Exhibition poster |
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When in 1953 Erwin Gradmann planned an exhibit in the ETH Graphische Sammlung
called 'You live today' involving an ETH/University of Zurich student working
group, the early prints of Richard Paul Lohse (1902 - 1988), together with
those of Camille Graeser and Leo Leuppi, could have been shown. Leuppi was,
in fact, together with Lohse the founder and first President of Allianz,
an association of modern Swiss artists. In 1941 the Allianz publisher issued
the portfolio 5 constructionen + 5 compositionen [5 constructions + 5 compositions],
in which Lohse is also represented; in 1942 Rudolf Bernoulli acquired this
work for the Graphische Sammlung. The eight Zurich artists, represented in
the exhibit mentioned above, each provided a woodcut or linocut for this
publication. This may explain why Lohse did not take part: at this point
his preferred printing medium was lithography. A decade would pass before
single works or series by Lohse found their way into thematic or group shows
at the ETH.
Now the ETH Graphische Sammlung has dedicated an entire exhibit to Lohse and
his printed work. Its core comprises nine silkscreen prints and the analysis
sheet from the 1970 portfolio Vertikalen [Verticals] published by Galerie
Renée Ziegler. While Lohse's early works were lithographs, from 1964 onwards
he turned almost completely to silkscreen printing. Every representative
of the Zurich 'Konkreten', or 'concrete artists', from the 1960s onwards
preferred this technique because it made it possible to print well-differentiated
areas precisely and in as many colours as desired. One characteristic of
Lohse's printed work is also a close formal relationship between painting
and printing. The Sammlung's holdings have been extended by works loaned
from the Richard Paul Lohse Foundation archive, the Kunsthaus Zurich and
Galerie Renée
Ziegler.
Richard Paul Lohse initially and for several decades earned his bread in advertising
illustration. In 2000 the Richard Paul Lohse Foundation published a compendium
of his applied printing work with a detailed index. On the occasion of the Graphische
Sammlung's exhibit the Foundation has also announced a forthcoming publication
dedicated to Lohse's artistic prints.
Opening: Tuesday September 4, 2007, 18.00
Info: www.gs.ethz.ch