James Bishop

Having moved to Europe in the late 1950s, Bishop spent most of his life in relative isolation near Paris. First influenced by Motherwell and Rothko, he described himself as "an Abstract Expressionist of the quieter branch." In the mid-1960s, he adopted a more minimal style, characterized by simple shapes--often echoing those of the support itself--and a restricted, subdued palette. With great subtlety, Bishop cultivates ambiguity, notably in the interplay between figure and ground. In the present drawing, for instance, the white of the square is actually that of the paper itself while the background is painted in a cream color. The irregular treatment of the edges contributes to the confusion, like in a trompe l'oeil painting.