Albert Bloch was the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter - The Blue Rider, a group of early 20th-century European modernists.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He first studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. In 1901-03 he produced comic strips and cartoons for the St. Louis Star newspaper.
Between 1905-1908 he worked as a caricaturist and illustrator for William Marion Reedy's literary and political weekly The Mirror.
From 1909-1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany.
After the end of World War I, Bloch returned to the United States, teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago for a year, and then accepting a Departmental Head position at the University of Kansas until his retirement in 1947.
Albert Bloch - Self-Portrait