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Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

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Item Ships From: Manhattan
Colby 10 (Abstract painting)
By Peter Soriano
Located in London, GB
Colby 10 (Abstract painting) Spray paint, pencil, ink, watercolor on paper - Unframed Peter Soriano is an abstract artist who divides his time between New York City and Penobscot, ...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Spray Paint, Watercolor, Pencil

Study #26, 1960s Gouache painting Signed Framed Pace & Hudson Gallery provenance
By Jack Youngerman
Located in New York, NY
Jack Youngerman Untitled Study #26, 1967 Gouache painting on paper (with original JL Hudson and PACE Gallery labels) Hand signed and dated '67 on the front; J.L. Hudson Gallery Label on Verso. Unique Abstract Expressionist work on paper Frame included Framed Measurements: Framed: 15 inches by 15 inches by 1.5 inch Artwork: 7.75 inches by 7.5 inches Provenance From the estate of Anne Markley Spivak J. L. Hudson Gallery Label affixed to verso (back). The J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, Michigan This 1967 unique, signed gouache painting by renowned abstract expressionist painter Jack Youngerman was acquired from the estate of Anne Markley Spivak. It is held in the original vintage metal frame with the original J.L. Hudson Gallery label, as well as the PACE gallery label on the verso The artwork has been newly loated and framed in a museum quality white wood frame; the original labels from the original back board have been affixed to the back to preserve provenance. Jack Youngerman Biography Jack Youngerman was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 25, 1926. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929 and studied at the University of Missouri, Columbia from 1944 to 1946 under a wartime navy training program. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1947 and, that same year, he returned to Missouri to finish his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism before moving to Paris on a G.I. scholarship. In Paris, Youngerman enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, studying drawing with Jean Souverbie. He explored Paris, taking in the cathedrals, museums, and history in order to grasp a greater sense of art history. He also traveled to the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Italy, and Greece on fine art excursions. In 1948, Youngerman became friends with Ellsworth Kelly, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Cesar – fellow students at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He married Delphine Seyrig in 1950, and later that year he had his first group exhibition at Galerie Maeght in Paris. He visited the studios of Constantín Brancusi and Jean Arp and became heavily influenced by the organic forms present in their work. He also met artist Alexander Calder through his father-in-law, Henri Seyrig, and experimental filmmaker and artist, Robert Breer...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

#7- intricate beige 3D abstract aerial landscape drawing with pulled paper fiber
Located in New York, NY
Finesse and delicateness are what best characterize Antonin Anzil’s artistic practice. Using a sharp tool to carefully pull the fiber of the paper from the front, the artist gives bi...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

Low Reservoir, colorful Abstract Impressionist landscape gouache
By Sandy Litchfield
Located in New York, NY
Sandy Litchfield found peace and inspiration in regular solitary walks through nature throughout the pandemic. Her most recent body of work diaristically documents her constitutional...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Color Pencil

Effloresce (Abstract painting)
By Anya Spielman
Located in London, GB
Effloresce (Abstract painting) Oil on paper - Unframed Framed on request Spielman uses oil paint on canvas, paper and panel in various sizes; she works on up to forty paintings at ...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

Blade Graffiti art (Blade drawing Blade tag)
Located in NEW YORK, NY
BLADE graffiti drawing: A classic graffiti tag from Blade - King of Graffiti. Executed circa late 1980s or early the 1990s, the work features a classic Blade Tag in marker, alongside...
Category

1990s Street Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Permanent Marker

Screech of ice series 41 (Abstract drawing)
By Jaanika Peerna
Located in London, GB
Colored pencil and graphite on plastic paper. Unframed. Screech of Ice is a new series of drawings made by holding a bunch of pencils in two hands and letting them to do the control...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Plastic, Paper, Color Pencil, Graphite

Minimalist painting on paper by pioneering sculptor Lyman Kipp, signed, Framed
Located in New York, NY
Lyman Kipp Untitled Minimalist painting on paper, 1981 Oil paint on paper Signed and dated 1981 on the front Floated and framed in the original vintage frame under UV plexiglass Meas...
Category

1980s Minimalist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Oil

Unique painting on paper, hand signed by Minimalist pioneer Lyman Kipp, Framed
Located in New York, NY
Lyman Kipp Unique painting on paper done with paint roller, 1970 Ink roller painting on paper Signed and dated in ink by Lyman Kipp on the lower right Frame included: elegantly frame...
Category

1970s Minimalist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Oil

untitled- abstract nude woman bright color oil pastel drawing on paper
By Bruno Lassalle
Located in New York, NY
Bruno Lassalle Untitled, 1993 18.75 x 15.75 inches; framed in natural wood color 21.6 x 19.6 inches oil pastels on board signed 'LASSALLE' and dated recto; stamped verso Bruno Lassa...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Pastel, Archival Paper

Berlin
By Peter Soriano
Located in London, GB
Spray paint, pencil, ink, watercolor on paper. Unframed. Peter Soriano works on relatively large sheets of Japanese paper with a tendency to work from something observed, ideally ar...
Category

2010s Conceptual Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Spray Paint, Watercolor, Pencil

Covers 20 Red A (Abstract Drawing)
By Joanne Freeman
Located in London, GB
Covers 20 Red A (Abstract Drawing) Gouache on handmade Khadi paper - Unframed. Joanne Freeman's works on paper are made with gouache on handmade Indian Khadi paper. She uses tape t...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Effloresce (Abstract painting)
By Anya Spielman
Located in London, GB
Oil on paper - Unframed Framed on request Spielman uses oil paint on canvas, paper and panel in various sizes; she works on up to forty paintings at a time, moving between them as each begins to form, then isolating a work to bring to completion. Her saturated surfaces are luminous, with alternate glossy and matte layers, but also bear rough nail marks that scar and deconstruct the work. These etched lines and marks relate to an image and idea, and are often the underlying structure, the submerged language of a work. Her use of reds and pinks link to flesh and blood...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

In A Spin (Unique)
By Damien Hirst
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Hirst, Damien Title: In A Spin (Unique) Series: in a spin Date: 2002 Medium: acrylic, crayon, printers inks & pencil on paper Unframed Dimension...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic

In A Spin (Unique)
In A Spin (Unique)
$39,200 Sale Price
20% Off
Modernist Abstract Lithograph w/ Multicolor Looping Line Work signed Yaakov Agam
Located in New York, NY
This Lovely Modernist Lithograph Originates from the Israeli born artist Yaakov Agam (made in Paris, France Circa 1980). This Lithograph is an Artist's Proof and a member of Agam's "...
Category

1980s Modern Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Lithograph

Lust
Located in New York, NY
Ink on paper, Acrylic and / or watercolor, signed in the front, framed in a aluminum silver frame, glass. Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Sign...
Category

2010s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Abstract Mixed Media environmental art collage Andre Emmerich Gallery, Signed
By Judy Pfaff
Located in New York, NY
Judy Pfaff Untitled, 1994 Collage, Mixed media, Gouache and Leaves on paper, in Artist's Frame. Signed with Andre Emmerich & Bellas Artes Gallery Labels - accompanied by original shi...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Gouache

"Superposition 06" stylish blue and teal textured abstract pigment work on paper
Located in Dallas, TX
Emma's artwork is inspired by the Parisian luxury world of fashion, textures and colour. This beautifully layered blue and teal tone artwork titled "Superposition 06" works well on i...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper, Pigment

Fusion, a highly detailed geometric black ink drawing on clay-coated panel
By Jenifer Kent
Located in New York, NY
This mesmerizing ink drawing on clay-coated panel by Jenifer Kent shows off the artist's meditative process as she hand-draws, without assistance from a straight edge, a network of l...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Wood Panel

Flit, abstract geometric black and white ink drawing on paper, 2022
By Jenifer Kent
Located in New York, NY
Flit, is an abstract geometric black ink drawing on white paper, 2022. The work is hand-drawn by the artist without any ruler or straight edge. She works organically from the center,...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Singularity, Halsey Chait, Abstract India Ink Drawing, Circle, Black, White
By Halsey Chait
Located in New York, NY
"Singularity" by Halsey Chait India Ink on 250 GSM Lenox 100 Cotton Rag Paper Halsey Chait's drawings develop according to the rules and mathematics that govern the growth processes...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, India Ink, Rag Paper

7-28-22, Impressionist, abstracted landscape drawing with colored pencil
By Sandy Litchfield
Located in New York, NY
Sandy Litchfield brings her magical abstracted landscapes to a new medium in her recent colored pencil drawings. Loose, delicate lines scramble over one another, bringing a diffuse, ...
Category

2010s Impressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Color Pencil

Tsakli 4-03-2022, abstract water media painting
By Ray Kass
Located in New York, NY
The latest watercolors from Ray Kass strike a balance between audacity and contemplation. Drawing from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Tsakli - sets of miniature paintings feat...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Wax, Watercolor, Wood Panel, Pigment, Mica

Paris Cloud Drawing (signed and inscribed to David) unique work on colored paper
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
KAWS Cloud Drawing done in white marker on colored paper, 2010 Signed, dated and inscribed to David in white marker with a dateline of Paris Floated and framed in a white wood frame ...
Category

2010s Street Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Permanent Marker

Blade Graffiti art 1992 (Blade train drawing Blade king of graffiti)
Located in NEW YORK, NY
BLADE subway graffiti drawing 1992: A stunning, highly collectible original work from Blade - King of Graffiti. Executed in 1992, the work was created ...
Category

1990s Street Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Permanent Marker

Geometric Abstraction (unique, signed graphite drawing gifted to fellow artist)
By Peter Halley
Located in New York, NY
Peter Halley Untitled Geometric Abstraction, ca. 1990 Graphite and Ink Signed in graphite pencil by Peter Halley; lower right front Frame included: floated and framed in wood frame U...
Category

1990s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Graphite

Framed Watercolor Painting on Handmade Indian Paper: Blackbird A
Located in New York, NY
Guillermo Bublik is an Argentinian/American painter based in New Jersey. His works are easily recognizable by their bold combinations of colors and abstract geometric forms. Commonly...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Handmade Paper

"Your Own Heart" unique signed, colleague of Warhol, Haring, Basquiat & Scharf
By Ronnie Cutrone
Located in New York, NY
Ronnie Cutrone Your Own Heart, 1987 Watercolor and Silkscreen on Paper Signed, dated and numbered from the edition of 7, with each work being unique. 40 × 30 inches Fantastic vintage...
Category

1980s Pop Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Permanent Marker, Screen

Half & Half Again - Original Work on Folded Paper - Abstract Minimalist
By Jean Wolff
Located in New York, NY
Half & Half Again is an original work on folded paper by artist Jean Wolff. 30" x 22' 2013 Signed on back (verso) in pencil with name and date Optional framing JEAN WOLFF is a Ne...
Category

2010s Minimalist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

To Break, To Blossom 24/05
Located in New York, NY
Aida experiences resilience: she paints, she breaks and she rebuilds. Watercolor, subtle and delicate, turns into great sculpture. The beauty of scars in her work — imperfect and fra...
Category

2010s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Santi Moix, Brazilian artist, Consilience, unique signed work on paper, Framed
By Santi Moix
Located in New York, NY
Santi Moix Consilience, 2009 Crayon and pencil on paper Signed and dated 2009 in crayon on the front Unique Frame included Provenance: the Artist and Kasmin Gallery This exquisite, u...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Crayon, Pencil, Color Pencil

"Friendly Reminder" 2024 ink and colored pencil on paper
By Maeve D'Arcy
Located in New York, NY
Maeve D'Arcy Friendly Reminder, 2024 ink and colored pencil on paper 22 x 30 in. (dar147)
Category

2010s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Color Pencil

In Two Minds
Located in New York, NY
About the Series: “Sensitive Material” In this Work on Paper Series, started in 2020, Claire Gilliam continues her exploration of Visual Language. She uses a common motif, the Latin ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Wood, Paper, Ink

Sapath II, Halsey Chait, Abstract Drawing, Geometric, Circle, Black, White
By Halsey Chait
Located in New York, NY
"Sapath II" by Halsey Chait Acrylic on Paper Halsey Chait's drawings develop according to the rules and mathematics that govern the growth processes of life forms and molecular stru...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Unique Cloud Drawing, hand signed, dated and inscribed to Caroline, in monograph
By KAWS
Located in New York, NY
KAWS Unique Cloud Drawing, inscribed to Caroline Original drawing done in silver marker. Hand signed, inscribed and dated. Held in hardback monograph 11 × 8 3/4 inches Boldly hand s...
Category

2010s Street Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Permanent Marker, Offset

Echoes in the Undercurrent, 2025
Located in New York, NY
Jacquelyn Strycker Echoes in the Undercurrent, 2025 risograph on handmade paper with sewing, acrylic gouache, and watercolor 8.5 x 11 in. (Str005) Pattern is also prominent in the l...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache, Handmade Paper

Josette Urso "Scuba" Water Color on Paper, Framed
By Josette Urso
Located in New York, NY
Of her recent works, Urso states, "I make exploratory paintings, working in response to my immediate environment. My approach involves moment-to-moment extrapolation governed by intu...
Category

2010s Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Robert Goodnough, Seated Girl, original hand signed charcoal drawing
By Robert Goodnough, 1917-2010
Located in New York, NY
ROBERT GOODNOUGH Seated Girl, 1961 Charcoal Drawing on Paper 23 3/4 × 18 inches Hand signed in charcoal on the front Unframed Unique This is an exquisite, rare poignant early Robert ...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Turkey Dracula mixed media watercolor, California Pop star Signed AP 6/10 Framed
By Billy Al Bengston
Located in New York, NY
Billy Al Bengston Turkey Dracula, 1973 Color lithograph with hand coloring and watercolor (unique variant) on Lanaquaralle paper with deckled edges Hand signed and numbered A.P. #6, ...
Category

1970s Pop Art Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Lithograph

Geometric Abstraction, signed and inscribed to designer Robert Vogele, Framed
By Ron Gorchov
Located in New York, NY
Ron Gorchov Untitled, inscribed to Robert Vogele, 1978 Watercolor and etching on paper with 2 deckled edges. Hand signed in pencil and inscribed on lower front. Inscription reads as ...
Category

1970s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Etching

An Interior Language I
Located in New York, NY
About the Series: Gilliam began the series Life Lines in 2017 after recently coming into possession of MRI scans of her brain. The scans, which she spent hours pouring over, both fas...
Category

2010s Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Etching, Aquatint, Photographic Paper, Photogram

Never Ending Story
Located in New York, NY
Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Signs are for him an intermediary between abstraction and writing. He started painting 32 years ago, at the age...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Paper, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper

Josette Urso "Sea Chain" Water Color on Paper
By Josette Urso
Located in New York, NY
Of her recent works, Urso states, "I make exploratory paintings, working in response to my immediate environment. My approach involves moment-to-moment extrapolation governed by intu...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Josette Urso "Bella" Watercolor on Paper
By Josette Urso
Located in New York, NY
Of her recent works, Urso states, "I make exploratory paintings, working in response to my immediate environment. My approach involves moment-to-moment extrapolation governed by intu...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Josette Urso "Nest" Water Color on Paper
By Josette Urso
Located in New York, NY
Josette Urso "Nest" Water Color on Paper
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

An Interior Language IV
Located in New York, NY
About the Series: Gilliam began the series Life Lines in 2017 after recently coming into possession of MRI scans of her brain. The scans, which she spent hours pouring over, both fas...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Etching, Aquatint, Photographic Paper, Photogram

Color Circle and Star, Marker on fabric print Hand signed (ed of only 20) Framed
By Polly Apfelbaum
Located in New York, NY
Polly Apfelbaum Color Circle and Star, 2004 Fabric Marker and Fabric Dye on Velvet Cotton Signed and dated in ink by the artist on the front with artist's inkstamp. Frame Included Si...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Fabric, Dye, Ink, Mixed Media, Permanent Marker

Unique SIGNED Abstract Expressionist drawing major WPA artist, Estate issued COA
By William Baziotes
Located in New York, NY
WILLIAM BAZIOTES Untitled Abstract Expressionist Mid Century Modern ink drawing with Estate COA, ca. 1955 Ink Drawing on Paper Signed lower right recto. Accompanied by letter of aut...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Josette Urso "Lake and Sky" Water Color on Paper
By Josette Urso
Located in New York, NY
Josette Urso Lake and Sky, 2022 watercolor on paper 6 x 6 in.
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Jamie Nares, Original flower monotype (unique, hand signed) Framed, de-accession
By James Nares
Located in New York, NY
James Nares Untitled flower monotype, 1988 Monotype on hand made paper Pencil signed and dated by James Nares on the lower right front Frame included: floated in the original wood fr...
Category

1980s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Handmade Paper, Monotype

Nancy Cohen "Topography of the Body" Paper Pulp and Handmade Paper
By Nancy Cohen
Located in New York, NY
Line is the operative formal element in the work shown here, but there are many other lines in play. Pieces walk a line between drawings that might be tapestries or sculptures or pa...
Category

2010s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Handmade Paper

Sunlight on the Lattice of Memory, 2025
Located in New York, NY
Jacquelyn Strycker Sunlight on the Lattice of Memory, 2025 risograph on handmade paper with sewing, acrylic gouache, and watercolor 8.5 x 11 in. (Str001) Pattern is also prominent ...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache, Handmade Paper

Untitled
By David Storey
Located in New York, NY
David Storey Untitled, 1993 Charcoal and pastel 29 x 19 inches (sheet) 30 x 20 inches (frame) Unsigned Natural wood frame with light white wash. Floated in window opening. 1.5'' dep...
Category

1990s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Pastel

Robert Petersen After A Rain #2 unique abstract signed collage, Castelli Gallery
Located in New York, NY
Robert Petersen After A Rain #2, 1987 Collage on Paper: Pencil, Oil, Acrylic and Cloth Hand signed, dated and titled on lower front with Castelli Graphics label on the back Frame Inc...
Category

1980s Abstract Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Textile, Oil, Acrylic, Graphite

Katherine Porter Geometric abstract watercolor & graphite on paper Signed Framed
By Katherine Porter
Located in New York, NY
Katherine Porter Geometric Abstraction, 1971 Watercolor and graphite on graph paper Signed and dated "Katherine Porter 1971" in pencil on the front Held in original vintage 1970s met...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite, Mixed Media

Life Spiral, Beacon, NY, 2020
By Matt Kinney
Located in Hudson, NY
ABOUT Matt Kinney was born in Georgetown, Massachusetts. He attended Pratt Institute and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, graduating in 1998. After graduation, Kinney began in...
Category

2010s Contemporary Manhattan - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Study for Old Canal, Red and Blue (Rockaway, Morris Canal)
By Oscar Florianus Bluemner
Located in New York, NY
Oscar Bluemner was a German and an American, a trained architect who read voraciously in art theory, color theory, and philosophy, a writer of art criticism both in German and English, and, above all, a practicing artist. Bluemner was an intense man, who sought to express and share, through drawing and painting, universal emotional experience. Undergirded by theory, Bluemner chose color and line for his vehicles; but color especially became the focus of his passion. He was neither abstract artist nor realist, but employed the “expressional use of real phenomena” to pursue his ends. (Oscar Bluemner, from unpublished typescript on “Modern Art” for Camera Work, in Bluemner papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, as cited and quoted in Jeffrey R. Hayes, Oscar Bluemner [1991], p. 60. The Bluemner papers in the Archives [hereafter abbreviated as AAA] are the primary source for Bluemner scholars. Jeffrey Hayes read them thoroughly and translated key passages for his doctoral dissertation, Oscar Bluemner: Life, Art, and Theory [University of Maryland, 1982; UMI reprint, 1982], which remains the most comprehensive source on Bluemner. In 1991, Hayes published a monographic study of Bluemner digested from his dissertation and, in 2005, contributed a brief essay to the gallery show at Barbara Mathes, op. cit.. The most recent, accessible, and comprehensive view of Bluemner is the richly illustrated, Barbara Haskell, Oscar Bluemner: A Passion for Color, exhib. cat. [New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2005.]) Bluemner was born in the industrial city of Prenzlau, Prussia, the son and grandson of builders and artisans. He followed the family predilection and studied architecture, receiving a traditional and thorough German training. He was a prize-winning student and appeared to be on his way to a successful career when he decided, in 1892, to emigrate to America, drawn perhaps by the prospect of immediate architectural opportunities at the Chicago World’s Fair, but, more importantly, seeking a freedom of expression and an expansiveness that he believed he would find in the New World. The course of Bluemner’s American career proved uneven. He did indeed work as an architect in Chicago, but left there distressed at the formulaic quality of what he was paid to do. Plagued by periods of unemployment, he lived variously in Chicago, New York, and Boston. At one especially low point, he pawned his coat and drafting tools and lived in a Bowery flophouse, selling calendars on the streets of New York and begging for stale bread. In Boston, he almost decided to return home to Germany, but was deterred partly because he could not afford the fare for passage. He changed plans and direction again, heading for Chicago, where he married Lina Schumm, a second-generation German-American from Wisconsin. Their first child, Paul Robert, was born in 1897. In 1899, Bluemner became an American citizen. They moved to New York City where, until 1912, Bluemner worked as an architect and draftsman to support his family, which also included a daughter, Ella Vera, born in 1903. All the while, Oscar Bluemner was attracted to the freer possibilities of art. He spent weekends roaming Manhattan’s rural margins, visiting the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, sketching landscapes in hundreds of small conté crayon drawings. Unlike so many city-based artists, Bluemner did not venture out in search of pristine countryside or unspoiled nature. As he wrote in 1932, in an unsuccessful application for a Guggenheim Fellowship, “I prefer the intimate landscape of our common surroundings, where town and country mingle. For we are in the habit to carry into them our feelings of pain and pleasure, our moods” (as quoted by Joyce E. Brodsky in “Oscar Bluemner in Black and White,” p. 4, in Bulletin 1977, I, no. 5, The William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut). By 1911, Bluemner had found a powerful muse in a series of old industrial towns, mostly in New Jersey, strung along the route of the Morris Canal. While he educated himself at museums and art galleries, Bluemner entered numerous architectural competitions. In 1903, in partnership with Michael Garven, he designed a new courthouse for Bronx County. Garven, who had ties to Tammany Hall, attempted to exclude Bluemner from financial or artistic credit, but Bluemner promptly sued, and, finally, in 1911, after numerous appeals, won a $7,000 judgment. Barbara Haskell’s recent catalogue reveals more details of Bluemner’s architectural career than have previously been known. Bluemner the architect was also married with a wife and two children. He took what work he could get and had little pride in what he produced, a galling situation for a passionate idealist, and the undoubted explanation for why he later destroyed the bulk of his records for these years. Beginning in 1907, Bluemner maintained a diary, his “Own Principles of Painting,” where he refined his ideas and incorporated insights from his extensive reading in philosophy and criticism both in English and German to create a theoretical basis for his art. Sometime between 1908 and 1910, Bluemner’s life as an artist was transformed by his encounter with the German-educated Alfred Stieglitz, proprietor of the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue. The two men were kindred Teutonic souls. Bluemner met Stieglitz at about the time that Stieglitz was shifting his serious attention away from photography and toward contemporary art in a modernist idiom. Stieglitz encouraged and presided over Bluemner’s transition from architect to painter. During the same period elements of Bluemner’s study of art began to coalesce into a personal vision. A Van Gogh show in 1908 convinced Bluemner that color could be liberated from the constraints of naturalism. In 1911, Bluemner visited a Cézanne watercolor show at Stieglitz’s gallery and saw, in Cézanne’s formal experiments, a path for uniting Van Gogh’s expressionist use of color with a reality-based but non-objective language of form. A definitive change of course in Bluemner’s professional life came in 1912. Ironically, it was the proceeds from his successful suit to gain credit for his architectural work that enabled Bluemner to commit to painting as a profession. Dividing the judgment money to provide for the adequate support of his wife and two children, he took what remained and financed a trip to Europe. Bluemner traveled across the Continent and England, seeing as much art as possible along the way, and always working at a feverish pace. He took some of his already-completed work with him on his European trip, and arranged his first-ever solo exhibitions in Berlin, Leipzig, and Elberfeld, Germany. After Bluemner returned from his study trip, he was a painter, and would henceforth return to drafting only as a last-ditch expedient to support his family when his art failed to generate sufficient income. Bluemner became part of the circle of Stieglitz artists at “291,” a group which included Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Arthur Dove. He returned to New York in time to show five paintings at the 1913 Armory Show and began, as well, to publish critical and theoretical essays in Stieglitz’s journal, Camera Work. In its pages he cogently defended the Armory Show against the onslaught of conservative attacks. In 1915, under Stieglitz’s auspices, Bluemner had his first American one-man show at “291.” Bluemner’s work offers an interesting contrast with that of another Stieglitz architect-turned-artist, John Marin, who also had New Jersey connections. The years after 1914 were increasingly uncomfortable. Bluemner remained, all of his life, proud of his German cultural legacy, contributing regularly to German language journals and newspapers in this country. The anti-German sentiment, indeed mania, before and during World War I, made life difficult for the artist and his family. It is impossible to escape the political agenda in Charles Caffin’s critique of Bluemner’s 1915 show. Caffin found in Bluemner’s precise and earnest explorations of form, “drilled, regimented, coerced . . . formations . . . utterly alien to the American idea of democracy” (New York American, reprinted in Camera Work, no. 48 [Oct. 1916], as quoted in Hayes, 1991, p. 71). In 1916, seeking a change of scene, more freedom to paint, and lower expenses, Bluemner moved his family to New Jersey, familiar terrain from his earlier sketching and painting. During the ten years they lived in New Jersey, the Bluemner family moved around the state, usually, but not always, one step ahead of the rent collector. In 1917, Stieglitz closed “291” and did not reestablish a Manhattan gallery until 1925. In the interim, Bluemner developed relationships with other dealers and with patrons. Throughout his career he drew support and encouragement from art cognoscenti who recognized his talent and the high quality of his work. Unfortunately, that did not pay the bills. Chronic shortfalls were aggravated by Bluemner’s inability to sustain supportive relationships. He was a difficult man, eternally bitter at the gap between the ideal and the real. Hard on himself and hard on those around him, he ultimately always found a reason to bite the hand that fed him. Bluemner never achieved financial stability. He left New Jersey in 1926, after the death of his beloved wife, and settled in South Braintree, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, where he continued to paint until his own death in 1938. As late as 1934 and again in 1936, he worked for New Deal art programs designed to support struggling artists. Bluemner held popular taste and mass culture in contempt, and there was certainly no room in his quasi-religious approach to art for accommodation to any perceived commercial advantage. His German background was also problematic, not only for its political disadvantages, but because, in a world where art is understood in terms of national styles, Bluemner was sui generis, and, to this day, lacks a comfortable context. In 1933, Bluemner adopted Florianus (definitively revising his birth names, Friedrich Julius Oskar) as his middle name and incorporated it into his signature, to present “a Latin version of his own surname that he believed reinforced his career-long effort to translate ordinary perceptions into the more timeless and universal languages of art” (Hayes 1982, p. 189 n. 1). In 1939, critic Paul Rosenfeld, a friend and member of the Stieglitz circle, responding to the difficulty in categorizing Bluemner, perceptively located him among “the ranks of the pre-Nazi German moderns” (Hayes 1991, p. 41). Bluemner was powerfully influenced in his career by the intellectual heritage of two towering figures of nineteenth-century German culture, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. A keen student of color theory, Bluemner gave pride of place to the formulations of Goethe, who equated specific colors with emotional properties. In a November 19, 1915, interview in the German-language newspaper, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung (Abendblatt), he stated: I comprehend the visible world . . . abstract the primary-artistic . . . and after these elements of realty are extracted and analyzed, I reconstruct a new free creation that still resembles the original, but also . . . becomes an objectification of the abstract idea of beauty. The first—and most conspicuous mark of this creation is . . . colors which accord with the character of things, the locality . . . [and which] like the colors of Cranach, van der Weyden, or Durer, are of absolute purity, breadth, and luminosity. . . . I proceed from the psychological use of color by the Old Masters . . . [in which] we immediately recognize colors as carriers of “sorrow and joy” in Goethe’s sense, or as signs of human relationship. . . . Upon this color symbolism rests the beauty as well as the expressiveness, of earlier sacred paintings. Above all, I recognize myself as a contributor to the new German theory of light and color, which expands Goethe’s law of color through modern scientific means (as quoted in Hayes 1991, p. 71). Hayes has traced the global extent of Bluemner’s intellectual indebtedness to Hegel (1991, pp. 36–37). More specifically, Bluemner made visual, in his art, the Hegelian world view, in the thesis and antithesis of the straight line and the curve, the red and the green, the vertical and the horizontal, the agitation and the calm. Bluemner respected all of these elements equally, painting and drawing the tension and dynamic of the dialectic and seeking ultimate reconciliation in a final visual synthesis. Bluemner was a keen student of art, past and present, looking, dissecting, and digesting all that he saw. He found precedents for his non-naturalist use of brilliant-hued color not only in the work Van Gogh and Cezanne, but also in Gauguin, the Nabis, and the Symbolists, as well as among his contemporaries, the young Germans of Der Blaue Reiter. Bluemner was accustomed to working to the absolute standard of precision required of the architectural draftsman, who adjusts a design many times until its reality incorporates both practical imperatives and aesthetic intentions. Hayes describes Bluemner’s working method, explaining how the artist produced multiple images playing on the same theme—in sketch form, in charcoal, and in watercolor, leading to the oil works that express the ultimate completion of his process (Hayes, 1982, pp. 156–61, including relevant footnotes). Because of Bluemner’s working method, driven not only by visual considerations but also by theoretical constructs, his watercolor and charcoal studies have a unique integrity. They are not, as is sometimes the case with other artists, rough preparatory sketches. They stand on their own, unfinished only in the sense of not finally achieving Bluemner’s carefully considered purpose. The present charcoal drawing is one of a series of images that take as their starting point the Morris Canal as it passed through Rockaway, New Jersey. The Morris Canal industrial towns that Bluemner chose as the points of departure for his early artistic explorations in oil included Paterson with its silk mills (which recalled the mills in the artist’s childhood home in Elberfeld), the port city of Hoboken, Newark, and, more curiously, a series of iron ore mining and refining towns, in the north central part of the state that pre-dated the Canal, harkening back to the era of the Revolutionary War. The Rockaway theme was among the original group of oil paintings that Bluemner painted in six productive months from July through December 1911 and took with him to Europe in 1912. In his painting journal, Bluemner called this work Morris Canal at Rockaway N.J. (AAA, reel 339, frames 150 and 667, Hayes, 1982, pp. 116–17), and exhibited it at the Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin in 1912 as Rockaway N. J. Alter Kanal. After his return, Bluemner scraped down and reworked these canvases. The Rockaway picture survives today, revised between 1914 and 1922, as Old Canal, Red and Blue (Rockaway River) in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C. (color illus. in Haskell, fig. 48, p. 65). For Bluemner, the charcoal expression of his artistic vision was a critical step in composition. It represented his own adaptation of Arthur Wesley’s Dow’s (1857–1922) description of a Japanese...
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