Oscar Florianus Bluemner 1867-1938

Oscar Florianus Bluemner (1867-1938) is widely considered one of the most influential figures of the modernist era and helped define and advance abstract art in America. Bluemner's highly personal and boldy colored landscapes caused a commotion in the famous Amory Show of 1913 in New York among supporters and detractors alike. Impressed by work of European contemporaries such as Cezanne and Van Gogh, Bluemner was not interested in simply imitating life. Using elements of reality as a starting point, he then transformed them into abstracted ideas. Bluemner explained, I wish to convey not the reproduction of nature for the sake of sentiment or accuracy, but perhapds like the musician I want to create feeely, artistically.