Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis

“[This exhibition] brings back to light a fascinating, singular artist and career.” –Ken Johnson, New York Times, January 15, 2015

Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis is the first retrospective of the American artist Peter Blume (1906–1992) since 1976. Organized by Robert Cozzolino, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Modern Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the exhibition reveals Blume’s central role in the development of American modernism and examines the artist’s impact on late 20th-century narrative painting. The exhibition will be shown at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art from July 3 to September 20, 2015.

Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis also considers Blume’s relationships with a community of artists and writers, many of whom were friends and neighbors in Sherman, Connecticut, where he settled in 1930.

In addition to the paintings and drawings by Blume that appear in Nature and Metamorphosis, the Wadsworth Atheneum will present a selection of works from its permanent collection titled, Visions from Home: Surrealism in Connecticut—a companion installation of works by important artists with whom Blume had close ties and regular contact in Connecticut. This includes the American artists Alexander Calder and Kay Sage, and European painters Arshile Gorky and Yves Tanguy. Taken together, this pairing of Blume’s works with that of his peers will invite visitors to explore how this artistic circle—which also extended to writers, poets, collectors and important art dealers—exchanged ideas and influenced one another and how the environment of Connecticut directly impacted their work.

The Wadsworth Atheneum is proud to serve as the only additional venue for the Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis and to be part of an exhibition that offers fresh scholarly reconsideration of Blume and celebrates his artistic legacy.