Hyman Bloom

In the 1930s Bloom worked sporadically for the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project, and for his brothers. He was a slow, methodical painter who liked to work on a piece, then set it aside for a while and come back to it with a fresh perspective. As a result, he had trouble meeting government deadlines.[8] He shared a studio in the South End with Levine and another artist, Betty Chase.[9] It was during this period that he developed a lifelong interest in Eastern philosophy and music, and in Theosophy.[10]

He first received national attention in 1942 when thirteen of his paintings were included in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 States, curated by Dorothy Miller.[11][note 4] MoMA purchased two of his paintings from that exhibition, and he was featured in Time magazine.[10] The titles of his paintings in the exhibition reflect some of his recurring themes. Two were titled The Synagogue, another, Jew with the Torah; Bloom was actually criticized by one reviewer for including "stereotypical" Jewish images.[12] He also had two paintings titled The Christmas Tree, and another titled The Chandelier, both subjects he returned to repeatedly. Another, Skeleton (c. 1936), was followed by a series of cadaver paintings in the forties,[13] and The Fish (c. 1936) was one of many paintings and drawings of fish he created over the course of his career.[10]

Bloom was associated at first with the growing Abstract Expressionist movement. Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, who first saw Bloom's work at the MoMA exhibition, considered Bloom "the first Abstract Expressionist artist in America."[14] In 1950 he was chosen, along with the likes of de Kooning, Pollock, and Arshile Gorky, to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale.[15] That same year Elaine de Kooning wrote about Bloom in ARTnews, noting that in paintings such as The Harpies, his work approached total abstraction: "the whole impact is carried in the boiling action of the pigment".[16] In 1951 Thomas B. Hess reproduced Bloom's Archaeological Treasure in his first book, Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase, along with works by Picasso, Pollock, and others. Both de Kooning and Hess remarked on Bloom's expressive paint handling, a key characteristic of Abstract Expressionist painting.[17]

As abstract expressionism dominated the American art world, Bloom became disenchanted with it, calling it "emotional catharsis, with no intellectual basis."[3] In addition, instead of moving to New York to pursue his career, he opted to stay in Boston. As a result he fell out of favor with critics and never achieved the kind of fame that Pollock and others did.[18] He disliked self-promotion and never placed much value on critical acclaim.[10]

Slaughtered Animal (1953), oil on canvas, 70 x 40in.

Bloom's cadaver images are among his most compelling and controversial. The series began in 1943 when artist David Aronson invited Bloom to accompany him on a trip to a morgue, where he was working on sketches for a painting, Resurrection. Bloom was both repelled by and drawn to the sight of the decomposing bodies, and painted them, he explained later, in hopes of coming to terms with death.[19] In the first group of paintings, which include Corpse of an Elderly Male (1944), Female Corpse, Front View (1945) and Female Corpse, Back View (1947), the supine bodies are displayed vertically, as if viewed from above. The upright posture is reminiscent of Grünewald's crucified Christ in the Isenheim Altarpiece, Bloom's favorite painting.[10] As critic Judith Bookbinder points out, the corpse "rises up" to confront the viewer. Bloom believed that death was a metamorphosis from one form of life to another as the body was consumed by living organisms: a process for which resurrection can be seen as a metaphor.[20]

The paintings were first exhibited in Boston's Stuart Gallery in 1945, to mixed reviews. At the Durlacher Gallery in New York, they were displayed in a back room, available for viewing upon request. Some critics complained that the work was "morbid" and "gruesome" while others were appreciative. Joseph Gibbs wrote, "After a moment of repugnance, one becomes aware that within the artist's seeming absorption in death and decay is contained the resurrection—the relative unimportance of fugitive flesh as opposed to the indestructibility of the spirit."[21] Robert Taylor called him "a painter of extraordinary courage."[22]

In the late forties and early fifties, Bloom produced a second, very different, series of cadaver images. Paintings such as The Hull (1952), The Anatomist (1953), and Slaughtered Animal (1953) depict dissected corpses and amputated limbs.[21] Some critics have suggested that these images arose from Bloom's exposure to pogroms in his home country, and later, reports of the Holocaust.[10] According to Bloom, his concern "was the complexity and color beauty of the internal works, the curiosity, the wonder, and the feeling of transgressing boundaries, which such curiosity evokes."[23] Whatever else may have motivated him, Bloom had an artist's appreciation for color and surface texture, and admired works by artists such as Soutine (Carcass of Beef, 1924) and Rembrandt (Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632; The Slaughtered Ox, 1655) that explored similar themes. He called the colors of a decaying corpse he had seen in a morgue "harrowing" and yet "beautiful...iridescent and pearly."[24]

Many of Bloom's paintings feature rabbis, usually holding the Torah. According to Bloom, his intentions were more artistic than religious. He began questioning his Jewish faith early in life, and painted rabbis, he claimed, because that was what he knew. Over the course of his career he produced dozens of paintings of rabbis, some of whom bore no small resemblance to himself. When asked if they were self-portraits, he replied cryptically, "When did I ever paint anything else?"[3]

He took an interest in Eastern mysticism and music long before the 1960s, when they became associated with youth culture in the West. He taught himself how to play the sitar, oud, and other instruments, and in 1960 helped James Rubin found the Pan Orient Arts Foundation, a group that organized concerts and collected recordings by Indian artists.[3]

In the 1950s he took LSD under the supervision of doctors who were studying its effects on creativity. While tripping, he produced surreal sketches and unintelligible scribbles, on one page writing the words "Hindu religion".[10]

Much of his work of the 1950s and '60s reflects his preoccupation with theosophy and the spirit world. Paintings such as The Medium (1951) and his Séance series of the mid-50s depict mediums channeling spirits. He considered the artist a kind of channel, one whose reward was "ecstasy from contact with the unknown".[3] For most of the 1960s he concentrated on drawing rather than painting in order to focus his attention on composition and value.[10] On the Astral Plane (1966) is a series of grimly surreal charcoal drawings, inspired by the work of Altdorfer and Bresdin,[22] in which lone figures who have entered the astral plane through death or meditation are surrounded by monsters. Asked why he chose to depict only the first level, filled with frightening creatures, Bloom replied, "You draw your experience."[3]

Bloom continued painting into his nineties. His oil paintings of the Lubec, Maine, woods in the late 1970s exude what critic Holland Cotter called a "disturbed, ecstatic energy". The same could be said of his seascapes, such as Seascape I (1974). He painted vibrant still lifes featuring colorful gourds and iridescent Art Nouveau pottery.[18] He produced at least twenty paintings of rabbis between the mid-80s and 2008.[25] Meanwhile he continued exhibiting, mostly in the Boston area. The Fuller Museum presented a full retrospective of his work in 1996. Another was organized by the National Academy of Design in New York in 2002.[18]

A Bloom catalogue raisonné project has been started. Details regarding the project can be found on the Hyman Bloom educational website. If you own a Bloom work, or have information on the listed "missing" Bloom works, please contact the project administrator to provide your information.