Oscar Florians Bluemner

Background

Oscar Bluemner was born on June 21, 1867, in Hanover, Germany. His father, Hermann Bluemner, was an architect, and Oscar, in turn, became one, though from the first he was equally interested in painting.

Education

In 1885, Oscar Bluemner completed his course at the Royal Academy of Design in Berlin.

Career

In 1892 Oscar Bluemner came to the United States. For a while, in New York, he experienced severe handships, but in 1893 he secured architectural employment in Chicago. Two years later Bluemner became a United States citizen. Then, working independently in New York, he acquired what seemed a comfortable fortune, and in 1912 he gave up architecture in order to devote his entire time to painting. He began by going back to Europe for fresh contact with its painting - both the contemporaneous experimental work and the historical phases accessible in the museums. He returned to New York in time to enter a canvas in the epochal Armory Show of 1913 and to play an effective part in counteracting the indignation and misunderstanding aroused by that exhibition. His article in a special number of Camera Work dated June 1913 answered reactionary denunciations and intelligently sketched the positive gains achieved by the post-impressionists.

In 1915 Alfred Stieglitz exhibited Bluemner's work at his famous "291" gallery in New York City. In the next year Bluemner was among the seventeen experimental painters included in the Forum Exhibition in New York City, another significant event in the reorientation of American art. Through the decade following, Bluemner's work appeared regularly before the public in a number of galleries, but sales were few. After the death of his wife in 1926 Bluemner settled permanently in South Braintree, Massachussets Early in 1928 Stieglitz gave him another solo exhibit, this time at the Intimate Gallery. Bluemner pointed out musical origins and parallels for his pictures; although the critics responded less censoriously than before, sales continued inadequate.

Accordingly, with many other artists during the Depression Thirties, he entered the federal government's Public Works of Art Project. One more exhibition of his work was held during his lifetime - at the Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, in 1935. For this occasion Bluemner flourished the new signature "Florianus"; he also renewed emphasis upon musical analogies by the very titles of the paintings. His colors were bolder in combination and more brilliant in hue than ever; the critics continued cautious and the collectors reluctant. Three years later, his health seriously affected and his financial future as grim as his present, he took his own life. After cremation, the ashes were placed in the Columbarium at Forest Hills, Boston.

Achievements

• Often overlooked in his lifetime, Oscar Bluemner now is widely acknowledged as a key player in the creation of American artistic Modernism. Bluemner's major concept, as affecting twentieth-century painting in general and his own in particular, was that of using color as the musical composer uses sound. One of his best known works, Illusion of a Prairie (1915), was sold in New York for $5, 346, 500 on November 30, 2011.

Works

More photos

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  • Oscar Bluemner Evening Tones (also known as Bronx River at Mr. Vernon) - 18" x 27" Premium Canvas Print

    (18" x 27" Oscar Bluemner Evening Tones (also known as Bro...)

  • book

Views

Quotations: "Indeed, color creates its own form; so that to a specific color, its tone, chroma, hue, a peculiar direction, a position in space, an outline and mass may be assigned by the imaginative artist for the purpose of creating a definite psychical effect, mood, emotion. This theory is traceable in the romantic principle of color in past painting. "

Connections

Oscar Bluemner was married in 1896 to Lina Schumn, by whom he had a son, Robert, and a daughter, Vera.

Father:

Hermann Bluemner

Spouse:

Lina (Schumn) Bluemner

Daughter:

Vera Bluemner

Son:

Robert Bluemner

References

• Oscar Bluemner : A Passion for Color