Louis Lozowick was born in 1892 in Ludvinovka, a small village in Russia. His life was very difficult. His mother died when he was young, leaving six children for his father to raise while running a general store. Young Lozowick also experienced the persecution all Jewish families during the Czars' control of Russia. He attended a heder, a Hebrew religious school, during his early years. Official high schools were closed to Jews, but the Kiev Art School accepted Lozowick in 1903, where he studied for two years. He was influenced at this time by The Wanderers, a group of painters who specialized in portrayals of the Russian peasants in a Realist manner. In 1906, Lozowick went to New York. His first view of the cityscape made a lifelong impression, influencing much of his work. Lozowick studied at the National Academy of Design and Ohio State University. Later he enlisted in the U.S. Army and made a trip across the country, visiting cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and Cleveland. The sketches he made on this trip became the subjects for later paintings and lithographs.

Between 1920 and 1924, Lozowick lived in Europe, where he was influenced by Cubism, Russian Constructivism, and Dada. He was a very successful artist in Berlin, Germany in the 1920s. He was painting and making black-and-white lithograph prints in which his subject matter seemed influenced by the popular machines of the day. He explained, "In agricultural societies, ornament is based on vegetable and plant forms, and in contemporary industrial society, ornament should be based on machine parts and various technical aspects." Lozowick eventually lost interest in the "machine aesthetic" and turned to subject matter focusing on people and landscapes until his death in 1973.

Vocabulary Terms

Cubism--An early 20th Century style of art characterized by overlapping picture planes, multiple perspectives; analytic cubism looks at all views at once; synthetic cubism is basically two-dimensional.

Dada--Anti-art movement which emerged in Europe in 1916 as a reaction against the inhumanity of World War I; interpreted irrational and nihilistic, or hopeless, social forces by creating ridiculing images; and used shock tactics.

lithograph--A method of printing that uses stone (or a metal plate), a grease pencil or brush, and water and ink to produce a number of prints from one drawing or painting.

Realism--A style of art that represent nature accurately as seen by the human eye.

Russian Constructivists--A Russian art movement founded in 1913 in which abstract geometric forms and industrial materials were used to reflect modern machinery and technology; integrated creativity and industrial production.

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