Alexander Aladar Blum (A.A. Blum) was born in Budapest, Hungary on February 7, 1889. The family immigrated to the United States in 1904. His father seems to have disappeared, when Alexander was listed as living with his mother Rosa and two siblings in Kings in New York City in 1910 and Alex is listed as the wage earner in the cencus working in the newspaper business as an artist. Blum began working to help support his mother and two siblings after finishing the 8th grade.

Blum studied art at the National Academy of Design in New York and at the Cincinnati Art Academy with painter/etcher Frank Duveneck and in New York with etcher Charles F. Mielatz. Blum was a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club. He exhibited his etchings throughout the 1930s and 40s. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942. His work, primarily etching, focused on the everyday life of the people in the city and urban scenes.

Blum's work is located in the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Library of Congress;  Yale; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Wesleyan College among others.

Alex Blum moved to Rye, New York where he died in September of 1969.­­