Oscar Bluemner Online Exhibition

OSCAR BLUEMNER

Although Oscar Bluemner was best known for his boldly colored landscape paintings on paper, his drawings played an integral role in his artistic process. He would begin with sketches made in the field quickly, but not thoughtlessly. Upon close inspection, one can see notations about color scattered over many of his sketches. These notes would ultimately guide his color choices for the finished gouaches and watercolors. Bluemner always chose to draw, and subsequently paint, his local environment, as he believed that he could best understand and amplify color if it came from the familiar. That is why the titles of his drawings come from New York City, its New Jersey suburbs, or his native Germany. Despite being preliminary and functional, Bluemner’s drawings possess a polish and allure that elevates them to the heights of a finished work of art. Perhaps it is because of his background in architectural drawing or his mastery of composition, but it seems that glimpses into the artist’s mind turn out to be as compelling as his final creations.

OSCAR BLUEMNER (1867-1938)

625 South Sharon Amity Road Charlotte, NC 28211 704.365.3000 gallery@jeraldmelberg.com www.jeraldmelberg.com

NORDERNEY 1889 Graphite on Paper 4 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches One of the seven East Frisian islands off the North Sea coast of Germany.

CHAPEL 1892 Graphite on Paper 6 1/2 x 4 7/8 inches

May refer to New Brooklyn, New Jersey or Brooklyn, New York.

BROOKLYN OCT 12.01 1901

Graphite on Paper 5 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches

Harrison and Rye are neighboring towns in New York state, adjacent to White Plains, New York. These towns are suburbs of New York City.

HARRISON RYE CREEKAUG 6 06 1906

Graphite on Paper 5 x 7 inches

Bogota is a town in New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York City.

BOGOTA 1907 Graphite on Paper 5 x 6 1/4 inches

HARLEM R. JUNE 15-10 1910 Conte on Paper 4 3/8 x 7 3/4 inches Refers to the neighborhood in New York City.

MORRIS CANAL, PORT MURRAY OCT 6-11 1911 Conte on Paper 5 x 7 7/8 inches Port Murray is a small town in western New Jersey. It is unincorporated and located within Mansfield Township.

A view of a tavern in Zerben, Germany.

CAROUSEL, KNAAK’S BIERSTUBE 1912 Ink on Paper 3 5/8 x 5 1/4 inches

SIENNA, LOOKING SOUTHWEST 1912 Graphite on Paper 5 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches There is a Siena, New York outside Albany, but this landscape appears Italian.

ZERBEN 1912 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 8 inches Zerben was a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It has since been merged with seven neighboring municipalities to form Elbe-Parey .

Millington, NJ is an unincorporated community in Long Hill Township.

MILLINGTON, N.Y., PASSAIC RIVER GORGE 1915

Ink and Ink Wash on Paper

4 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches

In Bluemner’s working sketches we can see how he thinks, how he makes selections, rearrangements, and distillations. These studies not only preserve Bluemner’s speculations on the colors that will be needed to bring their patterns to life, but are so abstracted that the artist needed to label the built elements in the depicted environment in order to remind himself of the function of these stark, geometric forms.

Kessler Woodward American Artist, Art Historian and Curator

PATTERSON MAY 26-16 1916 Graphite on Paper 4 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches Patterson (Paterson) is north of Newark, New Jersey.

Bloomfield, New Jersey is just north of Newark.

BLOOMFIELD, NEW JERSEY MAY 9-17 1917 Black Crayon on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches

Located in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

AT ORCHARD PT STATION 1917 Conte and Graphite on Paper 4 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches

Belleville is a Township on the Passaic River just north of Newark, New Jersey.

BELLEVILLE 1917 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

BLOOMFIELD HEIGHTS 1917 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

BLOOMFIELD RIDGE MAY 21-17 1917 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

If nature is beautiful, painting must not imitate her photographic, tangible beauty by tactile values of depth and form. Painting is flat. Vision ignores the realistic material but emphasizes the spiritual emotional, since vision corresponds to our state of soul.

Oscar Bluemner

CANAL, LUMBERVILLE, PA 1917 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches Lumberville, Pennsylvania is a village in Bucks County and a suburb of Philadelphia.

An area of Franklin, New Jersey.

SOHO, FRANKLIN 1917

Conte on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

A park in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

WATSESSING 1917 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

A street in Bloomfield.

BLOOMFIELD, BERKELEY 1918

Blue Conte on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches

A street in Bloomfield.

BLOOMFIELD, MONTGOMERY 1918 Blue Conte on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches

N-BLOOMFIELD SEPT 20-18 1918 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 6 inches

Like the scientist the painter learns to dissect, analyze and revalue, in a pictorial sense, all that is visible in nature, such as light, color, form; and, like the poet, he tries to assemble anew the elements of artistic expression, as line, tone, mass, pigment, by new contrasts, scale and arrangement. In fact, he takes apart the entire artificial fabric of traditional art; weeds out whatever is pictorially unessential, and then reconstructs the elementary effects of which the materials and technical processes of art are capable...

Oscar Bluemner

SNOW, BLOOMFIELD, MONTGOMERY JAN 27-18 1918 Graphite on Paper 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

This may refer to a hospital in Bloomfield.

SOHO-BLOOMFIELD JAN 8-18 1918 Conte and Graphite on Paper 4 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches

RUIN SOHO 1919 Black Crayon and Graphite on Paper 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

CANAL AT SOUTH SHORE SOHO 1919 Black Crayon on Paper 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

SOHO, FRANKLIN FEB 17 1919 Graphite on Paper 4 1/2 x 6 inches

SOHO OCTOBER 3 1919 Graphite on Paper 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

3RD RIVER, JAMES ST. BLOOMFIELD 1921 Graphite on Paper 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches

FARM FIELDS BELLEVILLE-SOHO-FRANKLIN AVE-E. BLMFLD 1921 Graphite on Paper 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches

BIO

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Oscar Florianus Bluemner was born in Prenzlau, Prussia. The son and grandson of builders, he studied design and architecture at Berlin’s Königliche Technische Hochschule. After achieving modest success in Berlin, Bluemner decided to leave Germany in 1892 for America. He later decided to leave architecture for painting after meeting Alfred Stieglitz at the 291 Galleryin New York. While touring Europe for several months in 1912, Bluemner was impressed by the work of fellow artists such as Cezanne and Van Gogh. The following year, he contributed five paintings to the famous International Exhibition of ModernArt (Armory Show) inNewYork. His highly personal and boldly colored landscapes used elements of reality as a starting point, and then he transformed them into abstracted ideas. With this first important exhibition, Oscar Bluemner was to become part of a group of artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Marsden Hartley, among others, all of whom helped bring modernist art to life in America.

2015

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Hand Art Center, Stetson University, DeLand, FL

2013 Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

Hand Art Center, Stetson University, DeLand, FL

2010

The Hoyt Institute, New Castle, PA

2006

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

2005

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, NY

2002

Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC Forum Gallery, New York, NY

1937

Arts Club Gallery, Chicago, IL Philips Collections, Washington DC Neumann’s New Art Circle and Print Room, New York, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Municipal Art Gallery, New York, NY University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Marie Harriman Gallery, New York The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA RCA Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY Public Works Art Project, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1936

1935

1934

1933

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1932

Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Neumann’s New Art Circle and Print Room, New York, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1931

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Albright-Knox), Buffalo, NY Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Stetson University, Deland, FL National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1930

Newark Museum, Newark, NU Salons of America at the American Art Association, New York, NY

1929

Whitney Studio Galleries, New York, NY Boston Society of Independent Artists, Boston, MA

1928

Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, New York, NY

1926

Aline Meyer Lieberman’s Art Room, The Handiwork Center

1925

Wanamaker Gallery of Decorative Art, New York, NY

1924

J.B. Newman’s Art Circle, New York, NY

1923

Bourgeois Galleries, New York, NY

1922

Anderson Galleries, New York, NY Colony Club, New York, NY Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ Bourgeois Galleries, New York, NY

1921

1920

Bourgeois Galleries, New York, NY

1919

Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL Bourgeois Galleries, New York, NY

1918

Bourgeois Galleries, New York, NY

1916

Montross Gallery, New York, NY Anderson Galleries, New York, NY

1915

291 Gallery

1913

Armory Show, New York, NY

1912

Galerie Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin, Germany

1886-87 Latin School, Berlin, Germany

625 South Sharon Amity Road Charlotte, NC 28211 704.365.3000 gallery@jeraldmelberg.com www.jeraldmelberg.com