Swiss artist Verena Loewensberg was a leading figure and the only female member of the influential Zurich school of concrete artists. She created oil compositions using wide-ranging colors and hard-edge geometric shapes in her abstract paintings. In the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in NY, it featured works from 1944 to 1985, that highlighted her bold use of color and patterning along with her technical mastery of free-hand painting. Also featured was her only sculpture made in 1982, inspired from her trip to the Greek temples in 1980. The gallery titled the exhibit Verena Loewensberg: Kind of Blue because of the artist’s love of jazz, which expressed itself in her paintings through rhythm and movement. During the 1960s, Loewensberg opened City-Discount, Zurich’s first jazz record store. Her daughter, Henriette Coray Loewensberg, recalls, “When I picture my mother, I see her painting at her worktable. She was very passionate about her work, to which she devoted great discipline and constancy. Books and music nourished her creative drive. We often had visitors at home, and my mother had inspiring conversations with them, mostly about music, literature, philosophy and astronomy.” The exhibit was curated by Henriette Coray Loewensberg, president of the Verena Loewensberg Foundation, with the support of
Lionel Bovier, vice president of the Foundation and director of MAMCO in Geneva. Bovier notes, ‘In Switzerland, it’s no secret that Verena Loewensberg was one of the most interesting artists of her time. I’m thrilled that, through this exhibition, new audiences will have the opportunity to discover her singular
oeuvre.’
Featured image: Verena Loewensberg – Untitled, 1972, oil on canvas.
