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Michael Loew Paintings

American, 1907-1985

Michael Loew was born on May 8, 1907 and was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker and from 1926–29, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany and Italy with a group of artists, including Max Schnitzler and Alfred Jensen. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly and for the next two years, he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the Works Progress Administration where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World's Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives and in fact, Loew met his wife Mildred through a friend of de Kooning's. He traveled to Mexico in the late 1930s. Loew had a strong interest in artists' rights and activism and as president of the Artists Union, he led a protest which involved artists chaining themselves to poles in Union Square. After Pearl Harbor, Loew joined the Navy and served as the battalion artist for the Seabees in the Pacific. When he returned in 1946, his painting moved quickly toward abstraction. From 1947–49, he studied post-cubism at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. In 1948, he joined the Spiral Group, an organization of artists devoted to the exhibition of experimental art. The Artists Gallery in New York hosted his first one-man show in 1949 and one year later, he enrolled at the Atelier Léger in Paris. In 1956, he began teaching in the United States. By 1985 he had been an instructor at the Portland Museum School, University of California at Berkeley and the School of Visual Arts. His works are in the collections of prominent institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He died on November 14, 1985, in New York.

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Artist: Michael Loew
Untitled
By Michael Loew
Located in Lawrence, NY
Oil on Bristol Board Like many of his peers--including de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko and others--Loew painted in a figurative style before the war and participated in the WPA mural pr...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Oil

WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century Michael Loew (1907-1985) Detail for Mural (Social Security Building Washington D.C.) 24 x 24 inches ...
Category

1940s American Realist Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan The size of the canvas 28 3/4 x 43 1/4 inches. The painting comes directly from the artist's estate. It is signed lower right as well as signed, titled and dated verso. We have available more than two dozen paintings and works on paper from the 1930s - 80s that come directly from the Loew estate. BIO Michael Loew (1907 – 1985) was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly, and for the next two years he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the WPA where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World’s Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. In the mid-30’s he painted in Mexico and the Yucatán documenting the construction of a U.S. Naval airbase on Tinian Island. It was from this airbase that the Enola...
Category

1920s American Modern Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mural Study 1933 Depression Era Mid-Century WPA Modern American Scene Drawing
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
Mural Study 1933 Depression Era Mid-Century WPA Modern American Scene Drawing. Study to Scale Mural Sketch for “Evolution of Textile Production” East. All,...
Category

1930s American Modern Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Egg Tempera, Board

Green Night
By Michael Loew
Located in Lawrence, NY
Like many of his peers--including de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko and others--Loew painted in a figurative style before the war and participated in the WPA mural project which gave othe...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Oil

Red Above Blue, 1966
By Michael Loew
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Michael Loew (1907-1985). Red Above Blue, 1966. Acrylic on canvas, 39 x 56 inches. Signed lower right. Signed, titled and dated en verso. Excellent condition. Biography: Michael Loew was born in 1907 and was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Student’s League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists, including Max Schnitzler...
Category

1960s Hard-Edge Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Linen, Acrylic

Yellow Aura, White Series #4
By Michael Loew
Located in Lawrence, NY
Like many of his peers--including de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko and others--Loew painted in a figurative style before the war and participated in the WPA mural project which gave other...
Category

1970s Constructivist Michael Loew Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

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Michael Loew paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Michael Loew paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of paintings to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Michael Loew in paint, oil paint, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Michael Loew paintings, so small editions measuring 21 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Joseph Glasco, Ralph Eugene Della-Volpe, and Sylvia Rutkoff. Michael Loew paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $7,500 and tops out at $35,000, while the average work can sell for $12,500.

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