“When you feel colors, you will understand the why of their forms.”–Oscar Bluemner
I’ve written several times about Oscar Bluemner, an early and relatively obscure Modernist painter. Since stumbling across him a decade or so ago, I have an affinity to his work and much of his outlook on it. He worked mainly with color and shape but didn’t work in pure abstraction, believing that the subject must be based on the real world in order to fully communicate with the viewer. And the subject itself not nearly so important as the color and forms employed and the emotions they depicted. Those are things that ring with me.
I’m replaying below my first post about Bluemner from back in 2011 with the addition of a few other paintings and a nice video of his work. Enjoy.
***********************
I look at the work of a lot of artists and usually see something I can relate to in much of it. It might be the way a color sings or the way the painting is put together or in the expressiveness of a line. Or just in simple emotion. But very seldom do I stumble upon the work of an artist who I immediately feel as though I am sharing the same perspective.
Such is the case with Oscar Bluemner.
I came across his work a few years back. I saw an ad for a piece of his in an art mag and was captivated. There was something very familiar to me in it which made me want to know more. But I could find little about Bluemner. This was strange because he was in the right circles where one would think he would get some attention even if only by association. The German-born painter, who was born in 1867 and moved to the US in 1893, was part of the Modernist painters group of the early 20th century represented by Alfred Stieglitz , famed photographer/gallerist and husband of Georgia O’Keefe. His work hung in solo shows at Stieglitz’s famed NYC gallery and in the fabled Armory Show of 1913. You would think there would be no shortage of material on him or that his name would raise the image of some piece of his work.
But Oscar Bluemner had a knack for failing. He was trained as an architect and designed the Bronx Borough Courthouse. However, he was not paid for his services and the seven year court battle that ensued drove him away from architecture and into the world of art, where his paintings never garnered the attention or lasting reputation of his contemporaries. He sold little and lived in abject poverty, which is said to have attributed to his wife’s early death and ultimately to his suicide in 1938.
But there is something in his work that I immediately identify with when I see it. It’s as though I am seeing his subjects in exactly the same way as he did and would be making the same decision he made when he was paainting them. His trees feel like my trees is the way they expressively curve and his colors are bold and bright. His building are often windowless with a feeling of anonymity. His suns and moons are solid presences in the sky, the focal points of many of his pieces. In this piece to the right, Death, he uses the alternating abnds of color to denote rows in the field as I often do and has his twisted tree rising from a small knoll in the forefront of the picture.
I find myself saying to myself that I could very easily have painted these same pictures. It’s odd because it’s not a feeling that I’ve experienced before even with the artists whose work I think has most influenced me and with which I feel a real connection. And it feels even odder because I didn’t become aware of Bluemner’s work until long after I had established my own vocabulary of imagery.
There are finally a few things out there online about Oscar Bluemener. You can see more of his images now than you could even a few years back. The Whitney in NYC had a retrospective of his work in 2005 (here’s a review) and that seemed to raise awareness of his work. So maybe a few more people, a new generation, will finally see what I see in Bluemer’s work.
************
************
Thanks for sharing. I see what you are saying. The artist Robert Pinkham Ryder comes to mind as well.
Yes, I feel many of those same things about Ryder myself. His rhythm and forms, the darkness of his coloring- these things really appeal to me.
I know this was posted many years ago, but I’m trying to find the title of the last painting posted here (buildings, tree, sunrise/sunset, street, snow and mountains). I hope you can help me, thanks!
That painting is one of my favorites from Bluemner and is titled “Mill Creek (Winter Sun,” from 1925.
Thank you for your prompt reply, very much appreciated!
I live in Vancouver, Canada, and only discovered Bluemner’s work a few years ago at a small exhibit in the Denver Art Museum. I was blown away, what incredible content (I grew up near NY state), dynamic compositions, and striking palette – he truly speaks to me with his powerful images. It encouraged me to travel by Amtrak to Deland, FL, to see more of his work at the university. I agree with your post; he needs to be celebrated as an incredible American artist.
Hello again, redtreetimes,
I hope you can help me out once again. I’ve been trying to find out what medium Bleumner’s “Mill Creek (Winter Sun)” is painted with. Watercolour? Gouache? A combination of both? Or am I way off the mark?
I’ve been searching online with no results – no information seems to be readily available or I’m not looking at the right websites. Thank you for your time, much appreciated!
Hi, Robin–
Here’s all I can find. In the book, “Oscar Bluemner: A Passion For Color” they list the final painting as being in watercolor only. There is a study for the painting that sold at auction last year that is done in watercolor, gouache and graphite.
Hope that helps!–gary
Thank you Gary for your prompt reply – much appreciated! I also found the same information regarding the study, but nothing on the final painting. Your help has been invaluable. Again, thanks.