Two Bathers

Elmer Bischoff, Two Bathers, 1960, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1968.52.7
Elmer Bischoff, Two Bathers, 1960, oil on canvas, 68 x 64 5⁄8 in. (172.7 x 164.2 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1968.52.7

Artwork Details

Title
Two Bathers
Artist
Date
1960
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
68 x 64 5⁄8 in. (172.7 x 164.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Recreation — sport and play — swimming
  • Figure group — nude
  • Landscape — water
Object Number
1968.52.7
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1968.52.7

Artwork Description

Two Bathers is a classical scene filtered through the abstract expressionism that dominated American art after World War II. Bischoff covered the canvas with hot reds, greens, and cool blues, and his liquid paint gives the women the same substance as the landscape. We perceive them as figures and as clusters of skillful marks in a network of brushstrokes. The distance between the two women, the stillness of their bodies, and strong contrasts of light and shadow lend the image the sharpened, poetic quality of memory.

Painting the figure, as Bischoff and other Bay Area artists chose to do throughout the 1950s and 1960s, challenged the prevailing idea of what art ought to be. These California artists felt that pure abstraction could not convey all they wanted to express, and returned to images of the human body. Bischoff taught as he painted, avoiding the party line of powerful critics and allowing his students the freedom to paint from life.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Works by this artist (1 item)

Robert Forman, Lace/El Encaje, 1995, cotton, linen, rayon, and silk threads, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sandy and Norman Mitchell on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Renwick Gallery, 1998.13, © 1995, Robert Forman
Lace/​El Encaje
Artist
Date1995
cotton, linen, rayon, and silk threads
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 1967.129 - SAAM-1967.129_1 - 65164
Artist to Artist
October 1, 2021–August 2, 2026
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.