(1902 Zurich 1988)

Zwei gleiche Flächen akzentuiert durch Linien. 1968 I.

Oil on canvas.

Signed on the reverse: Lohse. Also signed, titled, dated and dedicated on the stretcher: Richard Paul Lohse Zürich Zwei gleiche Flächen akzentuiert durch Linien 1968 I. Für Cornelia Grossmann mit besten Wünschen Lohse.

15 x 15 cm.

Provenance:
- As a gift from the artist to the present owner.
- Since then private collection Switzerland.

“Simplicity does not arise from spontaneity, but from a process which involves much reflection, permeation and modification.”
(Richard Paul Lohse, Modulare und Serielle Ordnungen, Waser Verlag, Zurich, 1984)

The art of Richard Paul Lohse is defined through certain well-known standard features, such as rectangular surfaces, or lines, which together create an overall structure. The present work is a charming and outstanding example of Lohse’s oeuvre. This comprises a regular arrangement of two surfaces of the same dimensions, accentuated with fine vertical lines. This simple overall structure within a square, has been calculated and organised mathematically to the millimetre. These methodically applied standard features and their coherent mutual bond, allow for the definition of a complete whole. In addition, this structural foundation is enlivened and energised with the use of a broad and saturated range of colours. Concrete artists often choose complementary colours, as in this case with Richard Paul Lohse’s work: red/green and turquoise/orange. These simple, clearly defined colours stand out clearly from one another without clashing.

The Zurich artist Richard Paul Lohse lived from 1902 to 1988. Along with Max Bill and Gottfried Honegger, he is one of the main exponents of Swiss Concrete Art. The possibility of repeating forms and elements mechanically, is one of the features of this period. As a painter, Lohse was self-taught and initially turned to the Cubist and Expressionist masters. In the 1920s and the beginning of the 30s, his works were still mostly late Cubist style landscapes and still lifes. Only in the late 30s did his formal language of lines and curves in his pictures of birds in flight become more energised and more geometric, before he then in the 1940s found his definitive painting style in Concrete Art. In 1937 Lohse founded the "Allianz, Vereinigung moderner Schweizer Künstler" (Alliance, an association of Swiss modern artists) with Leo Leuppi. The following year he organised the London exhibition "20th Century German Art". In the 1940s he enjoyed success with his painting and in 1961 his works were exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Ten years later Lohse received the Sikkens prize, represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale and in 1973 was awarded the Art Prize of the City of Zurich.