Berchem (Berghem) Nicolaes Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1620-83). Dutch Italianate painter. He toured Italy c. 1642—5 and thereafter his best pictures were of Arcadian landscapes, delicately painted and suffused with light after the manner of *Olaude Lorraine. He was sometimes employed by Van *Ruisdael and *Hobbema to animate then-landscapes. Berckheyde Job (1630-93). Dutch painter of townscape. He was a more powerful colourist than his brother Gerrit. Berenson Bernard (1865-1959). U.S. art critic, historian and art dealer; art adviser to the dealer Joseph Duveen. B.'s many works on the history and aesthetics of Italian painting, especially his The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1952; first publ. as individual essays, 1894-1907), gained him a following as an expert on art and culture. Other important works are Drawings of the Florentine Painters (1903 and 1938) and Aesthetics and History in the Visual Arts (1948). Bergognone Ambrogio (Borgognone) Il (Ambrogio da Fossano) (fl. 1481 d. 1523). Italian painter of the Lombard school whose use of subdued and subtle colours led Berenson to nickname him the 'Whistler of the Renaissance'. He painted an altarpiece and frescoes for the convent of the Carthusians at Pavia (15 14) and frescoes in the church of S. Simpliciano, Milan. Bergt Michael. Fantastic art. Berlin Dada. *Dada Berman Wallace (1926 - 1976) was an American West Coast visual /assemblage artist. Wallace Berman was born in Staten Island, New York and moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1930. He was expelled from high school for gambling, and became involved in the world of jazz. He enrolled in and attended the Jepson Art School and Chouinard but did not complete studies there. Instead of pursuing a formal art 'career' he worked in a factory finishing antique furniture. This work gave him the opportunity to salvage reject materials and scraps which he used to make sculptures. He began a mail art publication called SEMINA The format was a letterpress text printed on an assemblage of colored paper, photos, and essentially found material. Contributors included John Altoon, Antonin Artaud, Charles Brittin, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Jean Cocteau, Allen Ginsberg, Marion Grogan, Walter Hopps, Larry Jordan, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, David Meltzer, Stuart Perkoff, and John Weiners.He exhibited pieces in the Ferus Gallery in 1957, became part of the beat communities in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, and started the Semina Art Gallery in Larkspur, CA in 1960. He made his first and only film, Aleph, from 1956-1966. Berman did not give the film a title, referring to it just as 'my film' or 'my movie' and never showed it to large audiences, preferring to screen it on his studio wall on a one-to-one basis. The title Aleph was given to the work by Berman's son, Tosh, after the artist's death. He used verifax collages in his work, allowing for creation of serial and multiple images. From artist Ed Ruscha: "There were a lot of artists then that were doing serial imagery in that way, including Llyn Foulkes and Andy Warhol himself, of course, who really popularized it. I had done some things like that. It came about at a time where it had completely reached its time. It was inevitable, It's like a genealogy. I think it was about Wally- and even Andy of course, who came out of the commercial world - seeing not paintings in museums but more popular imagery." This development in the art world seems directly related to the growth of mass production, consumption, and mass disposal that the US embraced in the 1950s. He was killed in an automoble crash with a drunk driver in Topanga Canyon in 1976. Bermejo Bartolome (ft. 1474-95). Spanish painter whose work shows Flemish influences; active in and around Barcelona. His masterpiece is a Pieta in Barcelona cathedral. Bernard Emile (1868-1941). French painter and critic who claimed to have been the originator of the Cloissomste style used by Gauguin. He was a leader of the Symbolist movement in painting and in his later years worked for the revival of religious art. He was a friend and correspondent of Van Gogh and of Cezanne who wrote him the famous letter about treating nature 'by means of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone'. Berner Bernd  (b 1930) Berni Antonio (Argentina, 1905-1981). Surrealism. Bernini Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680). Italian sculptor and architect born at Naples; son of a Tuscan Mannerist sculptor who worked in Rome. B. was precociously skilful as a sculptor, and attracted the attention and patronage of Cardinal Scipione Borghese executing 4 groups for his garden, including Aeneas and Anchises (1618/19) and Apollo and Daphne (1622/4). During the pontificate of Urban VIII B. completed numerous large-scale commissions in and around St Peter's: the Baldacchino (1624-33), the Barbenm Palace (1625-33), the Cathedra Petri (1657—65) and his layout of the square and colonnades in front of the basilica, his grandest and subtlest architectural achievement. Also notable is his layout of the Piazza Navona and the fountain there, as well as churches (S. Andrea al Quirinale) and numerous other fountains. B. gave Rome its predominantly Baroque character. He was a man of deep faith, and the supreme artist of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Both as architect and sculptor he dazzled the 17th c, partly through genius and partly through skill in keeping rivals (e.g. Duquesnoy and Algardi) in the background. And this in spite of the tact that a tower which he built on the facade of St Peter's had to be rapidly demolished in 1646 when cracks appeared in the fabric of the church. In his series of portrait busts, of Cardinal Scipionc Borghese (1632), Duke Francis 1 d'Fste (1650/1), Constanza Bonarelli {c. 1635), Charles I (now lost) and many others, 15. revealed both his deep insight into character and his virtuosity of technique. In 1641 he made a bust of Cardinal Richelieu after the triple portrait by Philippe de Champaigne; this was so successful that he was invited to Paris to work for the king. He did not go until 1655. The only result of this visit was his superb bust of Louis XIV. At the height of his fame B. had prophesied the decline of his reputation, a decline that lasted until the present generation. Indeed during his lifetime an equestrian statue of Louis XIV, completed in 1673, was so disliked that it was altered by Girardon in 1688 into a park ornament. B.'s sculptural style evolved partly from Michelangelo and partly from the expressiveness of Caravaggio and Anmbale Carracci, whom he greatly admired. His emphasis on the unity of sculpture and its setting produced many fine tombs, in particular those of Pope Alexander VII (1671/8), with its marble draperies lifted by the skeleton figure of Death, and that of the Blessed Lodovica Albertoni (1671/4). The masterpiece of his religious sculpture, as well as the most brilliant example of his use of varied materials, is the Ecstasy of St Teresa (1645—52) in the Cornaro chapel in S. Maria della Vittoria, Rome. B.'s work freed sculpture from the classic concept of a block to be seen from one angle. The vitality of execution, as well as the restless poses of his works, at first demanded a multiple viewpoint, but this tension was often resolved into the clearcut energy and movement of such a group as Apollo and Daphne. The un-classical involvement of the spectator in his response to the vigour and emotion of such figures show how B. was the seminal genius (and largely the creator) of the Baroque style. Berruguete Alonso (c. 1488-1561). The greatest Spanish sculptor of the 16th c. and also a painter, working mainly in Valladolid. He lived in Italy (f. 1504-c 1 5 17) studying above all Michelangelo's work, the influence of which is reflected in B.'s Resurrection carved in relief in alabaster for Valencia cathedral. Other major works are the altars for the monastery of La Mejorada (1526), now in Valladolid Mus., and for the church of S. Benito (1527-32), also at Valladolid, and the 36 choir stalls in wood (1539—43) for Toledo cathedral. B. was the 1st Spaniard to react strongly against the High Renaissance ideals of perfection of form. He was affected by Mannerism but used distortion or unbalanced composition to express the emotions of his mind or the agonies and ecstasies of the religious life. Berruguete Pedro (ft. 1438—1503/4). Castilian painter, father of Alonso. He worked in Avila, in Toledo cathedral and as court painter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spam. A tradition that he studied in Urbino, Italy, is supported by the style of some of his pictures. Bertram of Munden. *Master Bertram of Munden. Besnard (Paul) Albert (1849-1934). French painter trained under J. Bremond in the Romantic classicism of Ingres. From 1883 his work was influenced by the light and colour of the Impressionists. The intense colours of his pictures of India (1912) attracted wide attention. He also executed frescoes, pastels and etchings. Beuckelaer Joachim (c.1533—73). Flemish painter, most of whose career was spent as an assistant to other artists, e.g. A. Mor and possibly P. Aertsen, his uncle by marriage and also probably his master. B.'s few original pictures are mostly of market or kitchen scenes. Beuys Joseph (1921—86). Germany's most influential post-war artist. An early interest in natural history, country lore and mythology left evident traces in his visionary and extremely diverse work: he was a Performance artist (How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965, Coyote, 1974), a sculptor (Fat Comer, 1964), lecturer, assembler of installations of gigantic scale (Tallow, 1077) and founder of Organization for Direct Democracy (1972), after becoming involved in the political arena. B. also made video art (Felt TV, 1968) and drawings. What characterized his work generally was a deep belief in the power of intuition as expressed in the parallel between the artist and the shaman: both invest simple materials with intense and potentially healing power (Show your wound, 1976). Beyeren, Abraham van (1620/1—90). Dutch painter who excelled in virtuoso and opulent still-hfes of hsh, Crustacea, banquet tables with fruit, silver and gold vessels, glass and sumptuous tablecloths. Bezalel [Heb. Betsal’el]. Israeli Academy of Arts and Design. It takes its name from the biblical artist Bezalel, son of Uri, one of the craftsmen whom Moses commissioned to build and decorate the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 31:1–5,35:30–32). It was founded in Jerusalem in 1906 by Boris Schatz (1866–1932), a Jewish artist of Latvian origin, and was at first known as the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. Schatz also founded the Bezalel Museum (incorporated into the Israel Museum). The inhabitants of 19th-century Palestine, both Jewish and non-Jewish, had produced mostly folk art, ritual objects and olive-wood and shell-work souvenirs, so the founding of Bezalel provided a professional and ideological framework for the arts and crafts in Jerusalem. A major part of Schatz’s school was the workshops, which, starting with rug-making and silversmithing, eventually offered 30 different crafts; they employed workers and students, of whom there were 450 in 1913, in manufacturing, chiefly for export, decorative articles ranging from cane furniture, inlaid frames and ivory and wood carvings, to damascened and filigree objects (see also ISRAEL, §V). For Schatz, Bezalel was not merely a commercial enterprise, but a stage towards a Utopian society, as adumbrated by John Ruskin, whom he admired. Intended to create an original national style, Bezalel artefacts were a mixture of oriental styles and techniques with Art Nouveau features and influences from the Arts and Crafts Movement. The subjects were a combination of traditional Jewish images, Zionist symbols, biblical themes, views of the Holy Land and depictions of the flora and fauna of Palestine. Bickerton Ashley (1959— ). U.S. artist born in Barbados. From his first one-man show in N.Y., 1986, he emerged as one of the most intelligent and successful post-*Neo-Expressiomst and earliest. Postmodernist U.S. artists of the younger generation. His wall-mounted boxes/containers are air-brushed with an industrial perfection and finish that gives them the look of commodity objects, affixed to the wall with metal brackets that project out. The subject matter of the works, however, often contradicts or modifies the commodity status and the appearance of the pieces with layers of references to the artist's personal engagement m art and in contextual issues, e.g. Bad (1988), Ciood (1989) and Hiofntginent # 2 (1990). In Solomon Island Shark and other recent work, B. has abandoned the previous slick forms of his objects: a totemic-looking life-size rubber shark, with modifications, hangs from a rope. Biedermeier. Critical term used of the arts in Germany and Austria between c. 1815 and c 1850; it implies a restrained Romanticism. More broadly it is used as a synonym for 'bourgeois' or 'philistine' in describing attitudes towards the arts. Bierstadt Albert (1830—1902). U.S. landscape painter of German extraction. After study in Europe (1853—7) he joined a surveying expedition of the Rocky Mountains (1858). From then on he painted large-scale pictures mostly of the Rockies and Far West, acquiring a fortune, a great reputation and decorations from several European states. His style reflects that of the German Romantics. Bijapur. *Deccani miniature painting. Bilibin Ivan (1876—1928). Russian book ill. B. belonged to The *World of Art group though his work, embedded in the I9th-c. Russian tradition, was notable for its incorporation of folk elements. In addition to his ills for Russian fairy-tales B. drew anti-Tsarist cartoons. Bingham George Caleb (1811-79). U.S. painter. After a brief training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and travel in Europe and the U.S.A. he settled in his home state of Missouri. He painted scenes from frontier life, portraits of the wealthier Missouri citizens and many political subjects. He himself held state office. Biomorphic. Term used for irregular abstract forms based on shapes found m nature, e.g. m the work of *Gorky, *Tanguy, and in *Arp's sculpture. Biomorphism. Term derived from the Classical concept of forms created by the power of natural life, applied to the use of organic shapes in 20th-century art, particularly within SURREALISM. It was first used in this sense by Alfred H. Barr jr in 1936. The tendency to favour ambiguous and organic shapes in apparent movement, with hints of the shapeless and vaguely spherical forms of germs, amoebas and embryos, can be traced to the plant morphology of Art Nouveau at the end of the 19th century; the works of Henry Van de Velde, Victor Horta and Hector Guimard are particularly important in this respect. Bistre. An artist's pigment brown in colour and made from charred wood. It can be used as an ink, chalk or wash and was favoured as a drawing material by Rembrandt. Bitumen. An artist's pigment, a richer brown than bistre, and made from asphaltum. It never fully dries out and, remaining chemically active, gradually damages the painting; this is noticeable in work of the 19tb and 19th cs when b. was very popular. Black figure style. Style of Greek vase painting where the figures are painted in black on a red ground. It flourished from the late 7th to the late 6th c. BC; it was superseded by the *red figure style. Blackman Charles (1928- ). Australian painter. At first attracted by the Expressionist school at Melbourne, he was one of the new-humanist group of younger painters who turned to city life for subject matter. Black Mountain College North Carolina, U.S.A. Established in 1933 and directed by John Price, it soon attracted prominent artists, writers, playwrights, musicians and dancers with a multidisciplinary curriculum reminiscent of the *Bauhaus. *Albers, who had taught at the Bauhaus, provided its particular direction. In 1936 Albers invited his former Bauhaus colleague Xanti Schawinsky to expand the art faculty: visitors included Aldous Huxley, *Leger, *Feininger, etc. In 1940 15.M.C. moved to Lake Bden, N. Carolina, and from1944 its summer school became famous and attracted experimental artists from various disciplines who collaborated in *performances, e.g. John Cage, Merce Cunningham, *De Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, *Rauschenberg, *Motherwell, etc. Blaine Mahlon "Nova Venus" (1894 - 1969) Mahlon Blaine was a twentieth century American artist who is remembered chiefly today for his brilliant illustrations to many books, both children's and adult. His mastery of line was, and remains, unique and masterful. Likened, rightfully, to Aubrey Beardsley, Blaine was another original mind, and his interest in portraying the animal nature of humanity lost him a wider audience. The only monograph on the artist so far published is The Art of Mahlon Blaine (Peregrine Books, 1982), and this wonderful book, which includes a deep insight into the artist by his colleague Gershon Legman, contains a good cross-section of Blaine's colour and b-&-w art and an excellent bibliography of Blaine books compiled by Roland Trenary. Many other books illustrated by Blaine turn up commonly in secondhand bookshops: his illustrated versions of Voltaire's Candide and Sterne's A Sentimental Journey are frequently encountered. These books are good examples of his work, but the enthusiast is advised to pursue the many other Blaine-illustrated books, especially the weird-fantastic fiction titles so perfectly-suited to his work. Blair-Leighton Edmund (1853-1922). The Pre-Raphaelite. Blake Peter (1932— ). British artist, a noted member of the *Pop art movement. He studied at the R.C.A.; his subjects are often taken from music-hall acts, wrestling matches, etc. (Drum ... etc.), in highly finished trompe Vail style. Blake William (1757-1827). British poet, ill., draughtsman, engraver, writer and visionary. He completed (1779) his 7-year apprenticeship as an engraver with James Basire, and engraving remained his basic livelihood. B. also studied for a brief time at the R.A. In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, his beloved and constant companion. Friends such as the sculptor Flaxman supported the publ. of Poetical Sketches (1783) hut after Songs of Innocence (1789) B. printed his own works by a process (duplicated in experiments by Ruthven Todd, S. W. Hayter and |oan Miro) of relief etching of the text and the surrounding design, printing in coloured inks often with retouching in paint. Another very successful technique was colour printing by superimposed impressions from millboard. B. lived mainly in London, but between 1800 and 1803 worked at Felpham, the estate of William Hayley, for whom B. was engraving some poems. While he was at Felpham an argument with a soldier brought B. on trial on a sedition charge, but he was acquitted. The poverty of his last years was relieved by the discipleship of such young painters as Palmer and Calvert, anil commissions from another young friend, John Linnell, for B.'s engravings of Illustrations of the Book of Job (182s) and 100-odd watercolours to Dante's Divine C.omedy. All B.'s work is infused with his intense imagination and visionary experiences; he claimed regular visits from heavenly emissaries. The powerful images of his engravings and paintings display his admiration of Michelangelo (e.g. in their distorted anatomy), Raphael and Diirer; but he rejected the academic traditions represented by Reynolds and the R.A. and the Venetian colounsts, as at once too vague and too material. His rebellion against accepted contemporary artistic theories parallels his political radicalism and religious unorthodoxy. He rejoiced in the French and American revolutions and his spiritual explorations, and his disgust with injustice and hypocrisy strengthened by his contacts with the radical circle of Paine and Godwin, are reflected in the prose satire The Marriage of Hciwen and Hell (1790—3), the poem coll. Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789—94), and such poems as The Trench Rerohilion and America, a Prophecy (1793). In B.'s religious system, (rod is a vengeful terrible power (Unzen); Jesus the embodiment of humanity (Ore); and the virtues which derive from the human principle in its fullest and highest manifestation are Los, the male, Emtharmon, the female. B.'s works include the long poems Milton (1840—8) and fernsalem. The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804—20); the verse prophetic books Ihe Llt'erlasting Gospel (c. 1818), the Booh of Thel (1789), The Song of Los and Vala or the Four Zoas (1797-1804). BLAST. *Vorticism Blaue Reiter, Der (Ger. "The Blue Rider'). A group of German Expressionist painters, led by *Marc, *Kandinsky and *Macke. Kandinsky, with a passion for blue, and Marc, enthusiastic about horses, invented the name. 2 major exhibitions were held at Munich in 1912 and 1913 with contributions from non-German artists such as *Delaunay, the *Burliuk brothers, the composer Schoenberg, *Braque, de la Fresnaye, *Malevich, *Picasso and Vlaminck; the German exhibitors included *Klee. The movement also publ. the B. R. Almanac (1912) containing major essays by Marc and Kandinsky. The B. R. programme rested on Primitivism, intellectual in concept but intuitive in application, a new emphasis on child art as a source of inspiration, abstract forms and the symbolic and psychological aspects of line and colour. The group disbanded in 1914. Der Blaue Reiter [Ger.: ‘Blue Rider’]. German group of artists active in Munich from 1911 to 1914. The principal members were Vasily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, Alfred Kubin, Paul Klee and August Macke. The group’s aim was to express the inner desires of the different artists in a variety of forms, rather than to strive for a unified style or theme. It was the successor to the NEUE KÜNSTLERVEREINIGUNG MÜNCHEN (NKVM), founded in Munich in 1909. Blaue Vier, Die (Ger. 'The Blue Four'). From 1924, for about a decade, the painters *Kandinsky. *Jawlensky, *Klee and *Feininger exhibited their work jointly under this title in Europe and the U.S.A. Blechen Karl (b Cottbus, 29 July 1798; d Berlin, 23 July 1840). German painter.Despite early artistic inclinations, he trained as a bank clerk and then worked as one from 1814 to 1822 before studying at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Here Heinrich Anton Dähling (1773–1850) sharpened his interest in Romantic and poetic subjects, while Peter Ludwig Lutke (1759–1831) encouraged his eye for the potential expressiveness of observed language. Blechen was also strongly influenced by the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, which he was able to study in Berlin at this time. In 1823 he travelled to Dresden, where he visited Johann Christian Clausen Dahl and probably also met Friedrich, who shared the same house. Here Dahl impressed Blechen with his impulsive style of oil sketching. Studies (Berlin, Alte N.G.) of Meissen, especially of the cathedral, and of the dramatic landscape of the surrounding parts of Saxony reveal the early development of Blechen’s tendency to perceive landscape and architecture, especially ruins, as allegories of his own usually rather depressed moods. This passionately subjective use of imagery distinguishes Blechen from Friedrich, whose work shows a far more level-headed deployment of landscape symbols as religious allegory. Bles Herri met de (c. 1480—after 1550). Antwerp painter of landscapes and religious pictures whose style was similar to *Patenier's; there was a fantastic element in his work, especially in his mining landscapes, e.g. The (Copper Alines. He was probably related to Patenier and may have been identical with the Herri de Patenir recorded in the Antwerp Guild in 1535; Bles, meaning 'blaze of white hair', was possibly a nickname. In Italy he was known as 'Hennco Civetta', from the owl emblem with which he signed his pictures. Block-book. Early type of illustrated book m which both text and ills were cut from the same wood block. No existing b.-b.s can be dated before c. 1455, i.e. after the invention of movable type, and they continued into the 16th c. Although produced in large numbers in Germany and the Netherlands they included only a few titles. The best known are Ars moriendi and Biblia pauperuui. Block, Der. German association of architects formed in Saaleck early in 1928, in reaction to the avant-garde group Der Ring and to the emerging Modern Movement in general. The most prominent members were Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Paul Schmitthenner, German Bestelmeyer and Paul Bonatz. Bonatz and Schmitthenner were both supposed to take part in the exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund in Stuttgart in 1927, and even prepared a layout plan for the Weissenhofsiedlung, the showpiece of the exhibition. Their design was, however, rejected in favour of the modernist design by Mies van der Rohe. Schultze-Naumburg from the early years of the century had propagated a return to organic and traditional forms of architecture, for example in his series of books Kulturarbeiten (1902–17). He was the leading theorist of the Heimatschutz movement, which advocated the preservation and continuation of German traditions and values. Bestelmeyer, Schmitthenner and Bonatz were among the most prominent architects of southern Germany, all holding influential teaching posts in Munich and Stuttgart. Der Block wanted to retain traditional skills and lifestyles and rejected functional, modern architecture with its emphasis on internationalism. Their ‘Manifesto’ appeared in Baukunst 4 (v (1928), pp. 128–9; repr. in Teut, p. 29); its polemic, enriched with an emphasis on ‘German-ness’, was eventually to evolve into the fierce opposition and persecution by the Third Reich of the ‘cultural bolshevism’ of the architecture and architects of the Modern Movement. As a group, however, Der Block was shortlived, active only into 1929. Block group [Pol. Blok]. Polish avant-garde group active in Warsaw between 1924 and 1926. Group members included Henryk Berlewi, J. Golus, W. Kajruksztis, Katarzyna Kobro, K. Krynski, Maria Nicz-Borowiak (1896–1944), Aleksander Rafalowski (1894–1981), Henryk Stazewski, Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Mieczyslaw Szczuka, M. Szulc, Teresa Zarnower (d after 1945). Most members of the group had already exhibited together in some of the numerous exhibitions of the avant-garde in Poland in the early 1920s. They shared an enthusiasm for Soviet Constructivism, but there were already significant divisions within the group when it was formally founded in early 1924, holding its first official exhibition in the showroom of the car manufacturer Laurent-Clément in Warsaw in March of that year. The first issue of the group’s own magazine, Blok, appeared at the same time. Bloemaert Abraham (1564-1651). Dutch painter of biblical and historical subjects, portraits and still-lifes. After a period of travel, including Paris (1580—3) and Amsterdam (1591—3), he settled at Utrecht, where he played an important part in founding the Utrecht school. He had a great reputation, being visited by Rubens and Elisabeth, Queen of Bohemia, and was the master of J. G. Cuyp, G. Honthorst and H. Terbrugghen. Through the Dutch 'Italianizers' he was affected by Mannerism and Caravaggio's use of chiaroscuro. Bloomsbury Group. Circle of intellectuals 1 who met at the 2 houses in Bloomsbury, London, of the Stephen family (which included Virginia Woolf and V. *Bell) from c. 1907. Among them were the philosopher G. E. Moore, the economist Keynes, the artist *Grant and the writers (Hive Bell, H. M. Forster, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey and Arthur Waley, blot drawing. Name given by A. *Cozens to his technique of developing a landscape composition out of ink blots allowed to fall at random on a sheet of paper. This method, which he described in a book publ. in 1785, is an extension of Leonardo's advice to artists to study the stains on a wall or the ashes of a fire to excite inspiration. Bloomsbury Group. Name applied to a group of friends, mainly writers and artists, who lived in or near the central London district of Bloomsbury from 1904 to the late 1930s. They were united by family ties and marriage rather than by any doctrine or philosophy, though several male members of the group had been affected by G. E. Moore’s Principia Ethica (Cambridge, 1903) when they had attended the University of Cambridge. Moore emphasized the value of personal relationships and the contemplation of beautiful objects, promoting reason above social morality as an instrument of good within society. This anti-utilitarian position coloured the group’s early history. It influenced the thinking of, for example, the biographer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880–1932) and the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) and confirmed the position of conscientious objection maintained by some members of the group in World War I. Before 1910, literature and philosophy dominated Bloomsbury; thereafter it also came to be associated with painting, the decorative arts and the promotion of Post-Impressionism in England. This was mainly effected by the introduction into Bloomsbury of Roger Fry in 1910 and his close friendship with Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, with Clive Bell and with the writers Leonard Woolf (1880–1969) and Virginia Woolf (1882–1941). Fry, helped by the literary editor Desmond MacCarthy (1877–1952), Clive Bell and the Russian artist Boris Anrep (1883–1969), was chiefly responsible for the two large Post-Impressionist exhibitions held in London at the Grafton Galleries in 1910 and 1912. Bloomsbury’s swift identification with radical tendencies in the arts was realized by Vanessa Bell’s Friday Club (founded 1905) and the Grafton Group exhibiting society (1913–14); by Fry and Clive Bell’s association with the newly founded Contemporary Art Society (1910); and by the publication of Bell’s Art (London, 1914). This pre-eminence as apologists for new movements in art was soon challenged by Wyndham Lewis, T. E. Hulme and others, and by c. 1920 Bloomsbury painting and art criticism can be characterized as increasingly conservative. Blue Four [Blauen Vier]. Name applied to a group of German painters, founded at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, on 31 March 1924. The group consisted of Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Alexei Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger, who were formerly associated with the BLAUE REITER group. The idea for founding the Blue Four came from Galka Scheyer, a former pupil of Jawlensky, who sought to make the work and ideas of these artists better known in the USA through exhibitions, lectures and sales. While the Blue Four was not an official association, its name was chosen to give American audiences an idea about the type of artists involved and also to allude to the artists’ previous association with the Blaue Reiter group. In May 1924 Scheyer travelled to New York, where the first Blue Four exhibition took place at the Charles Daniel Gallery (Feb–March 1925). Scheyer then moved to California, where the first of many Blue Four exhibitions in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas took place at the Oakland Museum in autumn 1925. Further exhibitions, often with lectures by Scheyer, were held in Portland, OR (1927), Seattle, WA (1926, 1936), Spokane, WA (1927), Mexico City (1931) and in Chicago, IL (1932), as well as at the Ferdinand Möller Gallery in Berlin (1929). Blue Rose Group. Group of Russian artists which succeeded The *World of Art in 1907 as the leading movement of the Russian avant-garde. They published the magazine The (Golden Fleece (1906—7). Prominent members were *Larionov and *Goncharova. Blue Rose [Rus. Golubaya Roza]. Group of second-generation Russian Symbolist artists active in Moscow between 1904 and 1908. The term derives from the title of an exhibition that they organized at premises in Myasnitsky Street, Moscow, in 1907. The group originated in Saratov, when in 1904 Pavel Kuznetsov and Pyotr Utkin (1877–1934) organized the exhibition Crimson Rose (Rus. Alaya Roza), which included the work of the two major Symbolist painters Mikhail Vrubel’ and their teacher Viktor Borisov-Musatov. Later that year, at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, they attracted artists of a similar persuasion such as Anatoly Arapov (1876–1949), Nikolay Krymov, Nikolay Milioti, Vasily Milioti, Nikolay Sapunov, Martiros Saryan and Sergey Sudeykin. An important member of the group was the wealthy banker, patron and artist Nikolay Ryabushinsky, who publicized Blue Rose in his magazine GOLDEN FLEECE (Rus.: Zolotoye Runo). By 1907 most of the group had become co-editors, but a group statement or manifesto was never published. Ryabushinsky also contributed to the stability of the group by purchasing works from Kuznetsov, Sapunov, Saryan and Sudeykin. Blume Peter (1906-92). Russian-born U.S. *Magic Realist painter whose mostly allegorical paintings combine certain Surrealist techniques (fantastic, dream imagery, free association) and social concern, e.g. 'The [Sternal City (1934—7). In his earlier paintings, e.g. Parade (1930), he used a *Precisiomst style close to *Sheeler and *Demuth. Boccioni Umberto (1882-1916). Italian *Futurist painter, sculptor and writer who studied under *Balla in Rome. Inspired by Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto (1909), B. issued the Manifesto of Futuristic Painters (1910). He contributed to an exhibition of Futurist art in Pans (1912) and summarized its ideals in bis book Pittura, sniltura futurist? (1914). Characteristic works are the painting 'The City Rises (1910) and the sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913). Bocklin Arnold (1827—1901). Swiss Romantic painter whose early works were sentimentalized, cliche-ridden classical landscapes; his later fantastic pictures of creatures from Germanic legend and classical mythology, e.g. Triton and Nereid (1873/4), were ponderous rather than dramatic. Imaginative landscapes, e.g. Isle of the Dead (1880), following the tradition of C. 1). Friedrich, have a supernatural, if theatrical, atmosphere.