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Location and Hours
About the Exhibition
From Ukraine to New Jersey: Louis Lozowick’s Prints of American Life shows a diverse range of lithographs by Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), spanning the artist’s entire career.
An American printmaker who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine when he was fourteen, Lozowick was associated with Precisionism, an American modern art movement based on Cubism that embraced a “machine aesthetic” of clarity and precision. As a young artist, Lozowick experienced the United States in its glory: during the Roaring Twenties mass production was changing the economy and industry was booming. His prints of the period show skyscrapers, bridges, and other technological marvels that exemplify the optimism of that decade. When the Wall Street crash of 1929 brought an end to all that and ushered in the Great Depression, Lozowick’s lithographs began to change. His focus now was on the fate of unemployed workers and on social and racial inequality. In 1945, Lozowick, his wife Adele, and their infant son Lee moved to South Orange, New Jersey, where Adele opened a frame shop on South Orange Avenue. Already internationally famous, Lozowick also became something of a celebrity in New Jersey, where his work was widely collected. In 1973, a Seton Hall University art history class, led by Professor Barbara Kaufman, curated a Lozowick retrospective in the Student Center and took the last photographs of him before he unexpectedly died right before the exhibition opened. The Pierro Gallery, in collaboration with Seton Hall, is pleased to offer this Lozowick exhibition 43 years later to celebrate this artist’s impact in New Jersey and worldwide. There are forty lithographs in the exhibition on loan from New Jersey and New York private collectors, galleries, museums, and libraries. These lithographs are not normally on public display. |
This exhibition is a joint effort of the Pierro Gallery of South Orange and Seton Hall University. A mini-grant from the New Jersey Council of the Humanities and a grant from the Seton Hall University's Strategic Plan paid for part of its expenses. Both institutions are gratefully acknowledged, as are the lenders to this exhibition, mentioned elsewhere on this website. Additionally, programs at the Pierro Gallery are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Others who contributed to this exhibition in various ways are Taylor Curtis, Seton Hall student curator; Sandy Martiny, Director of the Pierro Gallery, who guided this project from beginning to end; Petra Chu, Jürgen Heinrichs, and Warren Grover, who wrote essays for the website; and Martha Easton and the students in her graduate class "Writing for Museums," who wrote the label texts for the exhibition.
Others who contributed to this exhibition in various ways are Taylor Curtis, Seton Hall student curator; Sandy Martiny, Director of the Pierro Gallery, who guided this project from beginning to end; Petra Chu, Jürgen Heinrichs, and Warren Grover, who wrote essays for the website; and Martha Easton and the students in her graduate class "Writing for Museums," who wrote the label texts for the exhibition.
Upcoming Programs and Events
All events are free and open to the public.
Lecture: Helen Langa, “From Socialist Modernism to Social Viewpoint Art: Louis Lozowick's Aesthetic and Political Idealism.”
January 28, 2016, 7 pm
Beck Room, Walsh Library (ground floor), Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ
Louis Lozowick's prints of the 1920s portrayed city scenes abstracted through a visual rhetoric of geometric modernism. By the early 1930s, his prints reveal a dramatic transition to realistic scenes showing male workers constructing and repairing specific sites of infrastructural modernity. Through these two decades, Lozowick also wrote thoughtfully about leftist politics, Jewish identity, and the role of the artist in modern society. This talk will investigate the intellectual and aesthetic threads that tie together his artistic choices and political ideals.
Visit to the Louis Lozowick Collection at the Zimmerli Museum
Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts, The Zimmerli Museum
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ
The Zimmerli Museum will show its Lozowick collection to a small group of visitors. Transportation will be provided by the Pierro Gallery. To register and for information, contact Sandy Martiny at [email protected].
Curator Tours
February 11, 2016, 2 pm and 7 pm
The Pierro Gallery
5 Mead Street, South Orange, NJ
Curator Taylor Curtis will lead a tour of the exhibition’s highlights.
School Tours
Additional group tours of the exhibition are available on request. Curator Taylor Curtis can tailor the tour to fit the interests of the group. Contact Sandy Martiny at [email protected] to plan your tour.
Lecture: Helen Langa, “From Socialist Modernism to Social Viewpoint Art: Louis Lozowick's Aesthetic and Political Idealism.”
January 28, 2016, 7 pm
Beck Room, Walsh Library (ground floor), Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ
Louis Lozowick's prints of the 1920s portrayed city scenes abstracted through a visual rhetoric of geometric modernism. By the early 1930s, his prints reveal a dramatic transition to realistic scenes showing male workers constructing and repairing specific sites of infrastructural modernity. Through these two decades, Lozowick also wrote thoughtfully about leftist politics, Jewish identity, and the role of the artist in modern society. This talk will investigate the intellectual and aesthetic threads that tie together his artistic choices and political ideals.
Visit to the Louis Lozowick Collection at the Zimmerli Museum
Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts, The Zimmerli Museum
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ
The Zimmerli Museum will show its Lozowick collection to a small group of visitors. Transportation will be provided by the Pierro Gallery. To register and for information, contact Sandy Martiny at [email protected].
Curator Tours
February 11, 2016, 2 pm and 7 pm
The Pierro Gallery
5 Mead Street, South Orange, NJ
Curator Taylor Curtis will lead a tour of the exhibition’s highlights.
School Tours
Additional group tours of the exhibition are available on request. Curator Taylor Curtis can tailor the tour to fit the interests of the group. Contact Sandy Martiny at [email protected] to plan your tour.