New England Towers

"I prefer the intimate landscape of our common surroundings," Oscar Bluemner wrote, "where town and country mingle. For, we are in the habit of carrying into them our feelings of pain and pleasure, our moods." (as quoted in B. Haskell, Oscar Bluemner: Passion for Color, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2005, pp. 44-45) Dominated by overlapping architectures and varied tones of the artist’s signature red coloration, the present view of New England is reflective of Bluemner's distinctive style and approach to the industrialization of his surroundings.

New England Towers epitomizes Bluemner’s statement: "I present a surprising vision of landscape by the daring new use of colors: large vermilion shapes hard by the serene blue of our American sky, provokingly assertive of a glad defiance—an ecstatic state of mind." (Oscar Bluemner in Retrospect, exhibition catalogue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1939, n.p.) Indeed, the present work demonstrates Bluemner’s dedication to depicting America in a distinctly Modern idiom rooted in his unique perspective of color, emotion and form.