NEW YORK, NY.- Menconi + Schoelkopf, a leading gallery in the field of American art, presents Bluemner and the Critics, an exhibition of works composed of Bluemner's paintings, drawings and watercolors, along with the artist's extensive writings about his art in his diaries and notebooks. The extraordinary show will run first from November 4th through November 7th at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory, followed by a showing from November 9th through December 17th at the Menconi + Schoelkopf gallery located at 22 East 80th Street in New York City.

Oscar Bluemner’s impact and legacy over the past century is analogous to the experience of other leading modernists: embraced in the years leading up to and following 1913’s Armory Show and the 1916 Forum Exhibition: they mostly fell out of favor during the middle decades of the twentieth century, only to be rediscovered in the years following America’s Bicentennial in the late 1970s and 1980s. The story of Bluemner’s life and career are emblems of the friction and benefit of the developing crosscurrents between Europe and America. Bluemner and the Critics shares the artist’s career and accomplishments through his works of art, writings, theories, and also through the words of America’s leading critics over the broad sweep of the twentieth century.

“We believe the market’s reevaluation of Bluemner’s contributions is central to expanding international interest in and understanding of American modernism, “said Andy Schoelkopf, Owner of Menconi + Schoelkopf. “Oscar Bluemner was a German immigrant who had a tougher time than most, it seems all the more exhilarating today that he created the body of work he did in a life shortened by suicide and riddled with challenges and losses all along. Every struggle along the way seemed to temporarily set him back, but he persevered for decades, creating a unique and staggeringly important body of work. We are thrilled to present Bluemner and the Critics at both at the Art Show and at the gallery, giving Bluemner the spotlight he deserves.”

A decorated architect, Bluemner came to America from Hanover, Germany in 1892 to contribute designs for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Bluemner was inspired by German roots and the crosscurrents and revelations created by the German Expressionists. Bluemner returned to his native Germany in 1912 where he exhibited at the Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin—his first solo exhibition—and returned to New York early in 1913, eager to be considered in the second round of selections to present in the titanic Armory Show. The years 1912 and 1913 mark an explosive turning point in Bluemner’s career and herald the emergence of a second strain of the American-European dialogue regarding Modern art. The German-American conversation was led in America by Bluemner, Marsden Hartley, and by the gallerist J. B. Neumann. Bluemner’s voice was central to the discussion.