Ruth Bloch was born in 1951 to artistic parents. Her father was a musician and her mother a ceramic artist. An avid painter from an early age, Ruth attended the Avny Art Institute where her talent was immediately recognized by her professors. She was encouraged to continue working in her own creative mode and to develop the personal style that characterizes her sculpture today.
“For me, what makes art is pureness…the fewer stages you have from the inner you to the art, the better,” explains the artist. This philosophy inspires much of her creation. She strives to deliver a pure quality from the profound depths of the self and this is illustrated in a piece like “Family” which evokes the sense of unity and togetherness that is fostered in her own family. Bloch speaks of a period spent in the desert area of Arava, with her husband and her four children in very positive terms despite the health problems she suffered at the time. This move helped her discover her artistic bearings and, in her own words, “to create, to love, to wrap my family around me. To give and to receive love. I see the world in brighter
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colors now.”
In Bloch’s newest explorations color plays an important role; complex trees present a synthesis of bronze and tinted glass. Such a wonderful harmony is evident in these pieces that it is hard to believe they are created one at a time, branch by branch in a flurry of artistic improvisation. As with all of her sculptures, each stage of the long process of creation is completed by the artist’s own hands. From the molding of the figures and the carving in wax of the tree branches to the finishing of the patina and the casting; it is all Ruth Bloch. Although the artist is most involved with her family, they are not privy to experiencing the birth of her sculptures. “I seek only my own approval. Sometimes, when I have finished a sculpture, I ask my husband or one of my children, but only when it’s done”.
For Ruth Bloch sculpture is an adventure. By observing her art, one takes part in this adventure. The artist imbues all her work with a feeling of peace that transcends day to day struggles and that transports the onlooker to a fantastic world of harmony and imagination: “I dream the trees during the night. When I look out at nature I don’t see nature anymore. I see my trees with the glass, the colors the coolness. I grow with each piece!”
Her works are exhibited throughout the world in both public and private collections.
Ruth Bloch’s growth as a sculptor is far easier to trace than her influences. As a figurative sculptor, Bloch most closely relates to Henry Moore for his fluidity of line and his genius for making that which is massive delicate. Her work entitled “Fatherhood,” which blends the human forms in an eternal circle, echoes Moore’s ability to realize the full potential of the sculptural form. In its scale and weight, the monumental piece “Eternite” is reminiscent of Moore’s “Northhampton Madonna” (1943/4). However Bloch, unlike her predecessor allows no separation between man, woman and child. For these figures are one, locked in an unending circle of life.
The influence of the Italian Master Alberto Giacometti is also apparent in Ruth Bloch’s art. The stylized elongated figures and the highly textural patinas that characterize her work in bronze are reminiscent of the slender forms of Giacometti’s artistic universe. The rebellious attitude of the celebrated Surrealist is adopted by Bloch who risks dismissal by crossing the age-old intellectual taboo of combining form and function; art and crafts. Ruth Bloch accepts this risk willingly. She finds great joy in creating and marvels at the public’s voracious response.
There is something sublime about the serious artist creating practical art. On viewing Bloch’s colorful bowls atop bronze trees, magical figures reading books or the simple gesture of lifting a child to the heavens, one immediately recollects the sprit of Picasso at Vallauris. The often dark Picasso was at his most whimsical, even poignant when working his ceramics, embellishing bowls, plates, jugs and wine decanters with images of doves, fish and owls. Bloch began creating functional art with a series of bronze bowls and coffee tables. Today, she has expanded her visual vocabulary/repertoire wit unique glassworks. In the relatively short time that she has worked in hybrid media, we have witnessed a startlingly rapid development that fulfills the promise of Bloch; she is growing with each work.
Philip Allen, San Francisco, 2001
Artwork
Rochester, NY 14623