Sky Overcast 1956

Louis Lozowick made this lithograph, Sky Overcast, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. Look at the way he's built the composition using different grey tones, from the dark sky to the bright clouds, it is a real process. The geometric shapes in this print aren’t just shapes, they’re spatial and architectural forms. They are hard edged and linear, made with a definite mark, a stark contrast to the soft and ethereal clouds. Lozowick is playing with the tension of hard and soft. I keep coming back to those almost musical notations hanging in the sky, they could be clouds, or planes or who knows what, hanging in the smoggy air. There’s something of the Precisionists like Charles Sheeler in this piece, but I feel Lozowick’s work has a touch more humanity, with a slightly softer edge. Ultimately, art is not about answers, but about opening up a space for questions and possibilities.