Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider Exhibition Records

In 1984, Albert Bloch’s widow, Anna Bloch, brought a large group of her late husband’s paintings to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She had found the works in the attic of their home, rescued from 40 years of neglect. These historical paintings were soon to be conserved, and they renewed interest in the important but often overlooked artist known as Albert Bloch.

Former Nelson-Atkins Curator of American Art, Henry Adams, conceptualized a potential retrospective for Albert Bloch in the late 1980s, but the idea did not come to fruition until a few years later, when it began to materialize under the guidance of Margaret C. Conrads, Curator of American Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in the 1990s. In the same time span, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany, had exhibited retrospectives for nearly every member of the influential German artist group, Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider), but had not yet planned one for its sole American member, Albert Bloch. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Bloch’s dual role as an integral part in modern art history and his importance as a Midwestern artist and later, art educator, called for the need of a retrospective exhibition.

Initial planning for the exhibition started in the early 1990s, and correspondence between Conrads, Adams and Annegret Hoberg, curator at the Städtische Galerie, initiated the planning and research for the retrospective. Anna Bloch supplied a large body of information, archival materials, and knowledge on Bloch to support the exhibition.

Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, the catalog corresponding to the exhibition, comprises of Albert Bloch’s biographical and artistic chronology, full color plates of the objects exhibited, as well as essays contributed by Conrads, Adams, Hoberg and, another important researcher to the exhibit, David Cateforis, professor of Art History at the University of Kansas.

Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider was exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from January 26th to March 16th, at the Städtische Galerie Im Lenbachhaus from April 16th to June 29th, and then culminated at The Delaware Art Museum, from October 3rd to December 7th in 1997.

For more information, see exhibition catalog Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, edited by Henry Adams, Margaret C. Conrads, and Annegret Hoberg. (Sketch largely excerpted from that publication.)