Michael Loew was born in 1907 and was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Student's League.

In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists, including Max Schnitzler and Alfred Jensen. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly, and for the next two years he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the WPA where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World's Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives and, in fact, Loew met his wife Mildred through a friend of de Kooning's.

Loew had a strong interest in artists' rights and activism, and as president of the Artists' Union, he led a protest which involved artists chaining themselves to poles in Union Square. After Pearl Harbor, Loew joined the Navy and served as the battalion artist for the "Seabees" in the Pacific.

When he returned in 1946, his painting moved quickly toward abstraction. From 1947-1949, he studied post-Cubism at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. In 1948, he joined the Spiral Group, an organization of artists devoted to the exhibition of experimental art. The Artists Gallery in New York hosted his first one-man show in 1949, and one year later, he enrolled at the Atelier Leger in Paris.

In 1956, he began teaching in the United States. By 1985 he had been an instructor at the Portland Museum School, University of California at Berkeley, and the School of the Visual Arts, NYC.

His works are in the collections of prominent institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Most recently, his work was featured in an exhibit at Anita Shapolsky Gallery. In 2007 the McCormick Gallery and Vincent Vallarino Fine Art mounted an exhibition and published a 56 page catalog with an essay by April Kingsley on Loew's work.

Michael Loew was apprenticed to a stained-glass maker from 1926-29 when he studied at the Art Students League. After traveling in Europe, he returned to NY in 1931 when the Depression was in full bloom and the artist paid for his rent via artwork. He was longtime friends with Wilem de Kooning who introduced Loew to the woman he would later marry.

After Pearl Harbor, Loew joined the Navy and served as the battalion artist for the "Seabees" in the Pacific. When he returned in 1946, his painting moved quickly toward abstraction. From 1947-49, he studied post-Cubism at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. In 1948, he joined the Spiral Group, an organization of artists devoted to the exhibition of experimental art. The Artists Gallery in New York hosted his first one-man show in 1949, and one year later, he enrolled at the Atelier Leger in Paris.

In 1956, he began teaching in the United States. By 1985 he had been an instructor at the Portland Museum School, University of California at Berkeley, and the School of the Visual Arts, NYC.

As a major proponent of Abstract Expressionism and influenced by Neo-Plasticism in the 1940s, it was the 1950s that brought the full development of his mature style. He studied with Hans Hoffman and cultivated his sensibility for color effects. He used the grid-structure of Mondrian as a base to experiment with possibilities of palette and to focus on the subtle transitions of tone or harmony of color relationships. He changed subjects into unique patterns of rectangles or color fields, naming the final composition according to color as with our example, Yellow on Yellow.

His works are in the collections of prominent institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.