L o u i s - L o z o w i c k - - 1 8 9 2 - 1 9 7 3


Modernist Abstration,

 

“A beautifully articulated synthesis of strong personal visions and an extraordinary command of black-and-white lithography remained constant. His prints have withstood the inevitable fluctuations of fashion and taste, and today are deservedly appreciated by both connoisseurs and a new generation as among the finest created in twentieth-century America.”
—Janet Flint, The Prints of Louis Lozowick: A Catalogue Raisonné, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1982.

 

Born in Russia in 1892, Lozowick came to this country at the age of 14 to join his brother in New York City. By 1919 he had attended art school, finished college, served in the army, and traveled throughout the United States visiting major cities which would later become subjects of his work. From 1919 to 1924 Lozowick lived and traveled throughout Europe, staying in Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. While in Berlin he became friends with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitsky, and the avant-garde Russian artists affiliated with the November-gruppe. On his return to New York in 1924 he joined the executive board of the New Masses and exhibited his machine age drawings, the ‘Machine Ornament’ series in the 1926 exhibition of Katherine Dreier’s Société Anonyme; three years later he made his first prints.

Having assimilated European Constructivist and Cubist theories, and the Bauhaus manifesto promoting the integration of applied and fine art, Lozowick was inspired to present the rapidly growing New York City skyline with its monumental skyscrapers as modern symbols of optimism. Like many other Depression-era artists, he identified closely with the common worker and valued the consummate craft and workmanship dictated by the printmaking process. His versatility and range of interests were exemplified by his stage sets for the 1926 production of Georg Kaiser’s play “Gas,” the first Constructivist production seen in America. A year later, his images and essay were centerpieces in the pivotal 1927 Machine Age Exposition in New York. Lozowick’s first solo exhibition of lithographs depicting primarily soaring urban cityscapes and industrial scenes was mounted by the renowned Weyhe Gallery in 1929.

Assigned to the WPA New York Graphic Arts Division in 1935, he left in 1936 to accept a commission from the prestigious Treasury Relief Art Project for two large oil paintings for the Post Office at 33rd Street in Manhattan. His preliminary lithographic studies for the paintings are among his most compelling images of New York skyscraper and bridge forms.

Returning to the Project in 1938, Lozowick experimented with various printmaking mediums, including wood engraving, drypoint, and screen printing, until the end of his appointment in 1940. During the next three decades, encouraged by Carl Zigrosser of the Weyhe Gallery, he devoted himself primarily to lithography, mounting several solo exhibitions at major New York galleries, and a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972.
Posthumous solo and group exhibitions of Lozowick’s work include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2001), de Young Museum (2007), British Museum (2008), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (2015), Whitney Museum of American Art (2015), Brooklyn Museum of Art (2015), and the Palmer Museum of Art (2019).

Louis Lozowick’s graphic works are held in numerous prominent museum collections including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Cornell University Library, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, New York Public Library, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

 


Backyards of Broadway (Waterfront I)= 1929, Lithograph.

Flint 7. Edition 10. Signed in pencil.

Image size 14 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches (265 x 235 mm), sheet size 15 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches (400 x 292 mm).

A superb impression, on BFK Rives off-white wove paper, with full margins (1/2 to 1 1/8 inches, deckle all around), in excellent condition. Printing is attributed to Ben Shahn. Scarce.

A view from Broadway looking toward the Hudson River piers, NYC.

Collections: Cleveland Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

$5800.

New York City, Hudson River piers, Cityscape, Precisionism, Skyscrapers, Modernism, West New York

Corner of Steel Plant = 1929, Lithograph.

Flint 21. Edition 25, plus 10 printed in 1972. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered I/X in pencil. The artist’s monogram in the stone, lower left.

Image size 11 1/2 x 7 13/16 inches (292 x 198 mm); sheet size 20 x 14 1/4 inches (508 x 362 mm).

A superb, richly-inked impression with full margins (3 to 4 1/2 inches), on heavy, off-white wove paper. Barely visible light toning within a previous mat opening; a 1/2-inch wide strip of barely visible toning across the top sheet edge; otherwise in excellent condition. An impression from the second edition of 10, printed by Burr Miller in 1972.

Collections: Allentown Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Grinnell College Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of Art.

$2600.

industrial age, modernism, precisionism

Tanks #1 = 1929, Lithograph.

Flint 39. Edition 50. Signed, dated, and numbered 11/50 in pencil. Signed with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower left.

Image size 13 15/16 x 8 1/16 inches (355 x 204 mm), sheet size 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches (400 x 286 mm).

A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (3/4 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition.

Exhibited: The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock, Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008.

Literature: Prints and Their Creators, A World History, Carl Zigrosser, Crown Publishers Inc, 1974; American Lithographers 1900-1960: The Artists and Their Printers, Clinton Adams, The University of New Mexico Press, 1983; The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock, Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008.

Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, The British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

$6500.

industrial age, modernism, precisionism

Tanks #2 (Steel Plant) = 1929, Lithograph.

Flint 40. Edition 50. Signed and dated in pencil. Signed with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower right.

Image size 14 5/8 x 9 inches (372 x 229 mm); sheet size 18 1/2 x 12 5/8 inches (470 x 320 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 7/8 to 2 1/4 inches). Pale tape staining in the top right and left sheet corners, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. An impression from the original edition of 50 printed by George C. Miller in 1929.

Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, New York Public Library, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art.

$6000.

industrial age, modernism, precisionism

Brooklyn Bridge = 1929, Lithograph.

Flint 48. Edition 100. Signed, dated ‘30, and numbered 1/100 in pencil. Signed with the artist’s monogram in the stone, lower left. Titled in the lower left margin, in the artist’s hand. Annotated TO LEONARD SPIGELGASS, in pencil.

Image size 13 x 7 7/8 inches (330 x 200 mm); sheet size 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches (400 x 286 mm).

A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper; with full margins (1 to 3 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.

Reproduced and exhibited: Manhattan Observed: selections of drawings and prints, edited by William S. Lieberman, Museum of Modern Art, 1968; Whistler to Weidenaar: American Prints 1870-1950, Museum of Art, RISD, 1987; Precisionism in America, 1915-1941: Reordering Reality, Harry N. Abrams and The Montclair Art Museum, 1994.

Mary S. Collins Prize for best lithograph, Third Exhibition of American Lithography, Phildalephia Print Club, 1931.

Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Cornell University Library, Davison Art Center (Wesleyan University), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Fine Arts, (Houston), Museum of Modern Art, National Building Museum, New York Public Library, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Wolfsonian FIU.

SOLD


Angry Skies (Andante Cantabile) = 1935, Lithograph.

Flint 123. Edition 10, 250 AAA. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left.

Image size: 9 5/8 x 13 1/2 inches (244 x 343 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 16 1/8 inches (302 x 410 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with margins (7/8 to 1 3/16 inches), in excellent condition. An impression from the AAA edition.

Printed for Associated American Artists by master lithographer George C. Miller.

Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art.

$1900.

New York City, Manhattan Skyline, Storm, New York Harbor, Skyscrapers

Storm Clouds Over Manhattan = 1935, Lithograph.

Flint 126. Edition 25. Signed and dated ‘35 in pencil. Titled in pencil in the artist's hand in the bottom left margin. Scarce.

Image size: 11 7/8 x 16 7/8 inches (241 x 429 mm); sheet size 14 3/8 x 20 1/4 inches (365 x 514 mm).

A superb impression, on off-white wove paper; the full sheet with deckle all around (margins, 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 inches). Very pale toning around the image (within the original mat opening), otherwise in excellent condition. Printed by master lithographer George C. Miller. Scarce.

This impression from the first edition; a second edition of 10, numbered 1/X - X/X was printed in 1972 (plate cancelled). A smaller lithograph of similar composition followed this work; titled Storm Over Manhattan, it was published in by Associated American Artists, New York, in an edition of 189 (Flint 127).

Reproduced and exhibited: City Life: New York in the 1930s: prints from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1987.

Collections: Achenbach Foundation, Five Colleges Museum Consortium (Massachusetts), Iowa State University Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Musuem of American Art.

SOLD

New York City, Manhattan Skyline, Storm, New York Harbor, Skyscrapers

Mural Study: Lower Manhattan = 1936, Lithograph.

Flint 135. Edition 10 or fewer. Signed and dated in pencil. Signed with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower right.

Image size 13 5/16 x 7 3/16 inches (338 x 182 mm); sheet size 18 x 11 1/2 inches (457 X 292 mm).

A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Very scarce.

Printed by Theodore Cuno. Lozowick's study for a mural commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project for the Post Office at 33rd Street and 8th Avenue in New York City.

Collections: Iowa State University Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, U.S. Treasury Collection, Wolfsonian FIU.

$22,000.


Steel Valley = 1936, Lithograph.

Flint 141. Edition 15; AAA edition 250, 1942. Signed in pencil, with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower left.

Image size 9 7/16 x 13 7/16 inches (240 x 341 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches (302 x 403 mm).

A fine impression, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 1/8 to 1 1/2 inches); minor glue stains in the four sheet corners, verso, otherwise in excellent condition.

An impression from the AAA edition printed by George C. Miller.

Collections: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, Birmingham Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Harvard Art Museums, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Princeton University Library, University of Missouri – St-Louis Mercantile Library.

$2400.


Shipbuilding = c.1936, Lithograph.

Flint 138. Edition unknown. Signed in pencil.

Image size 11 3/16 x 13 13/16 inches (284 x 351 mm); sheet size 14 x 19 1/8 inches (385 x 486 mm).

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 5/16 to 2 7/8 inches), in excellent condition.

Probably a comissioned work, possibly for one of New Jersey's shipbuilding concerns.

Collections: Hofstra University Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

$1400.


Winter Fun = 1940, Lithograph.

Flint 188. Edition 20, 250 (1941). Signed in pencil, with the artist’s monogram in the stone, lower left.

Image size 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches (241 x 327 mm); sheet size 11 3/4 x 15 7/8 inches (298 x 403 mm).

A superb, finely nuanced impression, on off-white wove paper, with margins (11/16 to 1 5/8 inches); a repaired tear (3/8 inch) in the bottom center sheet edge; minor skinning in the bottom left margin and top center margin, verso, otherwise in excellent condition. This impression from the second edition printed by master lithographer George C. Miller for Associated American Artists in 1941.

Collections: Achenbach Foundation, Cleveland Museum of Art, Davison Art Center (Wesleyan University), de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Farnsworth Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

$2100.

New York City, Central Park, winter, snow scene, children, play

Georgia Landscape (Georgia Moss) = 1943, Lithograph.

Flint 195. Edition 20. Signed, dated and numbered 12/20 in pencil. Titled Georgia Landscape in pencil in the bottom right sheet corner, verso.

Image size 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches (241 x 327 mm); sheet size 11 11/16 x 14 7/8 inches (297 x 378 mm).

A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove paper; the full sheet with deckle all around (margins 1 7/8 to 3 1/2 inches), the inky edges of the litho stone printing in the outer margins, in excellent condition. Scarce.

“Remembered vignettes of a prison road gang and field workers from a trip through Georgia in the early forties”. – Louis Lozowick from the catalogue raisonné.

Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, San Jose Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

$2800.

Georgia Landscape, chain gang, cotton field workers, South

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