Ernest Blumenschein – 1874 – 1960
Ernest L. Blumenschein was far and away the most well known of theTaospainters during his lifetime. His painstakingly executed canvases, in his distinctive style that was first called “post-impressionist” and later modernist, garnered him a wide and appreciative audience, and numerous awards. Ernest Blumenschein paintings today are held by the most important museum collections in theUnited States.
Ernest Blumenschein was born inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania, to parents of German descent, and raised inDayton,Ohio. His
father was a professional musician and composer, who chiefly made his living as a conductor of large choruses. The young Ernest Blumenschein excelled at music from the beginning, and his father had high hopes that he would follow his footsteps and become a professional. When Ernest showed an interest in art, his father only pushed him harder to stay devoted to music, feeling that was where his greatest talent lay.
Ernest Blumenschein settled permanently inTaosin 1919 and remained inTaosfor the rest of his life, though at one point he began to spend winters inAlbuquerque, where it was not quite as cold. Even when he was eighty years old, he still labored 
as diligently over his canvases as he ever had. When he died in 1960, he was the most famous resident ofTaos, and six years later the Ernest L. Blumenschein home was designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Today, Blumenschein’s work is held by the most prestigious museums in the country, including theMuseumofModern Art,New York, the Metropolitan, and the Smithsonian Institution. Ernest Blumenschein once said that he considered his greatest artistic heroes to be Shakespeare, Michelangelo, El Greco, Beethoven, and Bach. It is fitting that he too became preeminent among artists in his lifetime and has gone down as one of the most important painter’s in American history.
This volume is the definitive work on Blumenschein’s life and art, reproducing masterworks from a new exhibit along with additional works and historical photographs to form the most comprehensive assemblage of his paintings ever published. In Contemporary Rhythm describes not only his place in the Taos colony and western art but also his far-reaching influence on mainstream American art and national aesthetic developments.
Museum Collections
Stark Museumof Art
ArizonaState University Art Museum
Colorado SpringsFineArtsCenter
Dallas Museumof Art
DenverArt Museum
EiteljorgMuseumofAmerican Indiansand Western Art
GilcreaseMuseum
Jonson Gallery of University ofNew Mexico
MuseumofArtatBrighamYoung University
MuseumofNew Mexico
Museum of The Southwest
National AcademyofDesign Museum
National Arts Club
National Cowboy andWesternHeritageMuseum
Oklahoma CityMuseumof Art
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Phoenix Art Museum
RockfordArt Museum
RoswellMuseumandArtCenter
Sangre De Cristo Arts Center
SmithsonianAmericanArt Museum
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
TheHarwoodMuseumof Art
TheMuseumofModernArt
TheNewarkMuseum
University of Wyoming Art Museum