Loran was born on October 2, 1905, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1] He attended the University of Minnesota and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1926.[1][2] In 1926, he was awarded the Chaloner Foundation Scholarship to study in Europe for the next four years.[2][3] He studied the artwork of French painter Paul Cézanne, and he lived in Cézanne's studio in Aix-en-Provence.[1][4]
Loran returned to Minnesota due to tuberculosis,[4] and he became a painter in his own right. He painted landscapes and portraits, and he won the Grand Sweepstakes Prize at the 1934 Minnesota State Fair.[3] Loran was also an arts educator. He was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1937 to 1981.[2] Loran was a leader of the "Berkeley School," a group of his colleagues who, following Cezanne, "placed greater emphasis on linear and textural qualities, flat planes of color, and shallow “picture box” treatment of space."[1] He authored Cézanne's Composition,[1] a 1943 book in which he compared Cézanne's paintings to what he saw in Provence.[5] At his retirement, Loran was awarded the University Citation for his contributions.[1] His students included Sam Francis, Ynez Johnston, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and Robert Colescott.[1] Loran was also a collector of Mexican and African art from the Pre-Columbian era.[4][6]
In 1940, Loran was one of 20 artists who provided prints for the San Francisco Chronicle's efforts to provide original works of art by Western artists to the public. They sold for $2 each.[7] His "San Francisco Bay," a Cezanne-like rendering that includes a freighter on the water and Alcatraz in the background, is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,[8] the National Gallery of Art,[9] and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[10]
Loran married Clyta Sisson on May 8, 1937. Clyta died of cancer in March 1982. Loran later married Ruth Schorer,[4] whose first husband was art critic Mark Schorer and daughter was ballet dancer Suki Schorer.[11] Loran died on May 13, 1999, in Berkeley, California, at 93.[1][4] His work is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,[8] the Oakland Museum of California,[12] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[13] His art collection was acquired by the de Young Museum in 2008.[6] His widow died in 2010.[11]
