Lucienne Bloch

Lucienne Bloch
Composer Alexander Kaloian and Bloch in Gualala, 1985 (photo: Stephen Pope Dimitroff)
Born	(1909-01-05)January 5, 1909 Geneva, Switzerland
Died	March 13, 1999(1999-03-13) (aged 90) Gualala, California, USA
Nationality	American
Education	École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
Known for	Sculpture, painting, photography
Spouse(s)	Stephen Pope Dimitroff
Patron(s)	WPA, FAP

Lucienne Bloch (January 5, 1909 – March 13, 1999) was a Switzerland-born American artist. She was best known for her murals and for her association with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, for whom she produced the only existing photographs of Rivera's mural Man at the Crossroads, painted in 1933 and destroyed in January 1934 at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Bloch was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the youngest child of composer and photographer Ernest Bloch.

A multi-talented artist, Lucienne attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris at 14, apprenticing with sculptor Antoine Bourdelle and painter Andre Lhote. Her close friend Beniamino Bufano also influenced her sculpture.

In 1917, the Bloch family emigrated to America.

In 1929, she pioneered the design of glass sculpture for the Royal Leerdam Crystal Glass Factory in the Netherlands. When Frank Lloyd Wright saw her glass works and spoke with her in New York, he invited her to teach at his architectural school, Taliesin East, where she worked with artist and muralist Santiago Martínez Delgado and other Taliesin fellows.

Then, in 1931, Bloch had met and began her apprenticeship with Diego Rivera on his frescoes in New York (1931, 1933) and Detroit (1932). She also formed a close friendship with Rivera's wife Frida Kahlo, and they became each other's companion and confidant. In 1932 she accompanied Kahlo to Mexico when Kahlo's mother became ill. She was also with Kahlo in Detroit when Kahlo had her miscarriage.