About Roman Loza

Roman Loza was born in Plaza, Poland, in 1913. He received his high school education in Brzesko, but despite his strong interest and talent in the field of fine arts, he chose to study at the Academy of Commerce in Krakow.


Between 1937 and 1939, Loza worked as a consular officer for the Polish Foreign Service in Czechoslovakia and for the Polish League in Germany, and was awarded the Polish Silver Cross of Merit. While a consular officer, he was taken into custody by German authorities at the start of World War II. He was soon released, but after hearing of Germany and Russia's invasion of Poland, he traveled to France and joined the newly formed Polish Army in exile. He fought in the Podhale Rifle Brigade in Narvik, Norway, but in 1940 was ultimately taken prisoner of war while in France.


Loza was held in several locations around France in the first few months of his captivity, including a camp in Voves where he made a portrait of a guard's wife. In exchange for the portrait, Loza received extra food including fresh vegetables. Loza was eventually transferred to a permanent POW camp in Limburg, Germany - Stalag XIIA - in which he would spend more than four years.


During his years imprisonment at Stalag XIIA, Loza produced about 400 portraits of his fellow prisoners and more than 300 other works. Most of Loza's artwork consisted of oils, pen and pencils drawings, and watercolors. Many of his paintings and drawings were exhibited in art shows held in the prison camp. The oil paintings, which were created for the camp guards, were made in exchange for additional food and painting supplies – the only items of real value in the environment of the camp.

After his release in 1945 and with Poland falling under Soviet rule, Loza moved to Paris, France, where he was ultimately granted French citizenship. He studied art at l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts under Professor Narbonne along with classmate and well-known painter Bernard Buffet. After his graduation he resumed his studies focusing on woodcuts under Professor Konstanty Brandel and made his living painting silk scarves for some of the leading fashion houses of Paris.


In 1956, while working and living in Paris, Loza married Yvette Jourdan, a French woman he had met while vacationing in Sicily, Italy. They had one son before immigrating to the United States in 1960. Loza settled in Chicago with his new family and he and his wife welcomed a daughter shortly thereafter. In Chicago, Loza worked as a commercial artist for a local advertising firm while continuing his passion for creating fine art.


Loza's works included many oil paintings but he also used watercolors, tempura, gouache, pen, pencil, woodcuts, and other methods, with black and white scratchboards being one of his most notable techniques. In many of his compositions, Loza continued to focus on painting portraits in which psychological and dramatic effects were under-toned. He also painted landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, and figures in which blues and green predominated.


After retiring and moving to his small Kempton, IL home in the early 1980's, Loza continued to focus on his artwork, including his scratchboard portraits. Making precise razor cuts into ink-covered boards, he created stark, black and white images that became his trademark. Loza continued his passion for art until his death in 1988. 


During his lifetime, Roman Loza participated in many art shows in France, Germany, Italy (Sicily), and the U.S.A. including several "One Man" shows, and had been awarded several prizes and distinctions. Roman Loza was a member of the Syndicat National des Peintres Illustrateurs (Paris, France), The Association of Polish Artists in Paris, Les Amis des Arts de Saint-Maur (France), and the Polish Arts Club of Chicago (Illinois).