Lot Essay
Born in Preuzlau, Germany in 1867, Oscar Bluemner emigrated to the United States in 1892, the same year he won the Royal Medal in Germany for his painting of an architectural subject. This architectural thread ran throughout Bluemner's career as a painter, as he began to abstract his forms of buildings and homes into clearly delineated shapes. He also began to integrate landscapes into his paintings, which he refined in terms of pure color. Bluemner's early work in America consisted of abstracted landscapes in watercolor, but a trip to Europe in 1912 exposed him to Expressionism, which led to the development of his very personal painting style using primary colors. Untitled, Study combines architectural elements with the natural landscape in blocks of reds and blues, manifesting the artist's unique use of color and form and exemplifying Bluemner's body of work.