Page 63 - Studio International - May 1970

Martin Bloch These were years of hard struggle, painting in his paintings of the 1920s come somewhat
poor circumstances, in stables and barns. But closer to the work of the former Brücke
re-assessed it was then that Bloch began to develop tenta- artists and tend to have emphatic outlines,
heavy forms and a strong pattern (that is to
tively, without any outside influences, his
personal colour harmonies. say a pattern in three dimensions). On the
Ronald Alley After living for some time with the Basque other hand they differ from German Express-
people and in other parts of the country they ionism in making no definite social comment
settled in Madrid. It was a cold winter and to and in their greater interest in effects of light
keep themselves warm they went each day to as expressed through colour. Schmidt-Rottluff
the Prado to copy Old Master paintings (an became a close friend of his and, after the
experience out of which grew Ruhemann's death of Bloch's original collaborator Anton
interest in the technique of the Old Masters Kerschbaumer in 1926, joined him in running
and picture conservation. Bloch was later to an art school in Berlin that developed quickly
marry Ruhemann's sister). While in Malaga and attracted pupils from all over Europe.
in 1915 they shared a house with Marie His pursuit of Mediterranean light led Bloch
Laurencin and her German husband Otto von to make a practice from 1924 onwards of
Waetjen, and Bloch painted a picture of taking his pupils to paint in Italy, and he spent
Still life, Yellow Ground 1921 Marie Laurencin sitting in the garden. They six successive summers by Lake Garda where
Oil on canvas
32 x 45⅞ in. also became friendly with Robert and Sonia he painted some of his finest works.
Coll: Mrs C. Bloch Delaunay. Although he lived in Berlin throughout the

One of the first foreign artists to arrive in
England as a refugee from the Nazis was
Martin Bloch, who spent the last twenty
years of his life, from 1934 to 1954, in this
country. Although not totally neglected, like
Kurt Schwitters, he never received due
attention in England, partly because of the
long-standing English prejudice against any
kind of German Expressionism.
Bloch was born in 1883 in the small Silesian
town of Neisse, where his father was a manu-
facturer in comfortable circumstances. On
leaving school he was determined to become
an artist, but strong opposition from his
parents obliged him at first to compromise
and study architecture in Berlin and later art
history in Munich under Heinrich Mifflin.
However, after several years a small legacy
from an uncle enabled him to devote all his
time to painting and to rent a studio in
Berlin. He attended a drawing class there
under Lovis Corinth for a few months in 1907,
but as a painter was self-taught. He joined
the Sezession, presided over by Max Lieber-
mann, and in 1911 and 1913 had his first one- On his return to Germany in 1919, Bloch years of inflation and deflation, he disliked
man exhibitions at the Paul Cassirer Gallery painted a large triptych, Southern Light, the harsh atmosphere of post-war Germany
in Berlin. Although he came into close contact commemorating his impressions of the blaz- and, as a Jew, was inevitably deeply dis-
at this period before the First World War ing Mediterranean light experienced during turbed by the growing ascendancy of the
with the leading artists of the Brücke group years of living around Sevillia and Malaga. Nazis. He had just been elected Secretary of
he never exhibited with the group. Three statuesque nudes are seen basking in the `Verein bildender Künstler Deutsch-
Drawn on the one hand to Munch and the sun. The blues of the sky and water have lands' (the Society incorporating all currents
German Expressionism, he was attracted on a clarity and intensity which recalls the work of art throughout the country). When Prince
the other to Paris and the art of Matisse. In of Matisse, while one can also see links with August-Wilhelm, one of the Kaiser's sons,
1912 he paid his first visit to Paris where he Cezanne and Derain, and possibly even with interfered without authority in the hanging
struck up a friendship with Pascin in Mont- the allegorical compositions of Munch; but of pictures for a huge exhibition under Bloch's
parnasse and in the following year the two out of these influences emerges a personal supervision, he called for a meeting in protest,
artists went together to Spain for a short visit. statement, an enthusiastic belief in translating which made him suspect to the new regime
Bloch was so delighted with the serenity of the the power of colour and light into painting. and forced him to realise that it was time for
land and the friendliness and dignity of the This was one of the many Spanish pictures him to leave the country. The last picture
people that he longed to return there. So, shown on his return in his exhibition at the that he painted before leaving Germany
after painting with Helmut Ruhemann in the Paul Cassirer Gallery in Berlin in 1920, a shows a few fading thistles against a bundle of
South of France in the early summer of 1914, show which was very well received by the dirty paper and a gloomy background. But in
the two of them went across the border into critics and which represented one of the the right-hand corner there is a tiny crocus
Spain only to find themselves stranded there greatest successes in his early career as a just ready to open its petals, thus symbolising
by the outbreak of war. What was intended to painter. But although Southern Light is hope for a recovery. This picture now belongs
be a brief holiday grew into a stay of five years. predominantly French in character, most of to the Leeds City Art Gallery. This kind of