Fashion and textile designers constantly seek inspiration from art to infuse into their collections. Currently, an exhibition at New York's Hauser & Wirth presents an intriguing opportunity for them.
Entitled "Kind of Blue" (and running until April 27th), the showcase is dedicated to Swiss artist Verena Loewensberg, a prominent figure in the Zurich Concretists circle during the early 1940s. This marks the first solo exhibition in the United States devoted to this distinctive 20th-century artist. Loewensberg's art intertwines the essence of color with a minimalist geometric language. Each brushstroke serves as a code, orchestrating a symphony of vibrant hues: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues punctuate the space, conjuring novel spatial effects, at times evoking generative art.
Born in 1912 in Zurich, Verena Loewensberg studied textile, design, and color theory at Gewerbeschule Basel. She honed her skills under the tutelage of weaver Martha Guggenbühl, trained in dance with Trudi Schoop in Zurich, and explored painting through a textbook discovered in Ascona.
Her encounter with artists Max and Binia Bill in 1934 led her to Paris, where she frequented the abstraction-création group and crossed paths with Georges Vantongerloo, who had a lasting impact on her work. Despite a brief stint at the Académie Moderne in Paris in 1935, Loewensberg veered away from formal academic pursuits.
Returning to Zurich, she began experimenting with paper and paperboard, producing her first concrete paintings in 1936. She exhibited her work that year at the Kunsthaus Zurich as part of the groundbreaking showcase "Zeitprobleme in der Schweizer Malerei und Plastik" (Time Problems in Swiss Painting and Sculpture).
In her works Loewensberg distinguished herself for her formal precision and chromatic finesse: her structured oil compositions pulsate with a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes, offering a blend of meticulous craftsmanship and poetic expression.
Leaving her pieces untitled and shrouding her artistic process in relative secrecy by making sure her sketches never saw the eye of the public, Loewensberg prevented people from oversimplifying her works, especially in a world where female artists often weren't taken seriously. By leaving her artistic intentions and personal narrative open to interpretation, she invited viewers to engage freely with her creations, unfettered by preconceived notions or biases (this is an interesting point on which all creative minds and fashion designers in particular should maybe ponder - should we keep some stages of the creative process more secret and maybe post less on social media?). Despite being a member of the Zurich Concretists, the artist still managed to retain her creative independence, also thanks to her passions including music. In the '60s Loewensberg's love of music prompted her to open City-Discount, Zurich's pioneering jazz record store.
This venture positioned her as one of Switzerland's primary importers of experimental jazz, a testament to her eclectic interests and entrepreneurial spirit. During this period, her artwork underwent a transformative evolution, transcending traditional categorizations and drawing from her interdisciplinary education.
Hauser & Wirth's exhibition, "Kind of Blue," pays homage to Loewensberg's affinity for music, drawing its title from Miles Davis’ seminal 1959 album.
The title will give visitors the opportunity to discover the artist's love of jazz, which expressed itself in her paintings through rhythm and movement. Curated by Henriette Coray Loewensberg, the artist's daughter and president of the Verena Loewensberg Foundation, with the support of Lionel Bovier, vice president of the Foundation and director of MAMCO (Musée d'art moderne et contemporain) in Geneva, the showcase spans four decades of the artist's career, featuring several paintings and her sole sculptural work.
Loewensberg's oeuvre included in the exhibition shows a profound engagement with contemporary art movements, including color field, pop art, hard-edge abstraction, and minimalism. Her bold use of color and patterning, coupled with technical prowess in free-hand painting, exemplifies her versatility and innovation.
A standout piece from the exhibition is a painting from 1950, where Loewensberg's liberated approach to the grid motif is evident. Fragmenting and perturbing the grid, she layers rectangular blocks of color, ranging from primary pigments to hues reminiscent of Vantongerloo's palette. The grid results therefore spread across her canvas creating a harmonious interplay, an effect reminiscent of the one a composer may create on sheets of music.
In other works included in the event Loewensberg moved away from the strict rules of the concretists and her paintings took on a more atmospheric quality. Colors were dispersed across various planes, sometimes starkly contrasting, other times blending.
The exhibition also includes the artist's only sculpture inspired by a trip to Sicily in 1980. In the Italian region she explored the Greek temples and the untitled sculpture consists of five pairs of parallelepipeds crafted from wood, echoing the architectural composition and symmetry of these ancient sacred buildings. Additionally, a reproduction of her textile pattern as wallpaper within the exhibition, highlights Loewensberg's versatility across different mediums, but there is more discover (or rediscover) between broken geometries and colorful abstractions.
The exhibition offers a chance for new audiences to appreciate Loewensberg's distinctive oeuvre and will prove interesting for fashion designers and in particular for knitwear designers. You can bet that, sometime soon, Loewensberg's work will be featured in a collection or a runway show of those fashion houses with a penchant for combining art and fashion in their products and presentations (think Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior).
Image credits for this post
All images ©Verena Loewensberg, courtesy Hauser & Wirth, New York
1.
Untitled
1944
Oil on canvas
40 x 68 cm / 15 3/4 x 26 3/4 in
2.
Untitled
1950
Oil on canvas
78 x 63 cm / 30 3/4 x 24 3/4 in
3.
Untitled
1957
Oil on canvas
67 x 67 cm / 26 3/8 x 26 3/8 in
4.
Untitled
1963
Oil on canvas
60 x 60 cm / 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
5.
Untitled
1966
Oil on canvas
120 x 120 cm / 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in
6.
Untitled
1985
Oil on canvas
140 x 106 cm / 55 1/8 x 41 3/4 in
7.
Untitled
1971
Oil on canvas
141 x 99 cm / 55 1/2 x 39 in
8.
Untitled
1971–1972
Oil on canvas
160 x 81 cm / 63 x 31 7/8 in
9.
Untitled
1972
Oil on canvas
101 x 101 cm / 39 3/4 x 39 3/4 in
10.
Untitled
1972
Oil on canvas
110 x 110 cm / 43 1/4 x 43 1/4 in
11.
Untitled
1972
Oil on canvas
110 x 110 cm / 43 1/4 x 43 1/4 in
12.
Untitled
1976
Oil on canvas
120 x 100 cm / 47 1/4 x 39 3/8 in
13.
Untitled
1954
Oil on canvas
64 x 64 cm / 25 1/4 x 25 1/4 in
14.
Untitled
1971
Oil on canvas
141 x 99 cm / 55 1/2 x 39 in
15.
Untitled
1982
Oil on canvas
110 x 132 cm / 43 1/4 x 52 in
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