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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
LOUIS LOZOWICK Jersey Landscape.
Lithograph, 1930. 413x175 mm; 16 1/4x6 7/8 inches, full margins. Edition of 15. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, "From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.'" Flint 56.
