Title: Survivor from a dead age
First published: 1997
Description: Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), an American painter and printmaker most noted for his depictions of the urban scene, was in many ways a typical cultural figure of the early twentieth century. Born in Ukraine in an era of revolutionary ferment, involved in the artistic adventures of Paris, Berlin, and Moscow in the 1920s, he was one of the earliest links between the international machine aesthetic and the nascent American Precisionist movement.

Set almost wholly in Russia and western Europe, Lozowick's memoirs, published here for the first time, present not only a portrait of the artist as a young man but also a vibrant record of Jewish life in the waning days of the Russian empire. Emigrating to New York himself at age fourteen, Lozowick was aware of two artistic movements in the Russia he left behind: one, "The Wanderers," committed to art as a catalyst for progress; the other, "The World of Art," focused on aesthetics alone.

In his visits to Europe in the 1920s, Lozowick acquainted himself with the experiments and aims of other emerging cultural movements. Circulating among Dadaists, writing along with Joyce, Stein, and Picasso for the expatriate magazine Broom, and meeting with Russian Constructivists on their own soil, Lozowick formulated his concept of the Americanization of art and began to depict the urban environment in crisply delineated geometric forms.

Upon his return to the United States, Lozowick helped organize the Machine-Age Exposition of 1927 and wrote and lectured for the Societe Anonyme, Educational Alliance Art School, Menorah Journal, and Theatre Arts Monthly. He also designed the stage set for Georg Kaiser's Gas, one of the first Constructivist productions seen in America. With the onset of the Depression, Lozowick joined the staff of New Masses, the John Reed Club, and the American Artists' Congress.

Reflecting a strong commitment to making art relevant to contemporary life, Lozowick's work demonstrates his lifelong allegiance to art's role in mediating the modern conflicts between humanity and technology.
Subjects: Lithographers, Biography, Autobiografie, Autobiographie
Places: United States
People: Louis Lozowick