Displaying items by tag: peter blume

Since October, area museums have been resurrecting artists.

Paul Strand was revitalized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art; William Glackens came to life at the Barnes Foundation.

Now the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is featuring Peter Blume (1906-1992), the subject of a fascinating retrospective of 56 paintings and 103 drawings that will remain on view in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building through April 5. An abridged version of the show will travel to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, where it will be seen from July 5 to Sept. 20.

The “Nature and Metamorphosis” retrospective includes 56 paintings and 103 drawings from 1924 through 1990, spanning Peter Blume’s entire career. From jarring early works inspired by the machine age and growth of cities through profound ruminations on to power of nature. Blume’s work helped define American modernism.

While best known as a painter, Blume was a virtuoso, dynamic draftsman, and his drawings show a surprising range. The retrospective is curated by Robert Cozzolino, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) senior curator and curator of Modern Art. “Blume was critical to the development and reception of modernism in America. His work played a key role in disseminating avant-garde ideas in the U.S. art world using a method that resembled Flemish art transposed through the lens of Cubism and the unconscious.