Head 1911

Albert Bloch created this painting, “Head,” using oil on canvas at an unknown date. Bloch was an American Expressionist painter. Looking at this painting, we see Bloch working within a religious tradition, perhaps representing Christ. The subject is in a simple purple robe with his hands clasped to his chest. We can see a stigma on his right hand. But Bloch was a Jewish artist who was closely involved with a number of avant-garde artistic movements. He was a contributor to the literary journal Der Strom, founded in Berlin in 1910. The historical record is full of instances where artists work within a social and political context that is in tension with the subject and message of their work. How do we interpret this painting in relation to the artist’s biography? For this, we need to look to exhibition histories, letters, diaries, and other archival resources to understand the social and institutional context that informed Bloch’s production.