Opening Celebration Saturday—

The Late Stella Bloch To Be Honored

With Beaux Arts Exhibition

WOODBURY — The next exhibition at Beaux Arts Gallery, at 16 Sherman Hill Road, will be a special presentation of works by the late Newtown resident Stella Bloch (1897-1999). “Influences and Influencing” will open with a public reception on Saturday, September 23, from 4 to 7 pm. The exhibit will then continue through November 11.

Stella Bloch was raised in New York City and came to maturity as an artist and dancer in the early 1920s. Isadora Duncan became her inspiration after Ms Bloch saw a performance by her in New York City in 1914. Ms Duncan not only provided a daring and expressive subject for Stella Bloch to draw and paint, but also instilled in her a philosophy of life which Ms Bloch remained dedicated to throughout her life.

Ms Bloch went on to study dance technique with Lisa Duncan, Anna Duncan and Maria Therese Duncan. She performed Duncan dance herself through the 1920s in New York City and Boston.

Stella Bloch was essentially self-taught as an artist and her subject was almost always the human figure, specifically as displayed in dance. She produced hundreds of depictions of Isadora Duncan and Duncan dance.

Repeated trips to the Orient through the 1920s and 30s gave Ms Bloch an appreciation for Asian ways of life, modes of dance and culture through which she educated others about through her artwork, her own dance and published writings which appeared in Dance Magazine, Asia Magazine and Art Studio International.

Her interest in dance led her to the jazz dance of the “Roaring Twenties” in New York City. Harlem nightclubs provided endless characters such as Bessie Smith, Bo Jangles, Snake Hips Tucker, and others, to draw and paint.

In the 1950s she embarked on a series of works depicting black and Hispanic populations who lived along upper Central Park, New York. These compassionate and insightful drawings and paintings serve as a chronicle of citylife at that time.

Works by Stella Bloch can be found in countless private collections including those of the actress Katharine Hepburn, the late Hollywood director George Cukor, the collection of New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, The Harvard Theatre Collection, and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York State.

On Thursday, October 12, gallery curator Michael Coleman will present a slide-lecture about Ms Bloch. Beaux Arts began exhibiting the work of Stella Bloch in 1983. Mr Coleman’s lecture will begin at 7:45 pm.

Regular gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Sunday from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. Beaux Arts, at 16 Sherman Hill Road (immediately off Route 6), can be contacted by calling 203/263-3939.