biografia di Louis LOZOWICK (1892-1973)

Birth place: Ludvinovka, near Kiev, Russia

Death place: South Orange, NJ

Addresses: South Orange, NJ, 1973

Profession: Painter, printmaker, set designer, writer, illustrator, lecturer, teacher

Studied: Kiev Art Sch., Russia, 1904-05; NAD with Leon Kroll and Emil Carlsen 1912-15; Ohio State Univ. (B.A., 1915-18, with historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.); study in Paris, France, c.1920-22; Berlin, Germany, 1923.

Exhibited: Salons of Am.; Twardy Book Shop, Berlin, Germany, 1922 (first solo, showing works from his "The Cities" series); Heller Gal., Berlin, 1923; S. Indp. A., 1924-25, 1928-30, 1941; New Art Circle, 1926; BM, 1926; made set designs for Kaiser's "Gas," staged by Chicago"s Goodman Theater, 1926; "Machine Age Exposition," Steinway Hall, NYC, 1927; Zak Gal., Paris, 1928; Weyhe Gal., 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935; Downtown Gal., 1929-31; PAFA Ann., , 1934; Carnegie Int.,1930; Grand Central Art Gal., 1930; AIC, 1929 (prize); Phila. Art All., 1930 (prize); CMA, 1930 (prize); Award for City on a Rock, Cleveland Print Club, 1931 (prize); Stendahl Gal., Los Angeles, 1932; Corcoran Gal biennial, 1932; Courvoisier Gal., San Fran., 1932; WMAA, 1927-42; NAD, 1935; An Am. Group, 1938-41; WFNY, 1939; MMA (AV), 1942; Realists & Magic Ralists," MoMA, 1943; Pepsi-Cola, 1946; award for "Nuns in Wall Street," Rochester Print Club, 1948; Smithsonian Inst., 1950 (solo, 1975); Butler Inst. Am. Art, Youngstown, OH, 1960; New Jersey Soc. P&S, 1965 (prize); Newark Pub. Lib., 1969 (print retrospective); WMAA, 1972 (print retrospective); Hirshhorn Mus., 1976; Zabriskie Gal., NYC, 1970s; Assn. Am. Artists, NYC, 1976, 1982; "NYC WPA Art" at Parsons Sch. Design, 1977; Long Beach MA, 1978; Richard York Gal., NYC, 1991."

Member: Novembergruppe, Berlin (1922); An Am. Group; Artists Lg. Am.; Nat. Soc. Painters in Casein; NAD, 1972; SAGA; Audubon Artists; New Jersey AA; Am. Artists Congress.

Work: WMAA; Walker Art Gal., Minneapolis, MN; MoMA; MMA; NYPL; CMA; LOC; PMA; CM; BMFA; Honolulu Acad. Art; Mus. FA, Houston; Los Angeles AA; CI; Syracuse Mus. FA; Rochester Mem. Art Gal.; Newark Mus.; Victoria & Albert Mus., London; Mus. Western Art, Moscow; two panels for USPO, NYC; Fifty Prints of the Year, 1929-32.

Comments: A Precisionist and master lithographer best known for his modernist urban and industrial scenes made from 1923- early 1930s. After studying in Russia, the U.S., and Paris, Lozowick moved to Berlin in 1922 becoming part of the the artistic circle that included Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky, and visited Russia (in the summer of 1922) where he met Malevich, Tatlin, and others. Living in Berlin until some time in 1924, he worked as a writer, illustrator, painter, and theatrical designer, embracing aspects of Constructivism and Futurism. He returned to NYC in 1924 and throughout the decade continued to work on his most well-known series The Cities," which included sketches, lithographs, and paintings made of New York, Butte (Montana), Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oklahoma, Panama, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. Lozowick also worked as a set designer in the U.S. during the 1920s and became associated with the Communist periodical The New Masses beginning in 1926. After visiting Russia once again in 1932, Lozowick's work became more overtly political and his style more closely related to social realism. He was employed in the graphics division of the Public Works of Art Project in 1934 and later worked on a WPA mural project (1937). Illustr.: Nation, Theatre Arts Monthly, Travel Magazine; Herald Tribune. Publications: auth., Modern Russian Art (1925); auth., "The Americanization of Art," Catalogue of Machine Age Exposition (exh. cat., Steinway Hall, NYC, 1927); co-auth., Voices of October (1930); co-ed., America Today; contrib., USSR: a Concise Handbook (1947); contrib., Understanding the Russians (1947); auth., A Treasury of Drawings from Prehistory to Picasso (1948).

Sources: WW73; WW47; Milton W. Brown, American Art from the Armory Show to the Depression (1955); William H. Gerdts, Jr., Painting & sculpture in New Jersey (1964); New York City WPA Art, 58 (w/repros.); Baigell, Dictionary; Davidson, Early American Modernist Painting, 201-04; Concerning Expressionism, 84-89; Falk, Exh. Record Series.