Loretta Lux

Loretta Lux - Art studies in Munich; from painting to photography

Loretta Lux was born in Dresden in 1969. She owes her first encounter with fine art to her grandparents, who visited the state painting collections with their granddaughter and gave her prints of old masters to decorate her bedroom. Her desire to become an artist herself grew stronger and stronger, but as the prevailing conditions in the GDR prevented her from studying art, she went to the West in 1989, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Lux studied graphics and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and in 1994 she became a master student of Professor Gerd Winner. After completing her studies, she received a DAAD scholarship in 1997, which enabled her to study in London. In 1999, the trained painter discovered photography for herself and quickly realised that this was where her calling lay.

A combination of painting, photography and digital image manipulation

Loretta Lux initially tried her hand at self-portraits, but soon found her favourite and still characteristic motif: children, usually between 2 and 9 years old, the sons and daughters of acquaintances, sometimes in old-fashioned costumes, which she reworks using digital means. The elaborate composition of the pictures takes a great deal of time - usually several weeks from the initial idea to the finished picture. The result of these labours are peculiar, fascinating and unmistakable images in soft pastel tones, reminiscent of the high art of the old masters of the past. Indeed, it is great painters such as Agnolo Bronzino, Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya who have had a lasting influence on the photographer's work. Even as a photographer, Loretta Lux does not reject her painterly roots: she has painted many of the backgrounds against which she photographs her child models with her own hand. Her children do not smile, but look dignified and serious. However, children are not actually the subject of her art, the artist explains; they merely serve as a metaphor for an unspeakable reality.

Carefully composed dream worlds with strangely enraptured children

Loretta Lux treats her subject matter - which naturally has a certain proximity to kitsch and cliché - with deliberate detachment and coolness, and skilfully avoids any slide into bland cuteness. Despite the often antiquated clothing and accessories, the pictures possess a certain timelessness and a slightly surrealistic aura due to their artistic alienation. The extensive editing transforms the realistic photographs into fantastic creations, where reality becomes a dream. The artist sees her pictures as an approach to the great human themes of childhood and being lost in the world. Lux sees herself as a director, her pictures are carefully thought-out stagings; nothing is left to chance: Every pose, every gesture, every costume and every background is the result of careful consideration. Loretta Lux has received prizes and awards for her unique work, including the 2002 Bavarian Art Award.

Loretta Lux live and works today mostly in Monaco.