Eleonore Koch, also known as Lore Koch (April 2, 1926 – August 1, 2018), was a German-born
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
ian painter and sculptor. She was best known for paintings that evoke the memory of everyday objects, while also exploring the sensory nature of painting through a tension between color planes and line.
Background
Koch was born in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany, in 1926, the daughter of the
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
O Globo
''O Globo'' (, ''The Globe'') is a Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro. ''O Globo'' is the leading daily newspaper in the country and the most prominent print publication in the Grupo Globo media conglomerate.
Founded by journalist Ir ...
''. Retrieved 2016-10-22. Fleeing persecution under the
Nazi regime
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
, her family emigrated to
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, Brazil, in 1936.
At the age of 17 Koch began study at the
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA; Portuguese for National Museum of Fine Arts) is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister , wa ...
, but was dissatisfied with her experience there, and left after a brief time. On the suggestion of her parents, she went on to learn
bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...
, and worked at several bookshops in the immigrant milieu. Interested in both painting and sculpture, she subsequently studied privately with the artists Yolanda Mohalyi, Elisabeth Nobiling, Samson Flexor, and, beginning in 1947, Bruno Giorgi.Eleonore Koch ". In: ''Itaú Cultural Encyclopedia of Brazilian Art and Culture''. Itaú Cultural, São Paulo. Enciclopedia.itaucultural.org. Retrieved 2016-10-22. Beginning in 1949, she resided in Paris, and continued her studies under painter
Árpád Szenes
Árpád Szenes (also ; 6 May 1897 in Budapest – 16 January 1985 in Paris) was a Hungary, Hungarian-Jewish Abstract art, abstract painter who worked in France.
Career
Upon returning to São Paulo, in 1952, Koch worked as a set designer for the fledgling television station Tupi, and also found work at the
University of São Paulo
The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil.
The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...
, as an assistant to the scientists
Mário Schenberg
Mário Schenberg (born Mayer Schönberg ar. ''Mário Schönberg'', ''Mario Schonberg'', ''Mário Schoenberg'' 2 July 1914 – 10 November 1990) was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.
Early life
Schenberg was ...
and
César Lattes
Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes (11 July 1924 – 8 March 2005), also known as César Lattes, was a Brazilian experimental physicist, one of the discoverers of the pion, a composite subatomic particle made of a quark and an antiquark.
Life
Latte ...
. Through her acquaintance with the psychoanalyst, art collector and critic Theon Spanudis, she met the prominent modernist painter
Alfredo Volpi
Alfredo Volpi (April 14, 1896 – May 28, 1988), was a prominent painter of the artistic and cultural Brazilian modernist movement. He was born in Lucca, Italy but, less than two years later, he was brought by his parents to São Paulo, Brazi ...
, and from 1953 to 1956 pursued her art studies under him, shifting her focus during this period from sculpture to painting. Volpi greatly influenced her work, and she eventually came to be regarded as his only disciple.
After her submissions to the São Paulo International Biennial (Bienal Internacional de São Paulo) had been repeatedly rejected in the course of the 1950s. from 1959 to 1967 she had work accepted into four successive biennials.
In 1966 her career took a significant turn when, during a temporary stay in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, her work was accepted for an exhibition at the Mercury Gallery, and also drew the attention of the wealthy collector
Alistair McAlpine
Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green (14 May 1942 – 17 January 2014) was a British businessman, politician and author who was an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
McAlpine was descended from the McAlpine baronet ...
, who became her sponsor for some years. As a result, Koch moved to London in 1968, and lived there for the following two decades. During this period she continued to develop and exhibit her art. Around 1976 she took a position as a Portuguese translator for
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
, and continued to work for the police for the next 13 years, enjoying the job for the many different stories it exposed her to.
In 1989, at the age of 63, Koch finally returned to Brazil, a life change that led to her reconnecting to landscapes and colors in her art.
Although until later years she remained little known to the general public, she achieved some recognition in artists' circles. She came to wider attention in 2013, when the publisher Cosac Naify brought out a book devoted to her work, ''Lore Koch'', with text by art critic Paulo Venancio Filho.