Attributed to Norman Bluhm, it does not have a COA. Medium: oil canvas, beautiful multicolor abstract art painting, 26 x 22 inches. Provenance: private owner.
Biography: 1921 - 1999. An Abstract Expressionist, Norman Bluhm was born in Chicago in 1921, although as a child he lived in Italy for eight years. His principle education was architecture, and he studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology with Mies van der Rohe. He also studied briefly in Florence before moving to Paris in 1947 to continue studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he was exposed to the ideas of the Bauhaus philosophy of bringing together aesthetically arts and crafts.Prior to and after his studies, Bluhm was a member of the Air Force and served in World War II. After World War II, he lived in Paris with other hopeful American writers and artists of the expatriate scene. There he developed an interest in nude painting.In 1956 he moved to New York. The Cedar Tavern was a favorite gathering place where he convened with other painters and writers, such as Frank O'Hara, Franz Kline, William de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. Among the work of this noted group were the twenty-six Bluhm-O'Hara spontaneous poem paintings, composed in Bluhm's studio atop the old Tiffany Glass Building in 1960. New York University owns the majority of these poems.The Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. exhibited Bluhm's work in his first museum show in 1969. During the 1960s and 1970s, his art created an atmosphere of violence, with a large paint-soaked brush, often using blues, pinks, purples and greens. His work which featured webs of jagged marks, cascading drips and violent splatters of paint, increasingly took on the energy and scale of abstract expressionism. Later his violent outlook changed, as did his style. He has exhibited his works throughout the United States and Europe.A vigorous man with a viselike handshake, he looked and acted twenty years younger. Bluhm died suddenly on February 3,1999 of heart failure in East Wallingford, Vermont. His studio was filled with paintings about to be shipped to the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

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