Valley through the Trees

A prominent figure of the expressionist movement that developed in Boston in the 1940s, Bloom established his reputation with depictions of religious and mystical rituals, brightly colored corpses, and fantastic landscapes. Following a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1954, he set aside painting for over a decade to concentrate on drawing. Most spectacular are the large charcoal drawings of trees he did then - such as the present one - inspired by the woods near Lubec, Maine. Themes of growth, death, decay, and rebirth pervade Bloom's visions of nature that owe as much to the artist's imagination as to the Maine woodland. Their strong chiaroscuro heightens the sense of drama, as in the prints and drawings of Odilon Redon and Rodolphe Bresdin, which Bloom admired and collected.