Pierrette Bloch

Pierrette Bloch was a French-born Swiss painter and sculptor. Known for a body of work defined by minimalist forms and the contrast between black and white, the post-war artist used drawing, collage, painting, weaving and sculpture in her work.

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WOMEN IN ABSTRACT ART:
FIVE WOMEN – FIVE ARTISTIC VISIONS
GROUP SHOW
MARCH 8 – MAY 29, 2021

WOMEN IN ABSTRACT ART:
FIVE WOMEN – FIVE ARTISTIC VISIONS

Digital publication – Texts by Mathilde Gubanski

Virtual visit of the exhibition “Women in abstract art: Five women – five artisitic visions”.
From March 8 to May 29, 2021

“Pierrette Bloch, Collage”, an analysis by Mathilde Gubanski

Pierrette Bloch’s early life and artistic training

Pierrette Bloch was born in Paris on 16 June 1928. The Bloch family fled to Switzerland to escape occupied France when war broke out. In 1939, Pierrette Bloch was struck by her first aesthetic revelation when she encountered the masterpieces of the Museo del Prado, which were on show in Geneva at the time. Pierrette Bloch immersed herself in literature, which became an important source of inspiration for the young artist. She also attended conferences on art history, including a lecture by the curator and historian René Huyghe on the theme of linearity, which led her to establish an artistic practice based on the relationship between drawing, time and writing.

Meeting Pierre Soulages

After the end of the Second World War, Pierrette Bloch returned to Paris where she studied law and literature. Turning her attention to drawing and painting, she joined the studio of Jean Souverbie in 1947. The following year, Pierrette Bloch studied with André Lhote and then Henri Goetz in their studios. The latter introduced Bloch to the painter Pierre Soulages, with whom she developed a close friendship. Influenced by Pierre Soulages and also Nicolas de Staël, Pierrette Bloch created her first abstract paintings, which were heavily textured and structured using grid compositions.

The artist Pierrette Bloch’s “years of wandering”

Pierrette Bloch’s work was exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Surindépendants in Paris in 1949. The artist’s first solo exhibition was presented in 1951 at the Galerie Mai in the French capital. Pierrette Bloch’s first solo exhibition in the United States took place in the same year, presented at the Hacker Gallery in New York. The following year, the artist’s work was shown at the French Art of the XX^th Century exhibition at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1953, Pierrette Bloch created her first collages and moved into a studio on Rue Antoine-Chantin in the 14^th arrondissement of Paris.

In the 1950s, Pierrette Bloch’s work was defined by the importance of rhythm, the balance between fullness and emptiness, and the contrast between black and white. Entering a period that she called her “years of wandering”, the artist withdrew from the art world to her studio.

The artist Pierrette Bloch’s work on paper

The 1960s were a period of investigation and experimentation for Pierrette Bloch, who abandoned painting in 1965 to devote herself to collage. In 1968, the artist spent some time in New York where she created her first collages on paper—Canson, kraft or Bristol—which she mounted on Masonite panels.

In the early 1970s, Pierrette Bloch began working with ink on paper, creating networks of spots and dots on white backgrounds that would become emblematic of her work. At the same time, she experimented with other techniques—using chalk, charcoal, graphite, oil pastels and dry pastels.

The artist Pierrette Bloch’s work in textiles

The year 1973 marked an important juncture in Pierrette Bloch’s work, as the artist began integrating cords and threads into her work. Pierrette Bloch began creating meshes using hemp in 1978 and adopted horsehair as a material in 1984. These materials would become essential to her work. A textile artist, Pierrette Bloch used weaving, braiding, knitting and embroidery techniques to create paths and lines sometimes reaching up to several metres in length. These minimal sculptural forms were made up of loops running over a taut nylon thread. These works were influenced by the minimalist music that the artist discovered in 1976.

The artist’s “lines of paper” and “places of uncertainty” 

Pierrette Bloch’s work in relief found its counterpart in the artist’s pictorial work when she created her first “lines of paper” in 1994. In a form of abstract writing, the artist produced loops of ink imitating loops of fibre. Pierrette Bloch’s own writing was also reflected throughout her work, the artist’s poetic texts regularly accompanying her pictorial works.

Bloch also created what she called her “places of uncertainty”, producing boundless arrays of dots in Indian ink on white paper in long-format pieces that could stretch to more than ten metres in length. The theme of repetition played an essential role in Pierrette Bloch’s work, which was characterised by her large formats and economical use of resources.

In 1999, Pierrette Bloch’s work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the Musée de Grenoble in Grenoble, France, and then at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. In 2002, the Cabinet d’Art Graphique at the Centre Pompidou exhibited the artist’s works, and the following year, a solo exhibition entitled Lignes et crins was presented at the Musée Picasso in Antibes. In 2005, the Fondation Pro-Mahj at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris awarded the Maratier Prize to Pierrette Bloch for her life’s work. In 2009, the Musée Fabre in Montpellier presented a solo exhibition of Pierrette Bloch’s work. The following year, the artist participated in the exhibition On Line at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Pierrette Bloch died on 7 July 2017 in Paris, France.

© Diane de Polignac Gallery
Translation: Lucy Johnston

© Photo : James Caritey

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