id:			161788
accession number:	2001.125
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2001.125
updated:		2023-08-01 11:04:11.630000

Violet Blue, 1959. Norman Bluhm (American, 1920–1999). Watercolor, ink and acrylic; sheet: 67.7 x 101.6 cm (26 5/8 x 40 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund 2001.125

title:				Violet Blue
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1959
creation date earliest:		1959
creation date latest:		1959
current location:		
creditline:			Delia E. Holden Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	America, 20th century
technique:	watercolor, ink and acrylic
department:	Drawings
collection:	DR - American 20th Century
type:		Drawing
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Norman Bluhm (American, 1920–1999)  - artist

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measurements: Sheet: 67.7 x 101.6 cm (26 5/8 x 40 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:

	description:	wove medium-weight watercolor paper
	watermarks:	

inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	(Washburn Gallery, New York, NY)
	date: 
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	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: December 3, 2001
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	citations: 	


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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:
Norman Bluhm belongs to the group of painters frequently referred to as the "second generation" Abstract Expressionists, artists who developed the gestural style pioneered by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and early 1950s. This watercolor falls early in Bluhm's career, at a time when the practices and ideas of the first Abstract Expressionist painters were beginning to influence a number of younger artists. Bluhm's work is characterized by a strong color sense as well as a refined gestural style of brushwork and dripping. We find here a balance between chance splattering and dripping and a controlled, almost calligraphic approach to composition. This is evident in the strokes of white paint—the last applied to this rich and dense composition—which undulate across the paper in rhythmic curves and reversals, but which also drip down the surface.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

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IMAGES