Ron Blumberg

The Orator

circa 1948

Rob Blumberg was an accomplished artist who painted in a dizzying variety of styles, including Impressionism, Postimpressionism, Surrealism, Futurism, Expressionism and abstraction. Across these distinctive changes that took place throughout his career, his work consistently possessed a vibrant and passionate glow.

Blumberg was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1908. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City, the Art Students League of New York and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1932, he moved back to New York, where he became a National Academy artist and a member of the Art Students League of New York.

Blumberg moved to California in 1940. In 1950, he opened a prominent private art school in Westwood, Los Angeles. In support of a California statute that granted royalties to artists from profits on resales of their work, he co-founded the grassroots group Artists for Economic Action. As its chairman, he worked closely with state legislators to bring California to the forefront of promoting artists’ rights.

Blumberg’s most prolific period was from 1947 to 1951. Often referred to as his “psychological period,” he delved into many different modernist styles. After 1952, he favored a palette knife over a paintbrush for creating his art. He died in 2002.

Blumberg’s works are part of the permanent collections of major museums, including the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

On 1stDibs, find Ron Blumberg’s paintings, drawings and more.