In Verena Loewensberg's studio - Museum Haus Konstruktiv

Media Release
10/12/2012
In Verena Loewensberg's studio
13 December 2012 – 17 February 2013
Opening: 12 December 2012, 6pm
On 28 May 2012, Verena Loewensberg (1912–1986) would have turned one hundred. To mark
this occasion, Museum Haus Konstruktiv is presenting a spatial situation created in reference
to this great Zurich artist's studio. Objects personally owned by Loewensberg are to be seen,
including, for example: the worktable at which she painted her pictures, an Ulmer stool from
her esteemed artist friend Max Bill, and little tables designed by his wife Binia Bill. Also on
display, are parts of her comprehensive collection of jazz records, a selection from her
collection of ceramic jugs with their glazing effects which particularly fascinated her, and the
chair on which she let herself be photographed in the 1970s. However, alongside two works by
befriended fellow artists James Bishop and Fritz Glarner, we also present a number of key
paintings by Verena Loewensberg, from her later period of work.
The exhibition "In Verena Loewensberg's studio" was realized in close cooperation with her
daughter Henriette Coray Loewensberg.
All throughout her life, Verena Loewensberg was intent on taking a back seat as a person, in relation
to her work. She did not leave behind any theoretical writings, nor did she reveal anything about her
private life, but one thing that is known, is her passion for jazz, serial music and classical music. She
was enthusiastic about Miles Davis, Steve Reich and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others.
Thus, it came about that Loewensberg, alongside her work as an artist, also ran Zurich's first discount
record store in the 1960s. "City Discount" was a popular meeting place for young musicians and music
enthusiasts. The exhibited record collection includes numerous rarities which bear witness to this love
affair.
Indeed, a certain kind of musicality is also evident in the striped paintings which Loewensberg
produced in 1974/75. Already in 2011, as part of the exhibition "The fantastic four – Zurich concrete,"
we presented five pieces from this cycle of works. All portrait-format paintings show horizontally
arranged colored stripes with varying colors and proportions. Toward the middle, the rhythm of the
stripes generally condenses. In addition, the sensitive use of color and the wealth of nuances clearly
demonstrate Verena Loewensberg's extraordinary sense of color.
Loewensberg's examination of different color contrasts reaches its climax in her last group of works,
the so-called "Zweifärber" (Two-Tones), on which the artist worked from 1983 until her death: in these
works, of which there are around 30 and we are exhibiting about one third, the artist reduced her color
palette to two tones at a time, exploiting very different color combinations from painting to painting.
This principle is already applied in her "Twins" cycle, produced in 1976 and 1977, which we presented
in our exhibition "Endless Consequences" in 2006. These delicate, small-format works also provide
evidence of Loewensberg's extraordinary proficiency in handling color. In the "Zweifärber," another

important element is added, namely a reduced, tension-filled deployment of geometrically arranged
forms. The basis is provided by a polygonal interior form, which is developed from a square and
surrounded by a differently colored background. Here, Loewensberg succeeded in exploring an
interactive effect between interior and exterior form, between figure and ground.
Verena Loewensberg did not title any of her works: an expression of her endeavor to let her painting
speak for itself. And the paintings do indeed satisfy this very same aspiration: hiding behind the
ostensibly playful and (in terms of their unique coloring) poetic paintings, there are always consistently
developed systems which the artist has translated into color forms, employing analytical acumen and
great sensitivity. We, the observers, are invited to decode these systems, or simply to allow the
strength of the paintings to thrill us.