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Lot Essay
Please note that this work will be included in the forthcoming Norman Bluhm, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings edited by John Yau.
Born in Chicago in 1921, Norman Bluhm apprenticed with architect Mies van der Rohe when he was just 16 years old. After a career in the air force as a fighter pilot during World War II, Bluhm studied in Paris on the G.I. bill. There, he took classes at the revered Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he was trained in the fundamentals of draughtsmanship, but he also came to know important members of the Parisian avant-garde, like filmmaker Jean Cocteau and the sculptor Giacometti.
Returning to the United States in 1956, Bluhm settled in New York. He became part of the New York School, devoting himself to an Abstract Expressionist style that hinged upon a gestural abstraction made up of simple bold forms. White Eye typifies the best aspects of Bluhm's Abstract Expressionist style; painted in 1958, a seminal year in the development of his style, the painting displays a series of bold gestures layered within a field of prismatic, shimmering color. There is an inherent sense of structure, though, that unifies the piece, as well as a sense of expansiveness, no doubt a holdover from his early studies with van der Rohe.
Born in Chicago in 1921, Norman Bluhm apprenticed with architect Mies van der Rohe when he was just 16 years old. After a career in the air force as a fighter pilot during World War II, Bluhm studied in Paris on the G.I. bill. There, he took classes at the revered Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he was trained in the fundamentals of draughtsmanship, but he also came to know important members of the Parisian avant-garde, like filmmaker Jean Cocteau and the sculptor Giacometti.
Returning to the United States in 1956, Bluhm settled in New York. He became part of the New York School, devoting himself to an Abstract Expressionist style that hinged upon a gestural abstraction made up of simple bold forms. White Eye typifies the best aspects of Bluhm's Abstract Expressionist style; painted in 1958, a seminal year in the development of his style, the painting displays a series of bold gestures layered within a field of prismatic, shimmering color. There is an inherent sense of structure, though, that unifies the piece, as well as a sense of expansiveness, no doubt a holdover from his early studies with van der Rohe.