Arnold Blanch was an illustrator, printmaker, teacher and painter. He was primarily known for his landscape, genre, figurative, realist, and surrealist paintings. Born in Manterville, Minnesota, he was encouraged to study art by his mother, an amateur artist. He began studying at the Minneapolis Art Institute in 1914. In 1916, he received a scholarship to study in New York at the Art Students League. In New York, he studied under Robert Henri, Francis Luis Mora, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan, and Kenneth Hayes Miller.
In 1919, Blanch arrived in Woodstock, New York to study at the Art Students League summer school. He married his fellow student Lucile Lundquist, and they settled in Woodstock in 1922 after traveling to France for a year. Blanch remained in Woodstock for more than forty years, until his death. He was an important figure in the Woodstock Artists Association, as he devoted much of his time to maintaining financial and moral support for the Association.
Throughout his life, Blanch had more than sixty solo and group exhibits. He was awarded the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1940. In 1962, he had a retrospective at the Krasner Gallery in New York. Blanch's artistic style changed frequently throughout his career. After the 1930's, Blanch's palette became lighter and his subjects became less serious. In the 1930s, after he and his first wife separated, Blanch became romantically involved with artist Doris Lee, and both were influenced by each other's artistic styles for the next thirty years. Blanch was also influenced by the Abstract Expressionists; however, he primarily remained a figurative painter. His last artistic style consisted of shallow pictoral space and tightly arranged structures.
Exhibited: S.Indp.A.; SFAA, 1931 (prize); CPLH, 1931 (prize); AIC, 1930-31, 1932 (med.), 1933-43; PAFA, 1929-37, 1938 (med.), 1939-45, 1948-1952, 1953, 1960, 1962; CI, 1938 (med.); Domesday Press, 1945 (prize); Corcoran Gal, 1928-61; GGE 1939; WFNY 1939; MMA; Butler AI; WMAA, 1931-46, 1946, 1948-52; Nat. Ceramic Exhib., 1949 1951 (prizes); MoMA; VMFA; LOC; solos: New York, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1961; Dupont Mus., Art-USA, 1959 (prize); Artists of the Upper Hudson, 1960 (prize); Norton Art Gal., West Palm Beach, 1961 (prize); Silvermine Gld. Artists, 1961 (prize); Harris Prize, Chicago, 1932; Phila Artists All.; Salons of Am.
Works held: WMAA; MMA; CMA; Colorado Springs FAC; CPLH; Cranbrook Acad. Art; Detroit IA; Univ. Nebraska; CAM; Denver Am; Butler AI; Encycolopedia Britannica; Univ. Arizona; Dupont Mus., Fredricksburg, VA; Munson-Williams-Proctor, Utica, NY; Lowe Gal., Miami, FL; Tweed Mus., Duluth, MN; PAFA; LOC; BM; CI; Gulf Coast FAC, Clearwater, FL; Univ. Minnesota; Woodstock Artists Assoc. WPA murals, USPOs, in Fredonia (NY), Norwalk (CT), and Columbus (WI).
Further Reading: Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Hughes Publishing, San Francisco, 1986.; Smith, Anita M. Woodstock History and Hearsay. WoodstockArts: Woodstock, New York, 2006.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. I. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.; Woodstock Artists Association. Woodstock's Art Heritage: The Permanent Collection of the Woodstock Artists Association. Overlook Press: Woodstock, NewYork, 1987.
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