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Home > Art > No. 11 The Village

No. 11 The Village

Artist

Oscar Bluemner

Date

1935-36

Medium

Crayon

ink and wash on paper

Object Type

Work on Paper

Dimensions

H- 4 7/8 x W-6 5/8 in. (12.4 x 16.8 cm)

Artist's Country of Birth

Germany

Collecting Area

American Modernism

Credit Line

The Vilcek Foundation

Accession Number

VF2014.04.10

Copyright

© The Vilcek Foundation

Tags
crayon drawing ink sketch sonnet series work on paper
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About the Object

The eleventh in The Sonnet Series, a group of 12 sketches for paintings, this work features a building in the center of the composition, flanked by additional structures on either side. A snowy hill in the background is capped by a line of trees. Bluemner envisioned the series as three groups of four works, each group defined by color. The final set of four would showcase his “ecstatic” reds.

 

Additional Information

Bluemner created The Sonnet Series based on 12 sonnets by the poet Eirene Mungo-Park. He began work on the drawings for “The 12 Sonnet Paintings” on March 8, 1935, and although he recorded their completion in his painting diary on October 28, 1935, five of the works are dated 1936, suggesting he continued to refine them. He made pages of notes while he worked on the series. These notes include preparatory sketches, illustrating his process as he clarified each composition. Bluemner conceived of the paintings as 15 x 20 inches, three times the size of the finished sketches, but would not live long enough to realize them.

The Artist;
John Davis Hatch, Lenox, MA;
[Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York, NY];
Francoise and Harvey Rambach, New Jersey;
[Martha Parrish & Jim Reinish, Inc., New York, NY];
Private Collection, California;
[James Reinish & Associates, Inc., New York, NY];

Washington, D.C. The Corcoran Gallery of Art. Oscar Bluemner: Landscapes of Sorrow and Joy (December 10, 1988-February 19, 1989); Fort Worth, TX. The Amon Carter Museum (March 18-May 14, 1989); Trenton, NJ. New Jersey State Museum (June 17-September 3, 1989); p. 77,  ill. p. 81, cat. no. 123.

Tulsa, OK. Philbrook Museum of Art. Oscar Bluemner: Forces of Nature and Industry. March 19-November 6, 2016.

Corpus Christi, TX. The Art Museum of South Texas. Masterpieces of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection of American Art. September 13, 2018-January 6, 2019.

New York, NY. The Vilcek Foundation. Oscar Bluemner’s Sonnet Series. 2020-2021.

St. Peter, MN. The Hillstrom Museum of Art. Oscar Bluemner’s Sonnet Series. September 12-November 6, 2022.

Hayes, Jeffrey Russell. “Oscar Bluemner: Life, Art, and Theory,” PhD diss., University of Maryland, 1982, p. 383.

Zimmer, William. “Using ‘Love Red’ as Signature,” New York Times, July 9, 1989.

Brenson, Michael. “Reviews/Art; In New Jersey: A Prussian and Some Passions,” New York Times, August 4, 1989.

Tags
crayon drawing ink sketch sonnet series work on paper
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Related Objects

No. 1 Orion

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Landscape with the constellation Orion in the sky at the center of the drawing.

No. 2 Twilight

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Landscape featuring trees and houses seen through the center of a bridge.

No. 3 Port Beacon

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Landscape with a shoreline and a lighthouse on the far shore casting a beacon of light.

No. 5 Age

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Two anthropomorphic trees set in a landscape.

No. 6 Valley

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
A multi-layered landscape with a valley of houses, hills, and clouds.

No. 7 Budding

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Anthropomorphic plants surround a small bud emerging from the earth.

No. 8 Entangled

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Landscape dominated by large entangled tree trunks, a small church in the background.

No. 9 Blue Arc

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
A group of buildings on the left, on the right an arc of light over an open landscape with distant trees and sky.

No. 10 Tenement

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
A building, one side cast in shadow the other in light, set between trees.

No. 12 Back Yard

1935-36 Oscar Bluemner
Buildings alogside a twisted tree trunk full of leaves.

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