Self-portrait, Albert Bloch

Exhibition Label: “Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts,” Mar-2010, Steve Goddard Albert Bloch was a talented, American-born artist who took up residency in Munich in early 1909. By 1911 he was encouraged by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc to join the artists’ group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and he later exhibited with Der Sturm (The Storm) in Berlin as well. The members of The Blue Rider scattered at the outbreak of war, with Alexei Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin moving to Switzerland, Kandinsky returning to Russia, and Marc drafted into military service. Bloch remained in Germany through the War, maintaining frequent correspondence with his close friend, Franz Marc, until March 4, 1916, when Marc was killed at the Battle of Verdun. Bloch was an important translator into English of the anti-militaristic Austrian poets Karl Kraus and Georg Trakl; he also translated Marc’s essay, written from the battlefield, “The European Idea.” Archive Label 2003: Bloch executed this portrait during the years he lived in Munich, where he became associated with the German expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). When the group disbanded at the outset of World War I, Bloch returned to the United States and served as head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas between 1922 and 1947. Exhibition Label: "Windmills to Workshops: Lawrence and the Visual Arts," Jul-2004, Kate Meyer Albert Bloch was born in St. Louis, Missouri and began his artistic career in 1905 as a caricaturist for a literary magazine. In 1908 Bloch went to Munich, Germany to study art. While there he met Vassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc who invited him to join the important artists' group called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), who investigated the expressive potential of color and its emotional associations. Bloch was the only American to participate in this group, which proved to be one of the most influential movements in the history of early-twentieth century art. Bloch later returned to the United States and served as the head of KU’s Department of Painting and Drawing from 1923-1947. Bloch continued to live and work in Lawrence until his death in 1961. His wife, Anna, survives him and still receives visiting scholars in her home, where Albert once had his studio. Bloch’s Self-Portrait, with its pensive, penetrating gaze, is reminiscent of self-portraits by early-twentieth-century German artists such as Ludwig Meidner and Max Beckmann.