Eva Lootz

EVA LOOTZ (Vienna, 1940).
"Nachtfalter (night butterfly)". , c. 1980.
Ink and watercolor on canvas.
Signed "El" in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 33 x 22 cm; 39 x 29 cm (frame).
Formally, the piece responds to the austere and experimental aesthetic that characterizes Lootz's work in the 1970s and 1980s, when she investigates the relationship between matter, word and perception. The work activates a tension between image and language, a central feature in Lootz's production. The German term Nachtfalter (night butterfly) introduces a semantic dimension that not only names, but extends the visual meaning: the moth, attracted by the light until it is consumed in it, functions as a metaphor for desire, fragility and self-destruction. The pictorial fragmentation suggests transit, combustion or transformation.
A Viennese artist based in Madrid since 1965, Eva Lootz was trained in her native city, where she studied Fine Arts, Musicology, Cinematography and Philosophy. Although she is mainly known for her sculptural work, Lootz also works in installation, drawing, printmaking, photography, video and sound, always focusing on her main concern: the relationship between matter and language. She began her exhibition activity in 1973, and since then she has held regular solo exhibitions both in Spain and abroad, in galleries and art centers such as the Galleriet in Lund (Sweden, 1981), the David Breitzel in New York (1990), the Barbara Faber of Amsterdam (1990, 1994, 1996), the South London of London (1994), the Fundación Pilar i Joan Miró of Palma (1996), the Luis Adelantado of Valencia (1997), the Borås Konstmuseum (Sweden, 1997) or the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (2002). She has also participated in competitions, collective and official exhibitions such as the Expo'92 in Seville, and in 1994 she was awarded the National Prize of Fine Arts. She is currently represented in the MACBA in Barcelona, the MNCARS in Madrid, the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Malmö, the CAAM in Las Palmas, the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid and many other public and private collections.