Richard Paul Lohse

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Richard Paul Lohse (born September 13, 1902 in Zurich ; † September 16, 1988 there ) was a Swiss painter and graphic artist and one of the main representatives of concrete and constructive art .

life and work

Lohse was born in Zurich, where he also died. His father died in 1915, which is why he and his mother fell into dire poverty. After numerous odd jobs, he did an apprenticeship as an advertising draftsman with Max Dalang at the Zurich School of Applied Arts from 1918 to 1922 .

As a painter, he was self-taught and experimented with different styles. His early work includes expressionist still life and landscape painting, as well as cubist pictures. Although he mainly dealt with painting in the following, he worked as graphics for magazines until the 1960s.

In 1937, together with Leo Leuppi , he founded the “Allianz” , an avant-garde association of modern Swiss artists. Lohse dealt with Cubism and individual representatives of De Stijl . This is where the core of the style developed that was later called " Concrete Art ".

He came to concrete art in the 1940s. Since 1942 he has dealt in his pictures with the horizontal-vertical arrangement of color fields in a modular and serial arrangement. The modules consist of squares resp. rectangular elements. They are in a certain arrangement to each other and make up the entirety of the picture. So his paintings were made according to mathematical rules. The principle of order in Lohse's pictures finds an analogy in the sound techniques of twelve-tone music .

During the Second World War, Lohse was very politically active. He supported emigrants, including through illegal activities. In an anti-fascist organization he met his future wife Ida Dürner.

1947–55 he designed the magazine “Bauen und Wohnen” and then from 1958 as co-editor of the “Neue Grafik” published in Zurich, through which he made the acquaintance of Augusto Giacometti , Jean Arp and Le Corbusier . Lohse was a participant of the 4th documenta (1968) and also the Documenta 7 in 1982 in Kassel .

Paul Lohse's grave, Sihlfeld cemetery , Zurich

Foundation, endowment

After his death in 1988, the Richard Paul Lohse Foundation was established in Zurich. Most of his works can be seen there and in other Swiss museums.

Movie

  • 1973: Richard Paul Lohse in his studio in Zurich. A production by Saarland Radio / Television (15 minutes). Script and direction: Klaus Peter Dencker

Web links

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lohse, Richard Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lohse, Richard; Lohse, Richard P .; Lohse, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter and artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1988
Place of death Zurich