BIOGRAPHY
German, 1826-1938
Artist Biography
The son and grandson of architects, Oscar Bluemner was born in Prenzlau, Germany, in 1867. He studied painting and architecture at the Royal Academy of Design in Berlin before leaving for New York in 1892. After several years of working as a draftsman in Chicago, Bluemner returned to New York in 1900. In 1903 the architect Michael Garvin hired Bluemner to design the Bronx Borough Courthouse with the promise that he would credit Bluemner and split the commission with him if the proposal was approved. When Garvin submitted the design solely in his name and won the commission, a dispute developed that lead to a lawsuit. Although Bluemner won, the experience turned him away from architecture.
Between 1908 and 1910, Bluemner made sketching trips throughout New Jersey and Long Island. In 1908, he met Alfred Stieglitz, who sparked his interest in the artistic innovations of the European and American avantgarde. In 1912 he began painting in earnest. Bluemner contributed one landscape to the 1913 Armory Show and wrote an article defending modernism for Stieglitz’s progressive publication Camera Work. He had solo shows at Stieglitz’s 291 gallery in 1915 and at the Intimate Gallery in 1928.
His work was well received by critics, yet Bluemner’s mistrust of dealers hampered his ability to achieve financial success. Fascinated with the formal, emotional, and spiritual qualities of strong color, Bluemner dubbed himself the “Vermillionaire” in reference to his reliance on bright red hues. Until the 1920s, he focused on tightly structured, often architectural compositions in the cubist manner. As his career progressed, he found inspiration in classical music and Freudian concepts of the subconscious. His later landscape compositions in oil or casein, on which he often bestowed titles alluding to music, became more abstract, displaying heightened emotional content, simplified masses, and pulsating color.
In 1926, Bluemner moved to South Braintree, Massachusetts, to live in virtual seclusion. He continued to paint and exhibit until he was involved in a disabling auto accident in 1935. Bluemner died by his own hand in 1938.
EDUCATION:
Royal Academy of Design, Berlin, Germany.
EXHIBITIONS:
Painting of New York City. Cavalier Galleries, New York.
April 8 – May 31, 2019.
64th Street Inagural Exhbition, Strange Pictures for Strange Times: Depicting the Unsual.
Februray 13 – March 13, 2017
Order and Intuition, American Abstraction From the Patty & Jay Baker Naples. Museum of Art,
1913-1954. September 18 – October 25, 2008.
Celebrating 25 Years.
March 10 – April 23, 2005
Dreams and Dramas, Moonlight and Twilight in American Art.
May 22 – July 25, 2003.
Living with Art, Early American Modsernist from The Baker/Pisano Collection of The Heckescher
Museum of Art. Ocober 3 – November 2, 2002.
Inherting Cubism, The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1900-1936.
November 28, 2001 – January 12, 2002
Concerning Expressionism, American Modernism and the Germen Avant-Garde.
May 20 – July 31, 1998.
The Color of Modernism, The American Fauves.
April 29 – July 26, 1997
Art Fairs:
Just Off Madison, 18 E 64th Street, May 22, 2017.
The International Show 2015, October 23 – 29, 2015.
Spring Masters New York, May 1 – 4, 2014
Art Wynwood 2014, February 13 – March 17, 2014.
Publications:
Order & Intuation, American Abstraction from the Naples Museum of Art, 1913-1954.
Celebrating 25 Years
Dreams & Dramas, Moonlight and Twilight in American Art.
Living With Art, Early American Modernism from the Baker/Pisano Collection of the Heckscher Museum of Art.
Inherting Cubiism, The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1900-1936.
Concerning Expressionism, American Modernism & the German Avant-Garde.
The Ccolor of Modernism, The American Fauves.