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Bloch, E. Maurice

    Image Credit: Bridgeman

    Full Name: Bloch, E. Maurice

    Gender: male

    Date Born: 1916

    Date Died: 1989

    Place Born: New York, NY, USA

    Place Died: Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Home Country/ies: United States

    Subject Area(s): American (North American) and graphic arts

    Career(s): educators


    Overview

    UCLA art history professor, 1956-1975; founding director of Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts; Americanist. Bloch was the son of Leonard Bloch and Rose von Auspitz (Bloch). He graduated from New York University with a B.F.A., intent on becoming an artist, in 1939. After a short stint at Harvard University for graduate study in 1940, he returned to NYU and the Institute of Fine Arts, where his A.M. was granted in 1942. Bloch lectured as an instructor in art at the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1943-44, New York University, Washington Square College, 1945-1946, and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, lecturer in art history, 1946-1947. Beginning in 1949, Bloch joined Cooper Union, New York City, as an assistant professor and keeper of drawings and prints. He was appointed assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1956. In 1957 Bloch was awarded his Ph.D., at the Institute, writing on what would be his life’s research interest, the American artist George Caleb Bingham. Bloch taught American art history as well as the history of prints. This led to his appointment as founding director of Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA, in 1960. Bloch worked closely with the Center’s donor, Fred Grunwald, to develop it into a major works-on-paper art museum. The following year Block became associate professor ( 1961). He was appointed (full) professor of art history in 1967, the same year his two-volume work on Bingham appeared. Bloch joined the board of directors of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, and Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico in 1975. A drawings catalogue raisonné of Bingham’s work appeared the same year. He retired from teaching as professor emeritus in 1981 and from the Grunwald Center in 1983. Bloch joined the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, advising the Foundation on its collection of American paintings for a new gallery at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, which opened in 1984. Bloch continued to serve as a consultant to the Huntington. Only in retirement did he learn to drive a car (he bought an Audi). Bloch reissued his Bingham book as a full catalogue raisonné in 1986. He died at a Santa Monica hospital three years later. His papers are held at the Getty Center, Los Angeles.


    Selected Bibliography

    [dissertation:] Bingham: The Artist and his Times. 3 vols. New York University, 1957; George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist. 2 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967; The Drawings of George Caleb Bingham With a Catalogue Raisonné. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1975; The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné. Columbian, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1986.Estate catalog: Property from the Estate of E. Maurice Bloch, Part II. Christie’s. New York: Christie’s, 1991. Catalogue 7206, January 9, 1991


    Sources

    Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p.70 cited; Collector and Connoisseur E. Maurice Bloch: Oral History Transcript. Bernard Galm, interviewer. 2 vols. Los Angeles: Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991; Vidler, David Rodes Anthony. “E. Maurice Bloch, Art History: Los Angeles.” In Memoriam, University of Califorina 1994 (website); Who Was Who in American Art. 400 Years of Artists in America. 2nd ed. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.


    Archives


    Contributors: Emily Crockett, LaNitra Michele Walker, and Lee Sorensen


    Citation

    Emily Crockett, LaNitra Michele Walker, and Lee Sorensen. "Bloch, E. Maurice." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/bloche/.


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