Oscar Bluemner 1913

This photograph of Oscar Bluemner was taken by Alfred Stieglitz, sometime in the early twentieth century. I'm struck by the gaze, intense and magnetic, as if seeing straight through the camera—or maybe even through Stieglitz himself. I can imagine Stieglitz and Bluemner, two artists in conversation. What were they talking about? Art? Life? Maybe the struggle to be seen, to be understood. The pipe adds an air of contemplation, a moment of stillness amidst the chaos of creativity. The tones create a somber mood, but it is so full of life; it's like the quiet before a storm, or maybe the quiet after. Stieglitz captures something essential about Bluemner, a fellow artist in the trenches. It reminds us that all artists are in dialogue with each other, borrowing, stealing, riffing, creating something new out of what came before. We build on each other’s work.