Born in St. Louis, Missouri, of Czechoslovakian and German- Jewish ancestry, Albert Bloch spent his formative years in the Midwest. He first studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts (now part of Washington University). Like many of his contemporaries, Bloch earned a living from commercial art, and between 1905 and 1908 he worked as a caricaturist and illustrator for William Marion Reedys literary and political weekly The Mirror. Noticing Blochs artistic talent, Reedy provided him with a monthly stipend to study abroad. At the beginning of 1909, Bloch sailed for Europe. (From Hollis Taggart Galleries) The Professor, 1909

Clowns

Between 1909 and 1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany, making brief visits to other countries on the Continent and to America. His decision to settle in Munich, then a thriving art center, rested largely on his language skillshe had learned German from his parents. Although Reedy pressed Bloch to attend classes at the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich, Bloch never enrolled, preferring instead to take lessons from painters working in the academic style outside the academy.

Initially Bloch displayed little interest in the revolutionary aesthetics that had been advanced in European art around the turn of the century, but a 1910 trip to Paris opened his eyes to the works of Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Odilon Redon. The following year, he saw a catalogue of the second exhibition of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (the New Arts Union of Munich), which included reproductions of works by, among others, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault, and Wassily Kandinsky. Bloch felt an immediate kinship with these artists..

Portrait of a Man 1911

In December 1911, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc invited an international group of artists to participate in the first Blue Rider exhibition. While the artists' styles varied, they shared an interest in abstraction, Expressionism, and the symbolic and psychological effects of color. The exhibition included works by 14 artists, including Gabriele Münter, Marc, Kandinsky, and Schoenberg. Albert Bloch, a Jewish artist from St. Louis, was the only American member of the Blue Rider group. He had moved to Munich in early 1909, where he met Kandinsky and showed six works in the first Blue Rider exhibition, including Head. Head, 1911

Harlequinade 1911

Procession of the Cross 1911

Ragtime 1911

The Four Pierrots 1912

Duel 1912 Bloch established a successful career in Germany and remained there, exhibiting his work through World War I. In 1912, he showed at the second Blaue Reiter exhibition, and he was included in the 1912 Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, the most famous exhibition of modernism in Europe at that time. The only painting by Bloch accepted for this show was The Duel, a 1912 painting that recalls Edvard Munchs haunting and mysterious figurative works. That same year, Bloch showed at Herwarth Waldens Der Sturm Gallery in Berlin, participating in a small exhibition that featured paintings rejected from the Sonderbund exhibit. Walden, one of the foremost proponents of modernism in Europe, fashioned this 1912 exhibition as a protest against the Sonderbund show that, he believed, had not adequately represented members of the Blaue Reiter group.

The Green Dress, 1913

Boxkampf 1913

Landscape 1913

Summer Night 1913 Albert Bloch-

Musicians 1913

Harlequin mit drei Pierots 1914

Stilleben XI Still Life 1914

Blochs acclaim also reached the American art world. At Kandinskys recommendation, Arthur Jerome Eddy, the Chicago collector and tireless promoter of modernism, began buying Blochs paintings and eventually added more than twenty- five of them to his collection. In 1915, Eddys collection of paintings by Bloch comprised a one- man show at the Art Institute of Chicago; the exhibition traveled to the St. Louis Art Museum. Pilgrims in the Snow

Winter, 1918

Interieur 1920

Souvenir, 1921

In 1921, disheartened at what Germany had become after the war, Bloch returned to the United States, where he lived until his death in Finding himself in dire financial straits, Bloch decided to become a teacher. His first position began in 1922 at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, but lasted only one year. From 1923 until his retirement in 1947, Bloch was Professor and Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas. Bloch led a full life of painting, writing, and teaching and found contentment far from the art centers of Europe and America. He frequently chose biblical subject matter or sweeping emotional themes of anguish or exaltation. Wishing to remain invisible and unwilling to trade on his European connections, Bloch and his work faded from public view. Over time, Blochs reticence about discussing his former affiliation with the Blaue Reiter artists obscured his early contributions to an important passage in the history of art.

For a Cycle of the Creation: The Sixth Day, 1922

Hospital, 1933

Mountain

The Blue Bough 1952

Throughout his career, Bloch destroyed any paintings that, from his point of view, were unsuccessful. Regrettably, many more early works in German collections were destroyed in the bombings of World War II, while others were banished to Switzerland by the Nazis as degenerate art. Extant examples of his work from this early period are rare and valuable historical documents. Hollis Taggart Galleries Passing Train,

Throughout his career, Bloch destroyed any paintings that, from his point of view, were unsuccessful. Regrettably, many more early works in German collections were destroyed in the bombings of World War II, while others were banished to Switzerland by the Nazis as degenerate art. Extant examples of his work from this early period are rare and valuable historical documents March of the Clowns, 1941

The Blind Man 1942

Conversation 1950

The Blue Eclipse 1955

The Grieving women,

Prodigal

Group of Three

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