Oscar Bluemner

Initially an architect from Chicago, Oscar Bluemner decided to become a painter after seeing Cézanne’s one-man show at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery “291.” Prior to a trip to Europe in 1912, Bluemner began this painting of the industrial landscape alongside the Hackensack River in New Jersey. While this painting was featured in the Armory Show, it would have looked very different in 1913. Bluemner’s exposure to modern art at the Armory Show and other galleries inspired him to revise the initial Impressionist appearance of Hackensack River in order to intensify its architectonic structure and expressive color, in keeping with his appreciation of Cézanne.

A concurrent exhibition of Bluemner’s work from 1910–1917, Oscar Bluemner’s America: Picturing Paterson, New Jersey, is also on view at MAM through June 16.

Image: Oscar Bluemner (1867–1938), Hackensack River, 1911 (repainted 1914 and 1916–17), oil on canvas. Collection of the Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL.2000.15.011. Museum purchase made possible by William J. and Suzanne V. von Liebig.