Block was born of Lithuanian parentage; his father, Henry Block, was a wood-engraver and landscape painter and taught Adolph to draw at an early age. The future sculptor received his formal training at the New York Evening School of Industrial Art; the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York where he won the Paris Prize in 1927; and the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France, which he attended on a fellowship in 1927. He also received a fellowship from the Tiffany Foundation in 1926 and at various times during his youth worked in the studios of Hermon MacNeil, A. Stirling Calder, and Edward Field Sanford, Jr.
Block was always active in the New York art world. He became a member of the National Sculpture Society, served that organization as recording secretary from 1953 to 1956, and edited the National Sculpture Review beginning in 1958. He was president of the Society from 1963 to 1965 and again in the 1970s. He taught sculpture at the National Academy School from 1959 to 1973; and lobbied for a greater participation by sculptors in the affairs of the Academy. He exhibited his work on a regular basis at the Academy beginning in 1923.
Block was known for his sculptural decorations in relief for various buildings in the New York area and for his work as a medallist.
