Albert Bloch

Albert Bloch quit high school at the young age of sixteen to study at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. His career as an artist started at The Saint Louis Mirror, where he worked as a caricaturist and political cartoonist. The paper’s editor and publisher, William Marion Reedy, became a patron of Bloch’s after noticing his more intricate and advanced methods when creating cover illustrations for the weekly paper.

Reedy funded a trip for Bloch and his family to Europe so that Bloch could pursue furthering his artistic training. During this time, Bloch traveled to Paris and London to seek inspiration, but he eventually decided to train himself in Munich, in the artists' quarter of Schwabing. Bloch often referenced his readings in the Bible while drawing inspiration from the Catholic atmosphere of the city when painting.

By 1911, Bloch became increasingly interested in Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc's work and eventually met both painters, who became reciprocally interested in his work. Both German painters invited him to join their new group, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and in December of 1911, he contributed six paintings to a shared exhibition with the newly-founded group at Munich's Thannhauser Gallery.

Upon his return to the United States in the early 1920s, Bloch had solo exhibitions at the Chicago Art Institute and the Daniel Gallery in New York. Though his recognition as the 'American Blue Rider' was bringing him additional attention, Bloch eventually strayed from his association with the group with a desire to be independent from the art market. Additionally, Bloch began to teach -- first at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts from 1922-1923, then at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he also served as the head of the Department of Drawing and Painting and remained until he retired in 1947. Bloch continued to paint until his death in 1961.