Attributed to Norman Bluhm, no coa, private collection, medium: oil measurements: 24"hx36"w no frame, good condition, wear and tear throughout Biography: Norman Bluhm, was an American painter classified as an abstract expressionist, and as an action painter. He was born on March 28, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois. His father Henry Bluhm was of Polish Jewish ancestry from Bialystok, Poland. His mother Rosa Goldstein is listed in the 1940 census as having Russian born parents with Russian spoken at home. He studied under Mies van der Rohe at the then Armour (now Illinois) Institute of Technology. After service in World War II with the USAAF he resumed his architectural studies until 1948. After he studied art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence, Italy and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. From 1948 until 1956 he lived in Paris. He had numerous friends in art, literature, and other creative fields. Among his close acquaintances were Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Zao Wou-ki and others. He was married to Claude Souvrain until 1956. He returned to the United States in 1956. He married Carolyn Ogle in 1961. They lived in New York City until 1969 with their two children, David and Nina. From 1970 to 1980 they lived in Millbrook, New York. From 1980 to 1987 they lived in East Hampton, New York. Thereafter, they lived in East Wallingford, Vermont until Bluhm's death on February 3, 1999. Bluhm's work has been critically praised and his works are in the collections of many major museums. His career is marked by notable stylistic shifts as he continually challenged himself to reach new areas of artistic achievements based on his profound knowledge of art and art history, use of the human figure, color, and a passion for life. Although his style changed dramatically over time, he remained deeply interested in gestural abstraction, and the ethos of Abstract Expressionism.