He was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1937 to 1981, and the author of a book about French painter Paul Cézanne.
[1] He attended the University of Minnesota and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1926.
He was painted landscapes and portraits, and he won the Grand Sweepstakes Prize at the 1934 Minnesota State Fair.
[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] His students included Sam Francis, Ynez Johnston, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and Robert Colescott.