Emil Bisttram

Emil Bisttram (1895 - 1976)

Emil Bisttram was born in Hungary in 1895 and became a major figure in the New Mexico art world as an artist, and as a teacher and philosopher. Bisttram immigrated with his family to New York City while still a boy, and studied at the National Academy of Design and at Cooper Union. He visited Taos for the first time in 1930 and was profoundly affected by the land and its people. Bisttram co-founded the Transcendental Painting Group in Taos in 1938 along with Raymond Jonson, Agnes Pelton, Florence Miller Pierce and others.