Dear Verena, you were unknown, now, you can take us though you shades of endless colours
The MAMCO (Geneva) is presenting, with the help of the support of the Stanley Johnson Foundation, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, and the Georg and Josi Guggenheim Stiftung and the curatorial work of Lionel Bouvier the Swiss artist Verena Loewensberg.
Mostly unknown, her oeuvre ditch focus on shapes and color is full of life and freshness. But, what's her story ? her meanings and her research ?
A story to be told...
Verena Loewensberg is born on the 28th of May 1912 in the Swiss town of Zürich. As she came from a family of successful doctors and rich family of the town, the had the change to get a good education at the Kunstgewerbeschule of Basel (now the Basel School of Design) from 1927 until 1929 (15-17). She will later become a weaver in Speicher (Switzerland) before marrying the designer Hans Coray.
During her carrier, the oeuvre of Verena will mostly focus on shapes and color. Nothing more. but how ? and why ?
Most of the respond to this question will be made between the two world war, when she started a long friendship with the Swiss artist Max Bill and Binia Bill in 1934. Due to Bill, she will move to Paris and meet the group Abstraction-Création.
At the same time, her practive mostly focus on works on paper, made with black and white paint. and while she was exhibited at the "Zeitprobleme in der Schweizer Malerei und Plastik" exhibition, in 1936 at the Kunsthaus Zürich, she will not be recognised...
One year later, she will joined the Allians group with Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Meret Oppenheim. She will also start to paint her first "concrete pictures". She will be in the same line as Max Bill, Richard Paul Lohse and Camille Graeser.
Concrete Art = USA ?
Starting in 1944, she will made her first oil painting. Later on, in the 1960s and the 1970s, the oeuvre of the Concrete art group will be linked to the Barnett Newman, Franck Stella, Sol LeWitt & Ellsworth Kelly.
But Verena goes beyond all of those artist, with her unique style, her use of colours and the use of contrast. This personally and oeuvre will lead to her first exhibition, at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1981.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: MAMCO
Date: 22.2.2022 – 19.6.2022
Curators: Lionel Bovier
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the MAMCO
10, Rue des Vieux Grenadiers
CH-1205 Genève
Phone: +41 22 320 61 22
Mail: INFO@MAMCO.CH