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4* Art-Music-Theater THE CHRISTIAN SIENCE MONITOR, BOSTON, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1945 Bluemner Pictures Shown-Plays and Concerts Pioneer of Modern Painting In New England on Display Today's Art Gallery has put on display a one-man exhibition of a paintings by Oscar Bluemner. This might be considered a memorial exhibition for an artist who was a pioneer of modern painting in New England. Bluemner was one of an idealistic group that launched the Society of Independent Artists here nearly 20 years ago. At that time his pictures were generally regarded as revolutionary. Oscar Bluemner came of a family of architects in Hanover, Germany. He too was practicing architect until he abandoned that profession for painting. His interest in architecture is manifest in many compositions in which buildings provide the framework of design. But color became the primary ingredient. It was color, not in its descriptive function, but color as an instrument of feeling. Oscar Bluemner was an Expressionist. He sent haes up into high registers so that they would sing out more forcefully. He poised values in sharp contrast. He gave emphatic edge to all bound-aries. His lines were sometimes razor sharp, sometimes sinuous. Shapes were clearly delineated with emphasis upon mild distortion. The pictures at Today's Art Gallery reveal the keen mood of experiment. They express the exhilaration which so many artists felt 25 years ago. As Bluemner pitched his palette high, he exulted in the rich and exuberant effect. He called himself, "Vermillionaire." There is deep meaning in that witticism. His palette was his purse and he spent his riches lavishly. One mood of Bluemner carried him towards abstraction, towards a method of breaking up surfaces in a shutter-like pattern of light. But in another mood, he shaped a meaningful symbol with pliant lines and sensitively modulated colors. Bluemner handled paint as though it were music or poetry. Artists of such pronounced literary, mystical trend often show the poster-like character noted in his pictures, on the other hand they may also rise to imposing moments of touching expression. Copley Society Exhibits Two members of the Copley Society, Jacob I. Greenleaf and Doris Daniels Cox, are showing their works at the galleries at 270 Dartmouth Street. Mrs. Cox paints portraits. She has an experienced hand and she comes to terms with the problems of naturalistic portrayal. Her likenesses of children are amiable, and those of adults are painted with discernment. Jacob Greenleaf is a landscapist who has traveled up and down the seacoast and to the New England hills and valleys in search of material. He has done scenes of the Gloucester fisheries, the streets of Rockport, Mt. Monad----- Opening Tonight At the Colonial-"Memphis Bound," Vinton Freed-ley production of a musical comedy presented by John Wildberg, starring Bill Robinson in a cast which includes Avon Long, Sheila Guys, Thelma Carpenter, Ida James, Delta Rhythm Boys, Ada Brown, Frank Wilson, and Georgette Harvey. Robert Ross directed with Eva Jessye assisting. Al White staked the dances, and Anton Dolin arranged the choregraphy. Book is by Albert Barker and Sally Benson, and the score by Don Walker and Clay Warnick. George Jenkins designed the settings, and Lucinda Ballard the costumes. nock, and many other picturesque vistas. He paints with a fairly broad brush, but with regard for those details of rural life that are happily of remembered by city-dwellers. D.A.
