Background
Verena Loewensberg was born in Zurich in 1912 and grew up near Basel. She came as the oldest daughter of a six-member family physicians in Zurich for the world.
Verena Loewensberg was born in Zurich in 1912 and grew up near Basel. She came as the oldest daughter of a six-member family physicians in Zurich for the world.
In Loewensberg's youth, it was by no means clear that she should become a painter, because she dropped out of training at the trade school because she doubted her talent in 1929. The apprenticeship was more successful as a weaver. In turn, a dance class training session ended with the feeling that they were no match for the event.
Verena Loewensberg created art abroad at the Academie Moderne in Paris, from the collaboration with Auguste Herbin, and the separation of her husband. During that time, she began a lifelong friendship with the painter Max Bill and his wife Binia. In 1936, she painted the first concrete images and helped in 1937 at the founding of the Alliance, an association of modern artists in Zurich.
The first drawings, created between 1935 and 1937, already show great perfection in the execution. The autonomy of the vision, which was to become characteristic of Loewensberg, betrays similarities with the works of the other Zurich concretes. At the age of 24, however, she participated in the exhibition «Problems of Time in Swiss Painting and Plastic» with her own works.
In the circle of like-minded she had found her place. But at that time the public hardly noticed the achievements of Swiss Modernism. The main exhibitions in Zurich and Basel met with indifference or open rejection. In 1950 she sold her first picture, and purchases by the public sector were sparse.
In its center, the designers of concrete formed to their core Loewensberg with Max Bill, Camille Graeser, and Richard Paul Lohse belonged. The arists also participated in the successful group exhibitions. In addition, they were inspired by the work of Mondrian and Vantongerloo. The mother of two earning her livelihood with fabric designs and led for a time at a music store Rössligasse in Zurich. From the 1970s she was living from her art.
Loewensberg work falls through her enormous ingenuity, the denial of her own theory and formulated by the absence of any comment, which is also manifested in the non-existent image titles. She had no theory, she was instructed that she can think of something, Verena Loewensberg used to comment on her art. The later work groups are influenced by the Japanese and Far Eastern ascetic philosophy of life and are regarded as high points in her career. In the 1950s and 1960s she worked for Guhl and Geigy. She also taught. She found her last resting place in the cemetery Sihlfeld.
Verena Loewensberg adhered to the artistic traditions of Arte concreto.
Quotations: "I have no theory, I depend on something that comes to my mind."
Loewensberg is one of the founding members of Allianz, the Association of Modern Swiss Artists.
In 1931 Loewensberg married the designer Hans Coray. The couple had two children: Stephan in 1943 and Henriette in 1946. She subsequently separated from her husband.