Trained as an architect under Mies van der Rohe, Norman Bluhm created paintings with an abiding sense of structure, balance, and compositional technique. Influenced by the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, he sought a style even further removed from mimesis and preoccupied entirely with surface, color, and medium. Beginning with drawing and a schema, he would build layers of abstraction to explore spirituality and eroticism through paint, altogether eschewing narrative content or figuration. His place in the “new generation” of Abstract Expressionists links him with John Chamberlain and Joan Mitchell.