April 2 – 23: Frank Blume

April 2 – 23: Frank Blume

Frank Blume (1932 -1998) painted most of his life, starting at the age of ten under the tutelage of his boyhood friend, Daniel Milhaud, now an artist living in Paris.  For most of his adult life, he was a professor of psychology, first at San Bernardino Valley College, then at Johnston College, then at the University of Redlands, but he always resented the time teaching took away from his first love, painting, and in 1988, he went half-time to give himself more time to paint, until his retirement in 1996, when he devoted himself full-time to his art.

Blume was essentially a self-taught artist, although he attended drawing and oil-painting classes taught by his colleagues from time to time.  In part because of his European background (he was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. at age four to escape the Holocaust), he felt heavily influenced by German Expressionism and by French Impressionism.  Certainly he shared with artists from both schools their love of color and light.  The act of painting elated him, both physically and emotionally.  He always hoped his joy would become tangible on the canvas and transmit itself to those who viewed his art.

Blume’s work has been featured or included in over fourteen exhibits in Southern California (Loma Linda, Pomona, San Bernardino, and Redlands), from 1972 until 1998, the year of his death, during which there was a memorial show at the University of Redlands, and another a year later, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  His work has been selected for inclusion in juried shows (San Bernardino Orange Show, San Bernardino County Art Show, San Juan County (Washington) Art Show, Redlands Art Association Shows, etc.), where it has received a number of awards.  Blume was proud of the fact that his paintings were owned by over ninety individuals in eleven different countries.

Harriet Blume