Loretta Lux

{{Infobox artist

| name = Loretta Lux

| image =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1969}}

| birth_place = Dresden, East Germany

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = German

| field = Photography

| training = Academy of Visual Arts

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| awards =2005 Infinity Award for Art, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

}}

Loretta Lux (born 1969){{Cite web |title=Works by Loretta Lux in the Museum of Modern Art |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/49108 |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=}} is a fine art photographer known for her surreal portraits of young children.{{cite news|access-date=2023-01-17|title='I use children as a metaphor for a lost paradise'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3638552/I-use-children-as-a-metaphor-for-a-lost-paradise.html|work=The Daily Telegraph}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Kristin M. |date=2004-05-05 |title=Frieze/Loretta Lux |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/loretta-lux |access-date=2023-01-18 |journal=Frieze|issue=83 }}

The artist calls her own works "imaginary portraits, dealing with the idea of childhood"{{Cite web |last=Reid |first=Graham |date=2008-10-05 |title=loretta-lux-photographer-a-disturbing-childhood |url=https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/culturalelsewhere/1898/loretta-lux-photographer-a-disturbing-childhood/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=elsewhere}}

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.{{Cite book |last=Blackwell |first=Lewis |title=Master Photographers on Their Art |publisher=PQ Blackwell. |year=2009 |isbn=978-0473150945}}

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. and "I think we are all rather lost, lost in a world we cannot understand."

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.“{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=2004-02-06 |title=art-in-review-loretta-lux |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/arts/art-in-review-loretta-lux.html |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=New York Times}} 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).

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.{{cite book |last1=Lux |first1=Loretta |title=Loretta Lux |date=2005 |publisher=Aperture |isbn=1931788545 |page=11}}

Awards

2005: Infinity Award for Art from the International Center of Photography.{{cite web|url=http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.886361/k.43ED/Loretta_Lux.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030950/http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.886361/k.43ED/Loretta_Lux.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 September 2007|title=2005 Loretta Lux - International Center Of Photography|date=28 September 2007|accessdate=27 March 2019}}

Collections ( Selection )

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

Museum of Modern Art
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.{{cite web |url=http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_200614_0.html |title=Artist - Lux |website=Guggenheim Collection |access-date=2006-12-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003053831/http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_200614_0.html |archive-date=2006-10-03 }}
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.{{cite web|url=https://www.moca.org/exhibitions?acsnum=2004.40&keywords=lux+loretta&x=32&y=8&page=&|title=Exhibitions • MOCA|website=The Museum of Contemporary Art|accessdate=27 March 2019}}
Art Institute of Chicago.{{cite web|url=http://www.mocp.org/collection/|title=Collection - Museum of Contemporary Photography|website=Mocp.org|accessdate=27 March 2019}}
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.{{cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/220.2007/|title=The waiting girl, (2006) by Loretta Lux :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|website=Artgallery.nsw.gov.au|accessdate=27 March 2019}}
National Gallery of Victoria{{Cite web |title=Works by Loretta Lux in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/81450/ |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=National Gallery of Victoria}}
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston{{cite web |title=Loretta Lux: Three Wishes |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/64505/three-wishes |website=mfah.org}}
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles{{Cite web |title=work by Loretta Lux in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/105CNA |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=J. Paul Getty Museum}}
Brooklyn Museum of Art{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the Brooklyn Museum of Art |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/artists/11143/objects |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Brooklyn Museum of Art}}
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the SFMOMA |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Loretta_Lux/ |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=SFMOMA}}
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago |url=https://collections.mocp.org/info.php?s=Loretta+Lux&t=objects&type=all |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Museum of Contemporary Photography}}
Los Angeles County Museum of Art{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/161004 |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Los Angeles County Museum of Ar}}
Fotomuseum Winterthur{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in Fotomuseum Winterthur |url=https://www.fotomuseum.ch/de/sammlung-fotomuseum-winterthur/?filter[]=collection_artist%3A8410#collection |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Fotomuseum Winterthur}}
National Museum of Art, Osaka{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the National Museum of Art, Osaka |url=https://www.nmao.go.jp/archive/en/exhibition/2008/collection_3_3.html |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=National Museum of Art, Osak}}
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia{{Cite web |title=works by Loretta Lux in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid |url=https://www.museoreinasofia.es/coleccion/autor/lux-loretta |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia}}

Reviews and Portfolios

[https://www.frieze.com/article/loretta-lux frieze/article/loretta-lux] ( Frieze)
[https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/culturalelsewhere/1898/loretta-lux-photographer-a-disturbing-childhood/ loretta-lux-photographer-a-disturbing-childhood/] ( elsewhere.nz )
[https://www.milkbooks.com/blog/inspiration/loretta-lux/ milkbooks/loretta-lux/] Excerpts from Masterphotographers and their Art
[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/arts/art-in-review-loretta-lux.html art-in-review-loretta-lux] ( New York Times )
Loretta Lux in [https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1810329,00.html Time Magazine] ( Time Magazine )
[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/nov/23/photography The Guardian "Loretta Lux`best shot"] ( The Guardian)
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3638586/LORETTA-LUX.html Telegraph loretta-Lux] ( The Telegraph)