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expression without boundaries
Shunning celebrity, artist Albert Bloch's importance to KU, Lawrence and the Expressionist movement are being rediscovered. by ryan devlin kansan senior staff writer
in the early part of 1923, a curiously little-known artist by the name of Albert Bloch applied at the University of Kansas as the head of the burgeoning Department of Drawing and Painting. In a letter to then chancellor Ernest Hiram Lindley and Dean Harold Butler, Bloch provided a detailed account of his "academic and artistic training."
Bloch's academic career was admittedly sparse. He had dropped out of high school at age 16 to pursue dreams of becoming a serious artist. He studied briefly at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts but left before earning a degree, feeling his vision and talent were too advanced for the training he was receiving.
As for his artistic career, Bloch was elusive. The letter, though long, contained glaring omissions. The most obvious was any mention of his affiliation with a group of painters centered in Munich, Germany, in the 1910s calling themselves "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider). The group, which featured the powerful expressionistic and avant-garde painting styles of artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke and Bloch, would turn the art world on its eye, so to speak, completely transforming the direction of modernist painting.
Lindley and Butler had no idea who they were getting in Bloch. He was hired regardless. Amazing, considering the position is one that today would undoubtedly require strict academic qualifications.
Bloch would spend the next 24 years, until 1947, helping build the Art Department at the University. He would spend the next 38 years of his life in utter isolation from the world's artistic centers. Throughout his career, Bloch would shun the kind of recognition most artists crave. In an age where the definitions of artist and celebrity have become increasingly muddled, Bloch's story stands out as one of an artist determined to let his work speak for itself. He would spend the remainder of his life primarily in Lawrence, painting, composing and translating poems, all marked by intensely felt spiritual and emotional visions of the the world, humanity, joy and suffering.
Forty years after Bloch's death in 1961, and 90 years after his first exhibition with The Blue Rider, the art world is once again focusing its attention on Bloch's work.
Munich and The Blue Rider
Bloch left St. Louis in 1908 at the age of 26 for Europe in hopes of finding a place to pursue what he felt to be his elevated artistic calling. He traveled to several European cities before settling in Munich. David Cateforis, professor of art history, who has spent the past several years researching Bloch's work, said Munich seemed like the natural choice for Bloch.
"He felt that Munich would be a great place to become a painter," Cateforis said. "Most American artists of his generation were attracted to Paris, but Munich had an artistic reputation that rivaled that of Paris around that time."
Bloch began to paint seriously while in
Munich. It was there that he first encountered the work of Kandinsky, for which he claimed to have felt a deep affinity. He made contact with Kandinsky in 1911, and shortly thereafter Kandinsky and Marc paid a visit to Bloch's studio. The artists discovered they were moving in similar directions — away from direct pictorial representation and toward abstraction. There was an intense spiritual bend to their work as well.
"Bloch felt art was almost a spiritual calling, that true art was a form of spiritual work." Cateforis said. "This was an attitude that he shared with the other artists of The Blue Rider. Their conception of art was a lofty one. They saw art as a form of communication uncorrupted by crass materialism. It was a spiritual pursuit. It wasn't about making money. It was about moving peoples' souls."
"Winter" (1918) shows the use of vibrant color and cubist influence characteristic of Bloch's Munich period. "Winter" is currently on exhibit at the Spence Museum of Art. contributed art
The works of The Blue Rider painters that premiered at the Thannhauser Gallery in Munich in 1911 each displayed their own techniques. There was no definite program, other than the loosely based spiritual theme. Bloch displayed six paintings, characterized by vibrant colors set off by thick black brushstrokes. They were decidedly abstract, with an almost two-dimensional melding of background and foreground. Yet the works remained representational. The subject matter was mystical and the movement of the characters musical. The characters that inhabited them — apparitional Biblical figures and the harlequin and pierrots of the commedia dell'arte — would continue to show up in Bloch's paintings until the very end.
Return to the United States:
Lawrence and Isolationism
The varied styles of The Blue Rider painters would come to be labeled Expressionism. Tim DePaepe, KU graduate and a local filmmaker working on a documentary on the life and work of Bloch, said that 90 years after the first landmark exhibition, Expressionism continues to be imitated, assimilated and derived from by artists everywhere in all genres.
Bloch stayed in Munich until 1919, and he continued to exhibit his paintings in Germany and throughout Europe. But financial difficulties and the toll of World War I on Germany and Bloch's psyche would force him to return to the United States. In 1923, he came to the University of Kansas.
"If you truly look at Expressionism, you'll see how pervasive its influence on popular culture is. To this day, it's everywhere, not just in painting, but also in literature, in movies, and even in music videos. That in itself is testament to the power and vision of artists like Bloch."
Albert Bach, former head of the Department of Painting and Drwaing, now the Art Department, in his attic studio in 1932 at his former home at 1015 Alabama St. contributed photo
Cateforis said the move to Lawrence and the acceptance of the position at KU seemed to make sense in light of his view of art as spiritual rather than material.
Cateforis said that though the themes of his paintings remained virtually constant, his sensibility and technique moved far beyond that of his earlier work. He adopted a more restricted palette, abandoning the bright colors of his youth for earth tones. He also began to use white more frequently, which Cateforis likened to a spiritual light that infuses the images. The differences in style easily can be seen when comparing a work such as "Passing Train," painted in 1948, with a work such as 1918's "Winter."
"He grew tired of a life where he was forced to find places to exhibit his work, then hope for good reviews and depend on sales to collectors." Cateforis said. "He was attracted to teaching because he felt it freed him to pursue his own vision of art on his own terms. He freed him to cultivate his own garden."
"His later work, painted primarily in Lawrence, is more fully his own." Cateferis said. "There is something more deeply felt in the later work. It is profusely expressive."
"Bloch once said that a picture that is not a poem is not a picture, and a poem that is not a picture is not a poem," Baron said. "He thought of the two together, and tried to infuse his paintings with poetic ideas.
Baron said that for Bloch, poetry captured the essence of the creative spirit. The poets
It was also during his time in Lawrence that Bloch began to seriously write and translate poetry. Frank Baron, professor of German who has published works on Bloch, including a volume of Bloch's translations of German poets such as Karl Kraus and Georg Trakl, said that Bloch took an interdisciplinary approach to poetry and painting.
Cateforis said that, to Bloch's surprise, he found he enjoyed teaching. He left his mark on countless students, including the landscape painter Robert Sudan.
When he wasn't teaching, Bloch could be found painting in the confines of his home attic, which he transformed into a studio. He painted continuously, and with what he described as "ovsterlike concentration."
he chose to translate, particularly Kraus, who spoke out fervently against World War II and whose poems capture the extremes of war and peace, joy and suffering, shared Bloch's interior and mystical perspective.
The Rediscovery of Bloch's Work
Bloch continued to live and paint in Lawrence until his death in 1961. Having virtually abstained from promoting his work for what are still largely unknown personal and ethical reasons, he left behind a large body of later work that has yet to be examined by scholars and the public.
But his later work slowly is starting to garner more attention, thanks in part to the efforts of scholars such as Cateferis and Baron. Bloch's widow, Anna, also has been a passionate promoter of the late husband's work. DePeape's documentary on Bloch, which is in the process of being filmed, should also help in exposing Bloch's unique work to others.
"It's hard to determine what people think about Bloch," Cateforis said. "He remains a fairly obscure artist. The market, though small, for his paintings right now is focused on the Munich period and his association with The Blue Rider, probably because it is easier to understand something in a context that is more familiar."
Cateforis said that though the later
"Passing Train" (1947-48), with its use of earth tones and whites, is characteristic of Bloch's later work in Lawrence. contributed art
works were unfamiliar, they were still very approachable.
"They take more time to understand, and they are an acquired taste," Cateforis said. "But the vision represented is a more personal one that is more likely to touch individual viewers. They provide something viewers of his work won't find anywhere else."
"A lot of these paintings don't hang in museums. I think they should. If they aren't accessible, how are we to appreciate them?" Cateferi said.
Those wishing to see a sample of Bloch's painting in person do have the opportunity to do so. The Spencer Museum of Art currently own four of Bloch's paintings, as well as a number of works on paper. Two of Bloch's works, which dramatize the contrast between his early and later work, "Winter" (1918) and "Still Life With Landscape" (1954), are currently on view. The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City also houses a small collection of Bloch's work.
The quest to make Bloch's work more accessible and to uncover the enigmatic mysteries about the man is an ongoing one for those who feel passionate about his work. DePape said it was a quest he was proud to be a part of.
"As the mystery of Bloch's life unfolds, I find myself gaining insight not only into the man and his art, but also into the questions why painters paint and why we look at their paintings," De Papee said.
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