Lou Loeber

Louise Marie Loeber (Lou Loeber) was an Amsterdam born Dutch artist. In addition to being a painter, she was a glass painter, illustrater and etcher that worked mostly non-figuratively, abstract-geometrically and abstract-figuratively. Loeber attended the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam from 1915 until 1918. She left the academy prematurely for she considered it too conservative. In 1919, she met Toon Verhoef, a painter that introduced her to Socialism, De Stijl, Cubism and modernism. Inspired by Albert Gleizes, Le Corbusier and Mondriaan, her work became more sober and clean.  Shortly after, Loeber began to further investigate the link between modern art and Socialism, whereafter she decided to multiply her works and keep her prices low. She married the artist Dirk Koning in 1931 who, like Loeber, was a pacifist, progressive painter, vegan and socialist.  She preferred industrial and technological subjects that she translated to lines and shapes. Nevertheless, Loeber considered fully abstract art elitist and always referred to reality in her earlier works. Post-war, Lou moderated her Socialist points of view and started working mostly non-figuratively.

Courtesy of Kunstkontor Basel