Amanda R. Block has been an artist her entire life.  Born in 1912, she lived to age 99 years and 9 months, passing away on Nov. 8, 2011.  She studied art in Cincinnati and even exhibited in her first national show at the Chicago Art Institute in 1941, sculpture. It was not until her graduation from John Herron School of Art in 1960, at age 48, that her work really began. Her superb color sense has always been Amanda’s trademark. Bright, sensual, engaging, full of movement, her work draws the viewer into its orbit, forcing questions upon us. Her female subjects, not matter how abstract their portrayal, always seem to be real people; and we, the viewer, feel forced to question: who are they, and why do they speak so clearly to us.

 

The figural work of Amanda R. Block, her most accessible, falls between the traditional and the avant-garde, between simple and subtle, between passion and control. Although she became well known for her large abstract landscapes in acrylic and her decorative, colorful lithographs from the middle and late 1970's; ultimately, it is through the figural work that one may truly understand this complex artist. A lover of beauty, it is the female form that most stimulated Amanda’s sensibilities. Her women are strength itself, often veering toward fierce, frank and open, and always sensual.