Eleonore Koch, also known as Lore Koch (April 2, 1926 – August 1, 2018), was a German-born Brazilian 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, Germany, in 1926, the daughter of the Jewish psychoanalyst Adelheid Koch and attorney Ernst Koch;Eckl, Marien (2016)
This tear remains forever ...': German-Jewish refugee children and youth in Brazil (1933–45): Resettlement, acculturation, integration
. In: Simone Gigliotti and Monica Tempian (Eds.), ''The Young Victims of the Nazi Regime: Migration, the Holocaust, and Postwar Displacement''. London: Bloomsbury Academic. . she had one sibling, an older sister, Esther.Audrey Furlaneto (July 24, 2013).
Eleonore Koch, discípula de Volpi, tem vida e obra reunidas em livro
. '' O Globo''. Retrieved 2016-10-22. Fleeing persecution under the Nazi regime, her family emigrated to São Paulo, 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 physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

, and worked at several bookshops in the immigrant milieu. Interested in both painting and sculpture, she subsequently studied privately with the artists

Yolanda Mohalyi Yolanda Léderer Mohalyi (1909 – August 23, 1978) was a painter and designer who worked with woodcuts, mosaics, stained glass and murals as well as more usual materials. Her early work was figurative, but she increasingly moved towards abst ...

, Elisabeth Nobiling,

Samson Flexor Samson Flexor (born Samson Modestovich Flexor; 9 September 1907, in Soroca, Bessarabia, Imperial Russia – 31 July 1971, in São Paulo, Brazil) was a French and Brazilian artist, and founder of the Brazilian abstract art. Period of apprenti ...

, and, beginning in 1947,

Bruno Giorgi Bruno Giorgi (13 August 1905, Mococa – 7 September 1993, Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the ...

.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 french: Árpád Szenès; 6 May 1897, Budapest – 16 January 1985, Paris) was a Hungary, Hungarian-Jewish Abstract art, abstract painter who worked in France.

and sculptor Robert Coutin.

Career

Upon returning to São Paulo, in 1952, Koch worked as a set designer for the fledgling television station

Tupi Tupi may refer to: * Tupi people of Brazil * Tupi or Tupian languages, spoken in South America ** Tupi language, an extinct Tupian language spoken by the Tupi people * Tupi oil field off the coast of Brazil * Tupi Paulista, a Brazilian municipalit ...

, and also found work at the University of São Paulo, as an assistant to the scientists Mário Schenberg and César Lattes. 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, Brazil ...

, 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, 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 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

, 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.

Death

Koch died on August 1, 2018, in São Paulo.

Background

Career

Death

References

Further reading