The "Still Life of 1914" is a fine example of the artist's work from his German period, capturing as it does with its jagged, pointed shapes and dissociated forms much of the expressonistic flavor of its time.

Source: Bulletin, November 1969.

Bloch is the only American who participated in Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an early twentieth-century group of expressionist painters based in Germany who aimed to show the spiritual in visual art. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Bloch settled in Munich in 1909 to pursue painting. He quickly made acquaintances with Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and Franz Marc (1880–1916) and, at their invitation, exhibited his work in the first Blue Rider exhibition in 1911.

In Still Life III, Bloch has woven the foreground and background together, giving the illusion that the elements pictured are suspended in air. The work is atmospheric—falling in line with the aspirations of the Blue Riders—in an effort to depict the ethereal.      

October, 2020