black and white Pietà (1953) and Composition #77 (1960, both Ladd Collection) experimented with abstract renditions of traditional Christian iconography.[1] Crucifixion, however, features a fully realized tableau of the scene with figures subtly highlighted.[2]

[1] See Amy Von Lintel, Ruth Pasquine, and Jon Levett, Southwest Abstractions of Emil Bisttram from the Ladd Collection, Canyon, Texas: Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, 2022.

[2] Excerpt from Michael Duncan, “Transcendence Southwest,” New York: Schoelkopf Gallery, 2022