Roger Loewig

Biographical Sketch

The painter and poet Roger Loewig was born in 1930 in Silesia. He lived through the beginning of World War II and the occupation of Poland as a child in the city of Oels, Lower Silesia. Shortly before the end of the war, he was drafted into service digging anti-tank ditches in the Warthe Marshes near Lodz. Still nearly a child, only 16, he was traumatized by the horrors experienced during the war and the disclosure of the war atrocities. He began living on the road in the countryside, leaving behind irregular school attendance and an attempt to take up studies which was thwarted by a limited residency permit and lack of school documents. Loewig began writing, painting and drawing. He taught at schools in East Berlin from 1954 to 1964.

1965: first lithographs; 1966: joined the German Fine Arts Association (in former East Germany), freelance painter and graphic artist. 1967: requested an exit visa. 1972: permission granted, he moved to West Berlin. 1973: trip through Europe, guest at the Villa Massimo in Rome. 1976: began to work on etchings, stipendium from the Aldgrever-Gesellschaft. Goya Medaille from the city of Antony. 1981: honorably granted the Lovis Corinth Award. 1986: gift of 10 works to the National Museum in Warsaw. His prints and drawings constitute his most important works to the present. The themes always center on the fragile existence of humanity, grief and mourning, the horrors of war, the Holocaust and life as a fugitive. The landscapes of his childhood constitute the common visionary backgrounds of his works. Migrating birds and Icarus became existential signs, the trees along the burned horizon represented the struggle of his subconscious. Parallel to his graphic series, he produced poetry cycles and lyrical texts such as 'Zugvogeldasein' (The Life of a Migratory Bird) and 'Dunkelland' (Dark Land). ek

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References:

Roger Loewig. Handzeichnungen 1954-1980. Edited by Werner Timm, Propyläen Verlag 1981;

Roger Loewig. Zeichnungen und Lithographien. Catalogue, Berlinische Galerie 1988;

Roger Loewig. Catalogue, National Museum in Warsaw 1986

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Note:

The references given are not meant as a list of the best works available on the subject, but simply reflect the author's sources.

Registers and catalogues of works are included when known and correspond to the information given in the index.