Paul Bloch
Grey Etude, 2007, carrara bardiglio marble, 24 x 13 x 12 in.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Paul Bloch has been carving sculptures in marble and limestone, as well as bronze, for over thirty years. He works directly (without a model) utilizing the volume of the material and maximizing the limits of the stone. Bloch’s sculpture is improvisational; his first inspiration was jazz. Twelve years of Bloch’s career were spent in Carrara, Italy, which honed his skills and clarified his vision. Paul Bloch was born in New York and studied anthropology, music and sculpture in Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to California in the early 1970′s and began to seriously pursue a career as a sculptor. For three years he assisted the West Coast sculptor, James Pristine. In 1994 Bloch received an Athena Foundation Grant to sculpt at the Mark di Suvero Studio in New York City. Bloch has exhibited in California, New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as Italy and Switzerland.
Neutron Star Sculpture, 2015, petite granite, 13 x 13 x 13 in.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"I began carving in 1974 and have always worked directly (without a model) utilizing the volume of the material and maximizing the limits of the stone.
My sculpture is improvisational -- my first inspiration was jazz. In my early years in Berkeley, where so many of my colleagues were doing additive sculpture in metal or ceramics, I learned to treat the stone like a piece of chewing gum which I could pull, push and bend in any direction.
Twelve years in Carrara, Italy honed my skills and Italy's artistic heritage clarified my vision. I carved mellifluous musical compositions in Marble. The balance and tension between negative and positive space and the infinite with the finite were -- and still are -- my sculptural concerns.
I've also been rendering imaginary planet surfaces first inspired by satellite photographs of other planets and their moons. these pieces are fascinating to me because of their micro-macroscopic ambiguity.
Stone is a fundamental material. As a man and artist, it is my goal to transform that substance into beauty and give something back to the cosmos."
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