Loretta Lux
Born1969 (age 54–55)
Dresden, East Germany
NationalityGerman
EducationAcademy of Visual Arts
Known forPhotography
Awards2005 Infinity Award for Art, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

Loretta Lux (born 1969)[1] is a fine art photographer known for her surreal portraits of young children.[2] She lives and works in Ireland.

Life and work

Lux was born in Dresden, East Germany. She graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Munich in the 1990s, and debuted at the Yossi Milo gallery, New York City in 2004.

Lux executes her compositions using a combination of photography, painting and digital manipulation. Her work usually features young children. She trained as a painter at Munich Academy of Art, and is influenced by painters such as Agnolo Bronzino, Diego Velázquez, Phillip Otto Runge.[3]

The artist calls her own works "imaginary portraits, dealing with the idea of childhood"[4]

Her portraits are not portraits in the conventional sense, but rather constructed ones. "I make the person my own. A portrait allows the artist, as well as the viewer, the chance to mirror themselves in the other and to reflect on their own existence." she has explained.[5]

Lux often uses vast landscapes and empty spaces as backdrops in her staged photographs in order to depict alienation. "I believe man is alienated from the world. Industrialization and destruction of the natural environment have made it impossible for man to feel at home in the world." she stated in an interview.[5] and "I think we are all rather lost, lost in a world we cannot understand."[4]

In a review in The New York Times, Roberta Smith calls her works „some of the weirdest, most subtly manipulated pictures of our over-digitalized moment.“[6] Other critics have described her portraits as "as charming as they are creepy" (The Village Voice) and noted that the children "have the air of self-created beings, a race of tiny Nordic monsters" (New York Times).[4]

In her essay, Francine Prose suggests that seeds of her East German upbringing are found in Lux's photographs. "... during Lux's childhood, the state channeled reality through the upbeat fantasy of Socialist realism. This was a society in which the cult of secrecy and surveillance was a daily reality.[7]

Awards

Collections ( Selection )

Works by Loretta Lux are housed in the following public collections:

Reviews and Portfolios

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Works by Loretta Lux in the Museum of Modern Art". Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  2. ↑ "'I use children as a metaphor for a lost paradise'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  3. ↑ Jones, Kristin M. (2004-05-05). "Frieze/Loretta Lux". Frieze (83). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  4. 1 2 3 Reid, Graham (2008-10-05). "loretta-lux-photographer-a-disturbing-childhood". elsewhere. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  5. 1 2 Blackwell, Lewis (2009). Master Photographers on Their Art. PQ Blackwell. ISBN 978-0473150945.
  6. ↑ Smith, Roberta (2004-02-06). "art-in-review-loretta-lux". New York Times. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  7. ↑ Lux, Loretta (2005). Loretta Lux. Aperture. p. 11. ISBN 1931788545.
  8. ↑ "2005 Loretta Lux - International Center Of Photography". 28 September 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  9. ↑ "Artist - Lux". Guggenheim Collection. Archived from the original on 2006-10-03. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  10. ↑ "Exhibitions • MOCA". The Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  11. ↑ "Collection - Museum of Contemporary Photography". Mocp.org. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "The waiting girl, (2006) by Loretta Lux :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW". Artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "Works by Loretta Lux in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  14. ↑ "Loretta Lux: Three Wishes". mfah.org.
  15. ↑ "work by Loretta Lux in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA". J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  16. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the Brooklyn Museum of Art". Brooklyn Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  17. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the SFMOMA". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  18. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  19. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art". Los Angeles County Museum of Ar. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  20. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in Fotomuseum Winterthur". Fotomuseum Winterthur. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  21. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the National Museum of Art, Osaka". National Museum of Art, Osak. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  22. ↑ "works by Loretta Lux in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid". Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
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