Maurice Blik

To understand Maurice Blik’s sculpture, one must understand his unique childhood, which set him on his path to becoming an internationally renowned sculptor. A survivor of the Holocaust, he has overcome the traumas of his early life and focused his energy on creating sculptures that evoke movement, freedom and life.

Maurice Blik was born to Jewish parents in Amsterdam in 1939, during the Second World War. In 1943, at the age of four, Blik’s father was sent to Auschwitz, while Blik, his sister and pregnant mother and grandmother were sent to the notorious Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Blik experienced a lifetime of unimaginable tragedy and horrors until being liberated with his mother and oldest sister in 1945 by the Cossacks.

Blik lost both his father, infant sister, grandmother and numerous close relatives to the concentration camps. The resounding effect of such tragedy at a young age has not been lost on the sculptor. Yet it’s this pain and torment that has helped grow Blik’s innate need to recreate life in his materials.

After their liberation, Blik and his mother and sister moved to England, where Blik’s gifts for academics and a desire to save lives pushed him towards medicine. Yet instead, Blik enrolled in art school, studying at Hornsey College of Art (National Diploma in Sculpture) and the University of Miami.

In 1969, Blik earned his Art Teacher’s Certificate at the University of London. At this point, he had stopped creating his own artwork, but was a highly regarded art teacher at various institutions across the United Kingdom.

In the 1980s, Blik began experimenting with clay, subsequently rediscovering his passion and talent for the medium of sculpture. Sculpture began to slowly materialize itself in Blik’s life as a form of therapy and the expression of sub-conscious discourse with his daily life and past memories.

Blik’s first commission as a sculptor didn’t come until his 40s after a somewhat serendipitous meeting with a client of his first wife. This series of bronze horse heads marked the beginning of his figurative career. The inspiration for these works emerged naturally, surprising even Blik himself. He would later realize that the sculpting of the horses was a sub-conscious processing of his liberation by the Cossacks in 1945.

His first exhibition came shortly after in 1985, a solo display at Alwin Gallery in London. In 1991, Blik gave up teaching to focus solely on his work as a sculptor. Blik embraced this change in life direction with confidence and passion. The artist learnt to draw and even sculpt with his left hand after learning that it had been his dominant hand as a child. Blik’s new-found ambidexterity accentuated his creativity and aptitude with sculpture.

During the 40 years since Blik’s first commission, his sculptures have continued to earn him national and international acclaim. He has become one of the world’s most thought-provoking sculptors, renowned for inciting passion and serenity with work that is personal, honest and intense.