Biography

Born on the 11th of December in Minden (Norddhein-Westfalen) Germany

Annelore Held and her brother grow up in a strict and modest environment.
Her father is a teacher at a secondary school; in 1960 he is appointed school principal and moves with his family to Gelsenkirchen-Buer.

In 1968 Anne marries the psychiatrist Helmut Loch.
The couple first settles in Wuppertal and Köln and then moves to Heidelberg. They then adopt two children.

1968-1971 studies to be her as a fashion designer and works as a seamstress

1971-1972 works in psychiatric institutions

1972-1978 studies at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, apprentice of Klaus Rinke with whom Harald Klingelhöller, Ulrich Loock, Reinhard Mucha und Volker Tannert also studied.

1977 spends time in Venice.

1979 In the summer Anne Loch travels with both the children through Venice to Ravenna. Upon her return home she leaves her husband and moves with the children to Düsseldorf. A short time later she travels alone back to Ravenna for a longer stay. After the divorce is finalised in 1979 the father gains custody of the children. The children travel a couple of times during the holidays to spend time with their mother in Köln and Thusis. In 1991 Anne Loch completely cuts off all contact to both of her children.

„ I often think that a psychiatrist would have a lot of explanations as to why I live the way I do. Why I live with this love for example, I would love pain or something like that. It’s been explained to me so many times. Aside from the analysis there is something else: those are the moments of truth and only i can feel those, and to make a decision is only something I can do. “
(Diary entry, June 1990)

In the spring of 1980 Anne Loch moves to Napoli, Italy where she is witness to the massive Irpinia earthquake. She lives and works there until 1984.

«I believe I am searching for life or how something comes to life. How it is created, that the picture must allow life to evolve. That is why I possess the notion that it can say something about the communal aspect of mankind, because the structures in the image, which enable it to form its own life, must be the same structures as the ones we find in our society.
This stems from the fact that I was never really a ‘landscaper’. I did not spend my childhood nor my youth in the countryside and never felt a need to paint landscapes in my adolescence. Instead it was this pain, to see, which triggered an understanding of what we are doing wrong. So when I take a picture of a landscape or see a landscape on the television it is this pain which draws me to it, not the landscape itself. The landscape is more of a deep reassurance and satisfaction. That is why I have painted my landscapes from ‘ideas’, or photographs. It was only here in Grisons that I have finally ventured into the scenery itself. In Italy I only ever stayed in the city. In Napoli walked around but never went to the sea, never truly discovered my surroundings, I only ever stayed amongst the houses. From these atmospheric currents, from my search for order, from these experiences that I made – no, not from the experiences but from the irrational moments, that is when my longing became so strong that I would take a photograph of the landscape. From an abstraction out into the landscape. Perhaps I will return to the abstraction. I do not know yet. »
(Diary entry, Mai 1990)

In Napoli Anne spends a lot of time in the company of gallerist Lucio Amelio. He founded a gallery in 1964 that was dedicated to the international Avant-garde of the time. Already in 1971 Amelio was hosting Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys (with the famous poster La rivoluzione siamo Noi!) then in 1980 Joseph Beuyes by Andy Warhol. After the earthquake that cost 2914 lives he presented the exhibition Terrae Motus that featured 50 international artists’ work on the subject of earthquake. Anne Loch also began work on a painting of the same topic one day after the earthquake struck. In the following years up until 1983 other artists such as: Warhol, Tony Cragg, Keith Haring, Richard Long, Robert Mapplethorpe, Gerhard Richter or Michelangelo Pistoletto are featured in Amelio’s gallery.
Other friends in Anne Loch’s circle were also Luigi Ontani and Nino Longobardi.

1981 Exhibition in Goethe Institute in Napoli.

1982 Anne Loch exhibits her work in November/December in Klapperhof 33 Köln with Peter Fischli, Gerard Klever, Milan Kunc, Rosmarie Trockel and David Weiss.

1984 Anne Loch returns to Köln. In the following years, she creates large colorful cold toned paintings of flowers and landscapes in huge formats.
In 1983 Monika Sprüth opened her first gallery for women in the old city of Köln. Anne Loch, Rosmarie Trockel, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman represented the gallery.
In this circle Anne Loch also met Günther Förg and the new wild ones (Neuen Wilden) Walter Dahn and Martin Kippenberger and was reunited with Volker Tannert.

1987 Anne Loch had her first solo exhibitions in museums: 1987, in the eu Kunstverein Aachen, 1988, Bonner Kunstverein.

1988 Anne Loch cuts her ties to the art industry in the Rheinland and travels to Grisons in Switzerland. However, she is not searching for a quiet life and chooses not to move to the Hotel Waldhaus in the Engadin, where many of her friends from Cologne are working in the local art scene. She decides to live and work in Thusis, initially in the old and dilapidated Hotel Viamala and later in the former ‘Herberge Alte Krone’. Thusis is no picturesque countryside escape, instead it lies upon a rigorous passage through the mountains. Its dangerous roads connect the Viamala to the alpine passages. Anne Loch leads a reclusive life, indulging only in the bare necessities. During her time in Thusis, she meets the Bernese gallery owners Erika and Otto Friedrich, acquaintances which organize for her art to be displayed in numerous locations in Switzerland. For the first time in her career, her larger collections and sculptures are exhibited in galleries.

1989 Early on into the year, Anne Loch meets J. R. and a love story which would last several years begins to unfold. Her affection for J. R. causes her to take a lot of time from her work, in her diary entries she writes of difficult times, mentioning herself feeling torn between hope and despair and deems the relationship to be ‘unattainable’.

«This Restlessness simply won’t leave when I am not around. This past week I have been talking to people a lot, by people I mean the few women who I have come to know rather well as of late. I have spent some time with Ms. M. recently, sitting in the sun by her sheep. The time seems to have accumulated to become several hours by now. However, I still don’t understand how people do it, how I do it. Inside I am on the verge of collapse while outside I contently lead a discussion without anyone noticing. »
(Diary entry, June 1990)

Nevertheless, during her time in Thusis Anne Loch creates approximately 500 pieces, most of them large paintings. As always her focus lies upon nature and the role of the Landscape within the image. She takes a seemingly infinite amount of photographs on her walks and in 1995 Anne Loch produces the two film sketches ‘Anarche’ and ‘Der Tag’.

On the 24th of Mai 1989 Anne Loch begins to take several recordings of herself which she would later turn into diary entries (unpublished).

2002 Anne Loch returns to Germany, leaving her home in Thusis by night, having only told a few of her friends about her departure. Stopping shortly in Magdeburg, she moves to Duisburg and in 2008 to Essen. She leads no close relations to the art scene in the Rheinland and chooses to ignore gallerists and official art institutions. Anne Loch opts to concentrate solely on her art, keeping herself away from any distraction. The only contact which remains is her connection with her friends in Switzerland. She continues working on projects she had formerly started during her time in Thusis, occasionally venturing into the world of more abstract pictures, though they remain large in size. Pictures with bleached white backgrounds begin to emerge from her time at work. Sheep, deer, trees, leaves and abstract forms all painted with acrylic paint. The colours range from bronze, zinc, brown, black and blue to soft madder red. She draws great landscapes on white backgrounds using Edding-pens. Photography and text remain a strong part of her creative produce.

2013 In the summer Anne Loch is diagnosed with a severe case of Cancer, which leads her to leave her studio and apartment in Essen and move to the Val Bregaglia in Switzerland. On her journey to the Grisons Anne Loch throws her keys to her German home out of the car window. In the Val Bregaglia she is taken care of by her last few friends, who make sure she has a place to live in addition to other care. Though the cancer weakens her health, Anne Loch continues to work on her photographs and spends a lot of time writing.

2014 Anne Loch dies on the 4th of April in Promontogno in the Ospendale Asilo della Bregaglia Flin.