Peter Blume (American, born Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Belarus, 1906–1992)
About this artwork
A startling juxtaposition of images, The Rock depicts a shattered red rock resting on top of a base that is being demolished by workers below. Peter Blume labored for years to complete this painting, which was commissioned in 1939 by the Edgar Kaufmann family for Fallingwater, their Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home in Pennsylvania. Although the complex imagery resists easy interpretation, it may point to devastation and reconstruction, reflecting the turbulence of World War II and its aftermath. In the end, The Rock proved too large for Fallingwater and it was never displayed there.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
The Seventy–Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1951), 75.
Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: a Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 26.
James A. Schinneller, Art/Search & Self–Discovery, 3rd ed., (Davis Publications, 1975), 36.
The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 89 (ill.).
Franklin Toker, Fallingwater Rising (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 317 (ill.).
“Seeing Beyond the Must–Sees,” Chicago Tribune, Apr.18, 2003, 7.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 311–14, cat. 155 (ill.).
New York, Durlacher Brothers Gallery, Peter Blume, Jan. 3–29, 1949, cat. 11.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Paintings, Oct. 19–Dec. 21, 1950, cat. 41.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students Leagure of New York, 1951, cat. 75, ill.
Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Gallery of Art, Paintings and Drawings: Peter Blume in Retrospective, 1926 to 1964, cat. 19; Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum, July 9–Aug. 16, 1964.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Peter Blume exhibition, Jan. 10–Feb. 29, 1976.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis, Nov. 14, 2014–Apr. 5, 2015; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, July 3–Sept. 20, 2015 (Philadelphia only) cat. 90.
Commissioned by Edgar Kaufmann, from 1948 to 1955; by descent to Edgar Kaufmann Jr., from 1955 to 1956; the Art Institute of Chicago, 1956.
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