Background
Lohse was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 13, 1902.
Lohse was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 13, 1902.
Richard Lohse's father died in 1915, leaving him and his mother in poverty. After numerous occasional jobs, he started his apprenticeship as a draftsman under the guidance of Max Dalang at the Zurich University of the Arts from 1918 to 1922. He was a self-taught painter.
Lohse joined the advertising agency of Max Dalang in 1922, where he trained to become an advertising designer. There he met Hans Neuburg and Anton Stankowski. During that time Lohse painted mainly expressive, late-cubist still lifes.
In the 1930s, his work as a book designer and graphic artist made him one of the pioneers of modern Swiss graphic design. In his paintings of the period, he depicted curved and diagonal constructions. In 1930 he was able to establish his own graphic design studio in Zurich. Since 1934 Lohse spent much of his time in his studio and apartment in the Zett-Haus, Zurich, together with artist and gallerist Irmgard Burchard.
In 1937 Richard Lohse became a co-founder of Allianz; it was an association of Swiss modern artists, with Leo Leuppi being one of its members. In 1938 he helped Irmgard Burchard to organize the London exhibition Twentieth Century German Art. He installed a print exhibition of German and Russian constructivists in Zurich. The same year he began a book design work for Büchergilde Gutenberg, which he completed in 1954.
He took part in the Swiss national exhibition Landi, Zurich, in 1939. At the same time, Richard Lohse did graphic design work for turbine builder Escher Wyss. He completed in 1969. In 1940 he became a co-editor and book designer of Almanac of New Art in Switzerland. In the year 1942 Lohse participated in the exhibition Allianz, Kunsthaus Zurich.
The year 1943 was crucial for Lohse's painting, as he standardized the pictorial means and started to develop modular and serial systems. The following year he participated in the exhibition Concrete Art, Kunsthalle, Basel. Richard Lohse organized together with Leo Leuppi the exhibition Concrete, Abstract, Surrealist Art in Switzerland, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, and participated in the exhibition Abstract and Concrete Art, Palazzo Exreale, Milano, in 1947. In 1948 Lohse organized the Swiss section in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris, and then again in 1950. In the year 1951 together with Sigfried Giedion, he became an organizer of the Swiss section at the International Water Colour Exhibition in Brooklyn, New York, and later participated in the 1st Biennale, São Paulo.
Richard Lohse published the book New Design in Exhibitions in 1953, and starting from 1958 he became a co-editor of the magazine Neue Grafik/New Graphic Design. The following year he was an editor of publication Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart on the occasion of his 60th birthday. His works were displayed in a number of retrospective exhibitions, including ones at Kunstverein Ulm in 1960 and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1961.
In 1965 Lohse was asked to represent Switzerland at the 8th Biennale in São Paulo. In 1969 he assisted in the creation of the McCrory Corporation Collection, New York. His works were exhibited at the 36th Biennale, Venice, in 1972; Modular and Serial Orders, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 1976; at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, in 1978; at the documenta 7, Kassel, in 1982, among others.
In the year 1988 Richard Lohse was commissioned by the French State to produce Grenoble 1788, in order to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution in Grenoble in 1788. The same year he held his last retrospective exhibition at the Musée de Grenoble.
Richard Lohse was an outstanding painter of the 20th century. From about 1950 he gained an international reputation and started to exhibit his works not only in Switzerland but in other European countries as well.
Lohse was a recipient of a number of awards. In 1949 he received the Swiss Prize for Painting; in 1951 the prize Compasso d'Oro; in 1971 the Sikkens Prize of the Netherlands; in 1973 the Art Prize of the City of Zürich; and in 1977 the World Print Competition 77 Prize, San Francisco. The artist became an honorary member of the Group of Systematic-Constructive Art, Gorinchem, Netherlands, in 1977 and the Vienna Secession in 1986.
In the year 1987 he was appointed Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic by the Minister of Culture, Jack Lang. The same year to honour Lohse's 85th birthday, the City of Zurich established the Richard Paul Lohse Foundation.
Richard Lohse combined his art with political and moral awareness. He was an activist for immigrants. In the 1930s, he was involved in protests, which were considered to be illegal. He continued to protest until the onset of the Second World War.
In 1934 he became a member of the association Friends of New Architecture, and the Swiss Werkbund in 1942.
Richard Lohse got married to Irmgard Burchard in 1936. In 1942 he re-married Ida Alis Dürner. In 1944 the couple gave birth to their daughter, Johanna.
