HARRIS SCHRANK FINE PRINTS » Louis Lozowick

Queensboro Bridge

Harris Schrank — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:26:44 +0000

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Queensboro Bridge , 1930, Lithograph.Flint 61. Edition 50. Signed, titled and dated in pencil.

Image size 13 1/2” x 7 5/8” (342 x 193 mm); sheet size 15 7/8” x 10 3/4” (403 x 272 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on Rives BFK cream wove paper, with full margins ( 7/8 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition.

Lozowick attended Kiev Art School from the age of 12 to 14, at which point he emigrated to the US. In New York he studied for three years at the National Academy of Design, then attended Ohio State, worked as a lithographer, and traveled extensively in Europe and Russia between 1919 and 1924. With this exposure to cubism and Russian modernism, combined with his talent as a draughtsman, he was able to help adapt cubism/modernism to America, creating an exciting new idiom called Precisionism.

By 1930, when Queensboro Bridge was made, Lozowick had already spent several years making superb Precisionist lithographs, proving that this printmaking method was ideal for the movement. But the public was not convinced, and he reverted in the later ’30s to more conventional, easily accessible compositions. Of course with hindsight it’s clear (and has been for about the last 30 years!) that this Precisionist work was the high point of Lozowick’s career, and of American art of the period.

Still Life With Breakfast

Harris Schrank — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:08:16 +0000

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Still Life with Breakfast, lithograph, 1929, signed and dated (‘29) in pencil lower right, numbered lower left (13/50), and titled lower margin center [with the LL monogram in the plate]. Reference: Flint 17, from the edition of 50. In good condition apart from slight light toning and toning verso, printed on an ivory/tan wove paper with the watermark FRANCE, the full sheet, 10 3/8 x 8, the sheet 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches.

A very good impression of this classic Precisionist composition.

According to Flint Lozowick had an edition of 50 made of Still Life with Breakfast (the print is numbered as if the edition were 50), but it seems to appear only rather rarely on the market. Unlike several of the prints Lozowick made during this period, Still Life with Breakfast was not re-printed in 1972, and so the impressions are all from the early period when Lozowick produced his American Precisionist masterpieces.

The composition of Breakfast is both realistic and fanciful; the diagonal design transversing the plate goes beyond the tablecloth at the top, and another fine design on the tablecloth lower right seems a thing apart from the tablecloth itself. A car, upper left, seems to be on the street below a window, and is still in the dark (is it early morning?).

Janet Flint noted that Lozowick used a special technique in this print to achieve the highly detailed effects in Breakfast: “The delicately textured tablecloth in Breakfast…was achieved by tracing the design through a sheet of ordinary carbon paper with an exceptionally hard lead pencil.” It was through his ability as a draftsman, and his inventiveness as a printmaker, that Lozowick was able to become America’s foremost precisionist printmaker.

Checkered Tablecloth

Harris Schrank — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:05:50 +0000

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Checkered Tablecloth, lithograph, 1972, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (6/20) lower left (with the monogram upper left]. Reference: Flint 292, only state. From the edition of only 20. In good condition, on cream wove, the full sheet, the barest hint of toning in margins, 15 1/2 x 11 1/2, the sheet 21 x 16 inches, archival mounting with window mat.

A fine impression of this relatively rare print.

By 1972 it was clear to the art world, and to Lozowick as well, that his Precisionist work represented a high point in American modernist art, and – although he had made many accessible and appealing realistic prints after his initial work in this idiom – he returned to it at this point near the end of his career, making a few original works in addition to additional editions of earlier classics. Checkered Tablecloth is arguably his most significant new work created at this time. A small edition of 20 was made, with no additional edition, so it is rarely encountered on the market.

White Tanks

Harris Schrank — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:02:32 +0000

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), White Tanks, lithograph, 1930, signed in pencil and dated “30″. In very good condition, on BFK cream wove paper (with their watermark), with full margins, 10 1/2 x 7 1/2, the sheet 16 x 11 inches. Archival mounting. An unnumbered impression apart from the small edition of only 5 impressions, published in 1972; the 1930 edition was only 10. (Lozowick had a few impressions made 1972 when he realized that the stone was intact, and that there was a demand for this print; he signed and dated these impressions, numbering 5 and reserving an additional few for himself; this impression is one of the latter.)

A fine impression of this exceedingly rare print.

By 1930, when White Tanks was made, Lozowick had already spent several years making superb Precisionist lithographs, proving that this printmaking method was ideal for the movement. But the public was not convinced, and he reverted in the later ’30s to more conventional, easily accessible compositions. Of course with hindsight it’s clear (and has been for about the last 30 years!) that this Precisionist work was a high point of Lozowick’s career, and of American art of the period.