In the 1920s, Blumenschein sought to champion modern Indian life, rather than creating idealized images heralding Native culture and art, in works like "Star Road and White Sun,” 1920. "Here Blumenschein applauds a new generation, symbolized by Star Road, the youth in the black hat,” says Hassrick. "Star Road steps out of the traditional past, symbolized by the older man behind him, while still proudly proclaiming his identity as an Indian.” Courtesy of the Albuquerque Museum.
:A founder of the Taos Society Artists, Ernest L. Blumenschein (1874–1960) was a man of many parts: an illustrator in the Golden Age of American illustration, a classically trained painter, an early champion of Modernism, a fervent supporter of Indian culture and an independent artist whose style and vision set him apart from his compatriots.
Blumenschein (called "Blumy" by his friends) used vibrant colors, bold forms, Modernist motifs and a commitment to social issues to convey fresh images of the American Southwest. Whether painting a cerulean sky or a Native American in colorful garb, he animated his canvases with strong designs, expressive light and palpable emotion.
He found the landscape and people of New Mexico moving and exotic, writing soon after his arrival in Taos: "I saw whole paintings right before my eyes….Everywhere I looked, I saw paintings perfectly organized and ready to paint."
Blumenschein's respect for the traditions, culture and dignity of the Pueblo Indians was reflected in his work. His pictures constitute pictorial testimonials to the cultural integrity of Native Americans and respect for their lands. He played an important role in preserving Native American culture.
The artist's colorful and inventive works are showcased in a welcome exhibition, "In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein," on view at the Phoenix Art Museum through June 14.
With 66 pieces, "This exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive effort ever made to assemble, analyze and celebrate Blumenschein's remarkable work," says exhibition curator Peter H. Hassrick, director of the Denver Museum of Art's Petrie Institute of Western American Art. Hassrick makes a good case that Blumenschein's work had a significant influence on mainstream art and national aesthetic developments, confirming "his stature as a significant American artist."
In what he considered one of his best paintings, "The Peacemaker (The Orator),” 1913, Blumenschein depicted two bonneted chiefs connected by a young man whose arm extends across, in the background, a vast gouge out of the earth, the Rio Grande Gorge. It may represent a schism within the Taos Pueblo, or hope for survival of Indian culture in the face of edicts by government bureaucrats, or hope for peace in a Europe on the brink of war. Courtesy of the Anschutz Collection.
Born in Pittsburgh, Blumenschein was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where his father directed the Dayton Philharmonic Society. As a teenager, Ernest was an outstanding athlete and studied the violin at the Cincinnati College of Music, training that profoundly influenced his art. "Movement, composition, rhythm, pattern, harmony and color appear in nearly every mature signature painting," observes Hassrick.
Blumenschein next enrolled at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he discovered his true passion for visual art. After studying painting at New York's Art Students League, he enrolled at the Academie Julian in 1894. In Paris, in addition to traditional academic schooling, he copied works at the Louvre and was exposed to the Impressionists. He also formed lifelong friendships with artists E. Irving Couse, Bert Geer Phillips and Joseph Henry Sharp.
Armed with this formal training, Blumenschein returned to New York and launched a successful career illustrating periodicals (
Harper's, McClure's
) and books (by Joseph Conrad, Jack London). An 1897 assignment from
Scribner's Monthly
took him to New Mexico, an "experience that laid the foundation for his future work," according to art historian Elizabeth J. Cunningham. Illustrating works by Hamlin Garland and other Indian sympathizers opened his eyes to the plight of Native Americans.
Blumenschein discovered Taos in 1898 while traveling with fellow artist Phillips on a sketching trip from Denver to Mexico, when a broken wagon wheel left them stranded outside town. The men tossed a coin to determine who would take the wheel to the nearest blacksmith for repair. Blumenschein lost and conveyed the injured piece on a 22-mile trek to Taos.
During a three-month stay, both artists fell in love with the spectacular scenery and interesting cultures of the Taos area. Phillips stayed, but Blumenschein returned East.
