Arts & Culture

An exhibition by German-born artist Martin Bloch, who had to flee his homeland for England in the build-up to WW2, has been overseen by his grandson.

Peter Rossiter, who is also an artist, curated his late grandfather's work for the show which runs at Norwich's Sainsbury Centre until Sunday, 15 April, 2007.

However, Peter's role as curator and author of the exhibition's catalogue was more of an evolution than a deliberate choice.

"I started work on going through a catalogue of his works that had been put together by my grandmother," he said.

Cherub Fleeing was painted in Berlin

"Initially the idea was just to go through each of the pieces, familiarise myself with them and identify where they were and write a bit about each one.

"When the proposed exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre came, it became clear that what I'd put together and what I knew about the works qualified me above anyone else to be the curator, so it was an obvious choice."

The Painter's Painter

Martin Bloch, who died in 1954, has been dubbed the Painter's Painter because of his passion for colour and love of teaching at London's Camberwell School Of Art.

Peter sourced the 100 paintings and drawings from both private and public collections for this first comprehensive exhibition since 1984.

It's the first time that Peter has seen some of the paintings since he was 12 and he said it's a delight to be able to compare the different eras of his grandfather's works.

Fleeing Hitler

Bloch's colour palette reflected his mood which was affected by the upheaval on the continent. As a Jew under threat from Hitler's uprising, he left Germany in 1933 for London via friends in Denmark.

Bloch was surprised by London's colours

"If you compare the colour harmonies between the two cities in Berlin there's an acidity and a brutality… whereas in the London paintings there's a prevalence of warm tones," said Peter.

"The cliched image of London was that it was grey and fog-bound and he was delighted to discover that it had a lot of interesting colours in it."

Although Bloch eventually settled in London, his initial years in England weren't welcoming.

As an 'enemy alien' he was held in internment camps in Liverpool and the Isle Of Man, where he was forced to live with Nazi sympathisers.

His feelings of devastation at being interned in the camps as well as the horror of fascism are documented in the exhibition's paintings alongside pieces which convey his hope and eventual contentment.

The Martin Bloch exhibition runs at the Sainsbury Centre Of Visual Arts at the UEA, Norwich, until Sunday, 15 April, 2007. Call 01603 593199 for more details.