Page 64 - Studio International - May 1970

emotional atmosphere recurs in many of his
countryside. Only a few of these landscapes
paintings, expressed through the choice of inspired by the hedges, trees, hills and chang-
contrasting colours. Not attempting to copy ing skies of Dorset, remain in England; they
the colours of nature realistically— though he are dispersed throughout the world. In 1948
never got away from nature's hold on him— he visited the United States at the invitation
he would, for instance, paint the sky green as a of the Walker Art Center to teach at a summer
contrast to the orange-coloured shutters of a course at Minneapolis, beginning at this time
house; this handling of colour gives his paint- and later completing in London the picture
ings an emotional and often an almost lyrical The Mississippi at Minneapolis now in the
impact. It resulted in his being condemned by Tate Gallery. From Minneapolis he travelled
the Nazis as a 'degenerate artist'. farther west to Colorado and New Mexico,
In 1933 the Blochs received a cable from the where he found himself at home because the
Danish writer Karin Michaelis offering them colours and atmosphere reminded him of
sanctuary on the little island of Thuroe off the Spain: there he made the sketches for his
Danish coast, where— anticipating that various Rocky Mountains pictures. Back in Britain,
of her friends would have to flee from Ger- he did much of his painting in Wales, where
many—she had built bungalows ready to he found inspiration for such pictures as
receive them. Among the others who took Down from Bethesda Quarries painted for
shelter there at the same time was Berthold the Festival of Britain and now in the
Brecht, the Blochs's next-door neighbour. National Museum of Wales. From 1951 until
Martin Bloch remained on Thuroe until he his death in 1954 he served as a guest teacher
obtained in 1934 a permit to come to England at the Camberwell School of Art. When in
and teach there. He opened 'The Contempor- 1955, soon after his death, the Beaux Arts
ary School of Painting and Drawing' with Gallery showed some 30 paintings and a
Roy de Maistre, which became a much fre- number of drawings, many went to museums
quented London private art school. and his reputation was belatedly established.
Bloch was at once greatly attracted by In his late pictures, especially in those
London, especially the contrasts between the executed in the last eight or so years of his
old parts and the very new buildings, the life, colour plays the dominant role. These
streets with smart houses side by side with paintings were built up slowly and intensely, in
areas of decay. He saw London as very colour- much the same way as the later works of
ful, particularly in fog, when the red buses and Cezanne, by putting scattered patches of
the pillarboxes appeared brilliantly sparkling. colour on to the canvas which gradually
Objects and people, emerging from the mist, accumulated until they joined together and
seemed to him full of surprises and stimulated everything fell into place. The tonal contrasts
his imagination. He specialised in London are muted and the brush-strokes loose but
townscapes, such as Langham Place (1938) tentative; the pictures tend to have a worn,
with the old church of All Souls alongside the rather blurred appearance due to a good deal
modern BBC headquarters or The Red Lion, of scraping. The colour harmonies are often
Barnes (1937) in which the pub is surrounded very bold and rich, with combinations of
by block-like telephone boxes and a row of cold and warm colours such as vivid blues and
petrol pumps. In the gentle light and atmos- purples.
phere of England his work became softer, the Out of a blend of German Expressionism
drawing more delicate, the colours more diffuse with French influences from Matisse and
and atmospheric. Cezanne, Bloch evolved while in England an
None of these landscapes was painted out-of- increasingly personal way of painting which
doors on the spot. What he did was to make a gave full rein to his natural gifts as a colourist.
number of small sketches from the motif in He and his work form one of the principal
pencil or charcoal or ink, adding a few spots links between twentieth-century German art
of colour, but noted most of what he saw in and this country. q
his memory. He went to look at his motif
2
again and again, usually just staring at it, Cocoon Market at Mantua 1928
regardless of time. He considered it essential Oil on canvas
26 x 40 in.
never to forget one's first imaginative idea for Coll: Mrs C. Bloch
3
a picture, which had to be the foundation for Arancia, Girl from Lake Garda 1928
all that followed. But above all he was pre- Oil on canvas
311x 381 in.
occupied with colour and with the modifica- Coll: Mrs C. Bloch
tions of colour which are necessary in order to 4
In West Berlin 1933
render effects of light in terms of oil paint. Oil on canvas
When war came and France was over-run, 29x 38 in.
Coll: Mrs C. Bloch
Bloch was interned for half a year first at
5
Huyton in Lancashire and then on the Isle of Victoria Station, London 1935
Oil on canvas
Man. Afterwards he endured the air-raids on 17x 31 in.
London until a bomb turned him out of his Coll: Mrs C. Bloch
6
Kensington studio; he sought peace in Dorset, The Mississippi at Minneapolis, 1948-50
living for several periods in a gardener's Oil on canvas
28x 361 in.
cottage and painting Blackmore Vale, Hardy's Coll: Tate Gallery, London