OSCAR FLORIANUS BLUEMNER

 

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Oscar Florianus Bluemner (1867-1938) was a German born American painter. He was trained to be an architect at the Berlin Institute of Technology. He moved to Chicago in 1893 and in 101 to New York City to find work, but by 1910, he decided to pursue painting.

Bluemner loved primary colours and used these to simplify the image rather than add sense of abstraction. He once said, ‘I paint my attitude’ His early work consisted of romantic landscapes in water colour, but a trip to Europe in 1912 exposed him to many currents of modern arts like Fauvism and Cubism. He developed his own expressionist style. He ‘began to use brighter colours and sharper detail’. Most of his landscapes are about industrial buildings. He began to add mystical elements such as large suns and moons.

Bluemner always prepared his sketches on the site rather than using a camera like many of his contemporary artist. The habit of documenting the details gave him a keen insight and personalized manner of expression. He is acknowledged as an important modernist on the American art scene.

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