With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Peter Blume
Painting/Drawing
1906 – 1992
- Biography/Description of Work
Born in Russia, Peter Blume emigrated to Brooklyn with his family in 1912. He studied at the Beaux-Art Institute of Design and the Art Students League. His painting contained elements of folk art, Precisionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. He created at least two post office murals for the WPA art projects during the Depression. Blume was a resident of Church Road in Sherman from 1930 to his death. His work is in the collections of the Wadsworth Atheneum and New Britain Museum of American Art.
Exhibition text from the 2015 show “Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis” at the Wadsworth described his role in American modernism, adding: “In addition to the paintings and drawings by Blume that appeared in Nature and Metamorphosis, the Wadsworth Atheneum presented a selection of works from its permanent collection titled, Visions from Home: Surrealism in Connecticut—a companion installation of works by important artists with whom Blume had close ties and regular contact in Connecticut. This included the American artists Alexander Calder and Kay Sage, and European painters Arshile Gorky and Yves Tanguy. Taken together, this pairing of Blume’s works with that of his peers invited visitors to explore how this artistic circle—which also extended to writers, poets, collectors and important art dealers—exchanged ideas and influenced one another and how the environment of Connecticut directly impacted their work.”
- Sources view
- Uconn database, Rachel Carley, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Blume http://www.pafa.org/peterblume/ http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/56682, http://whitney.org/Collection/PeterBlume http://www.vqronline.org/essay/peter-blume-painting-phoenix http://claudmill.freelistingtours.com/index.php/listing/detail/8528487 Peter Blume Article - New York Times - 1934-10-19, Peter Blume Article - New York Times - 1961-1-8, Peter Blume Article - New York Times - 1980-3-21, Peter Blume Obituary - New York Times - 1992-12-1, Rachel Carley Files https://www.thewadsworth.org/peterblume/
- Associated Resource(s)