{"id":5357,"date":"2024-08-21T14:27:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=5357"},"modified":"2025-01-07T16:56:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:56:43","slug":"block","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/en\/biografie\/block\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-founder of the Secession"},"content":{"rendered":"

A still life from the Dutch Golden Age<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Painting.<\/span>
Willem Kalf, Stillleben mit Porzellankanne (Still Life with a Porcelain Jug) (1653). <\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen, on loan from the Pinakotheks-Verein \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Bathed in a mysterious glow, an exquisite porcelain jug and a glass goblet with wine glinting inside appear against the semi-darkness of a window alcove. In the foreground are a half-peeled lemon, an open pomegranate, and some velvety peaches. The Dutch baroque painter Willem Kalf masterfully demonstrates how the surfaces reflect the light in different ways. This still life can be admired at the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Drawing,<\/span>
Self-portrait of the painter Josef Block.<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

It once belonged to the painter Josef Block.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

In the Munich Art Scene<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"The\"...and
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h3><\/div>

Block moves to Munich as a young man in 1881. He was originally from Silesia, began to study art in Breslau (Wroc\u0142aw) and continued his studies at the Kunstakademie (Academy of Fine Arts) in Munich.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Historical<\/span>
The panoramic painting Jerusalem am Tag der Kreuzigung Christi. Bruno Piglhein and fellow painters; the person on the far right is possibly Josef Block. <\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

One of his tutors is Bruno Piglhein, a painter of historical scenes. Piglhein arranges a prestigious job for his student: Block is allowed to contribute to Piglhein\u2019s monumental panorama Jerusalem am Tag der Kreuzigung Christi (Jerusalem on the Day of the Day of Christ\u2019s Crucifixion). The panorama, which went on display for the first time in 1886 in Munich, was destroyed in a fire in Vienna in 1892.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Historic<\/span>
Theresienstra\u00dfe in Munich, ca. 1902. <\/div>

Munich City Archive DE-1992-FS-NL-PETT1-3651 Creative commons 4.0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Josef Block sets up a studio at 75 Theresienstra\u00dfe. This part of Munich \u2013 around the neighborhoods of Maxvorstadt and Schwabing \u2013 has a population largely made up of artists, students, and academics. Josef Block lives in the same building as two other painters, Fritz von Uhde and Ludwig Dill.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201eDeath to the studio tone, kitsch, and falsity\"<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Carl Teufel (photographer), Josef Block in seinem Atelier (Josef Block in his Studio), around 1889.<\/div>

Image archive photo Marburg, image file no. fm121564<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

It was in this studio that on 4 April 1892 Block and 95 fellow artists found the \u201eVerein bildender K\u00fcnstler M\u00fcnchens e.V.\u201d (Munich Association of Visual Artists), which later becomes famous as the \u201eSecession\u201d. This group considers itself the antithesis of the established art scene in Munich, which is dominated by the portraitist Franz von Lenbach. The co-founders of the Secession are Block\u2019s professor Bruno Piglhein and the \u201cprince of painting\u201d Franz von Stuck. Author Margarete Mauthner recalls the foundation of the movement: \u201eSecession? \u2013 The word meant nothing to me; it was an alien concept. But when I heard the names of those behind the movement, it all became clear: light, freedom, purity in art, even when it did not follow an entirely new direction, death to the studio tone, kitsch, and falsity\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Franz von Stuck, poster for the 7th International Art Exhibition of the Munich Secession (1897).<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h4>\n

Block is an active contributor to the exhibitions of the Munich Secession. His paintings are exhibited in Germany and abroad. Critics praise: \u201eBlock\u2019s paintings reveal multiple, subtle narratives, in muted colors, in the modern style characterized by broken sentences and dashes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Max Liebermann, Self-portrait with brush (1913). <\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h4>\n

Soon after the momentous gathering in his studio, Block leaves Munich and moves to Berlin. He is a co-founder of the Berlin Secession in 1898, a movement led by Max Liebermann.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting.<\/span>
Josef Block, Hugo and Anna Luise (1900).<\/div>

Block family archive<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

He marries Else Oppenheim, the daughter of the banker Hugo Otto Oppenheim and his wife Margarete, n\u00e9e Mendelssohn. The couple soon adds to their family with the birth of Anna Luise, Hugo, and Otto. They are soon to be deprived of their family happiness, as Else suffers from severe depression and has to be admitted to an institution around 1903. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Berlin 1904: Preparations for an exhibition of the Berlin Secession: board members and the picture hanging committee at work. From left to right: Willy D\u00f6ring, Bruno Cassirer, Otto Engel, Max Liebermann, Walter Leistikow, Kurt Herrmann, and Fritz Klimsch.<\/div>

Federal Archives, image 183-1986-0718-502.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Josef Block becomes firmly established in the art world of Berlin, as he had been in Munich. He is friends with Max Slevogt, Emil Orlik, and Max Liebermann and becomes a sought-after portrait artist in high society. Prominent art dealers such as Fritz Gurlitt and Paul Cassirer sell his works and he often takes part in the Biennale in Venice and Secession exhibitions.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Josef Block in his Berlin studio.<\/div>

Berliner Leben - Magazine for Beauty and Art, 1904<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

In 1904 the women\u2019s illustrated magazine \"Berliner Leben \u2013 Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Sch\u00f6nheit und Kunst\" (Berlin Life \u2013 Magazine for Beauty and Art) writes: \u201cThe artist is at the center of his works; he has a calm and self-assured gaze. A renowned painter who has a very good name in the art world. Here you can see Die Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (The Temptation of Saint Antony), underneath it Spanierin (Spanish Woman), above this to the right another picture of a Spanish woman, and below that Dame im Gr\u00fcnen (Woman in the Greenery); in addition, the Grablegung Christi (Burial of Christ) and Chansonette (Little Song).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Josef Block and Gerhart Hauptmann, ca. 1930.<\/div>

Block family archive<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Block has a longstanding friendship with the writer Gerhart Hauptmann, whom he has known since his time in Breslau. Block often visits Hauptmann on the Baltic Sea island of Hiddensee and in the Giant Mountains. He produces a series of portraits of Hauptmann during this period.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Josef Block, ca. 1910.<\/div>

Block family archive<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Block is a keen and frequent traveler. Around the turn of the century, he embarks on a grand tour of the Mediterranean, which took him as far as Egypt. In the 1920s he often visits Italy, Switzerland, and France. He always has his camera with him \u2013 he is a fan of the new artistic medium of photography.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting.<\/span>
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Dr. Wilhelm Bode (Portrait of Dr. Wilhelm Bode) (1904).<\/div>

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie \/ J\u00f6rg P. Anders Public Domain Mark 1.0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Around 1906 Block inherits a collection of Old Masters paintings from his uncle, the Berlin lawyer Berthold Richter. The paintings are so famous and so valuable that in 1919 leading representatives of the museums in Berlin such as Wilhelm von Bode want to include them in an inventory of national treasures.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Josef Block and Gertrud Lessow in the studio.<\/div>

Block family archive<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

From the late 1920s Josef Block lives in a large apartment at Derfflingerstra\u00dfe in Berlin-Tiergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201eMr Block\u2019s apartment was like a museum\u201d, recalls his housekeeper, Gertrud Lessow. \u201eThere were pieces of genuine period furniture, the precious rugs were literally laid one on top of the other. The series of high-ceilinged rooms which had no connecting doors were full of valuable porcelain, sculptures, pictures, bronzes\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Targeted art theft by G\u00f6ring\u2019s lead buyer<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Walter Andreas Hofer, 1945.<\/div>

U.S. Army Signal Corps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

After the National Socialists assume power, Josef Block, as a Jew, is subject to discriminatory taxation. He then becomes the victim of targeted art theft. It may have been the list of nationally valuable cultural assets that initially draws art dealer Walter Andreas Hofer's attention to the Block art collection. Hofer is Hermann G\u00f6ring\u2019s lead buyer and responsible for expanding his art collection. In 1939 he forces Josef Block to sell him two of the paintings from the collection he had inherited: a still life by Willem Kalf and a painting by van Beyeren.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Context<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Herman G\u00f6ring<\/span><\/a><\/div>
<\/i>Levy on Jewish assets (Judenverm\u00f6gensabgabe)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Painting.<\/span>
Josef Block, Self-portrait, ca. 1940.<\/div>

Block family archive<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Gertrud Lessow writes: \u201eI can still remember how devastated Mr. Block was at the time when the two pictures were taken from him under duress. He had wanted to keep them as a legacy, but also because they belonged in his collection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Alte Pinakothek M\u00fcnchen, ca. 1938. <\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

G\u00f6ring is interested in the van Beyeren painting and Ernst Buchner, director general of the Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections) in the one by Kalf. Buchner offers Hofer two paintings in exchange. This is how the still life comes to be in the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
The National Socialists misused the Jewish Hospital to ghettoize Jews.<\/div>

Herbert Sonnenfeld, view of the main building of the Jewish Hospital in Berlin, 2 Iranische Stra\u00dfe, around 1935; J\u00fcdisches Museum Berlin, inv. no. FOT 88\/500\/267\/013, purchased with funds from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie (German Lottery Foundation), Berlin <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Final residence in a 'Jew house'<\/h3>\n

In 1943 Josef Block receives a deportation order. Gertrud Lessow describes the situation: \u201eHe was very ill and bedridden and so by intervening directly [with the authorities] I was able to spare him from deportation. However, he had to vacate his apartment and move into a \u2018Jew house\u2019 [Judenhaus, collective accommodation assigned to Jews].\u201d<\/p>\n

Block\u2019s final address is the Jewish Hospital, which the National Socialists had turned into a \u2018Jew house\u2019 and an assembly camp for Jews who were to be deported from Berlin. Even under these circumstances Josef Block is very productive. He begins work on a portrait of a Jewish physician. However, it is not completed. The painter dies on December 20, 1943. The urn with his ashes are interred in the Jewish cemetery at Berlin-Wei\u00dfensee. dies on 20 December 1943 and the urn containing his ashes is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Wei\u00dfensee.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Context<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Jew house (Judenhaus)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Josef Block's house in Derfflingerstra\u00dfe is destroyed by fire after the end of the war. Not only do parts of Block's art collection burn, but also the majority of his own work.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Restitution to Josef Block\u2019s grandson<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Colour<\/span>
In 2008 the painting was returned to Josef Block\u2019s grandson, Peter Block. Left: Reinhold Baumstark, director general of the Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen. <\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

In 2008 the painting by Kalf is restituted to the painter\u2019s grandson, Peter Block.<\/p>\n

\u201eIt means a lot to me that the injustice done to my grandfather has been acknowledged and that the crimes of the Nazi era are remembered in the process\u201d, says the heir. \u201cIn addition, I also felt it necessary for this wonderful still life by Kalf to remain on public view in the Alte Pinakothek.\u201d For this reason, he agrees to sell the work to the Pinakotheks-Verein (Pinakothek Association), which has made it available to the Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen on a permanent loan. And so today visitors to the Alte Pinakothek can continue to admire this magnificent work from the Dutch Golden age.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Report by rbb about Josef Block<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>