Theodore Lukits

Theodore Lukits

Theodore Nikolai Lukits (November 26, 1897 – January 20, 1992) was a California portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of some of the most glamorous actresses of the Silent Film era, but since his death, his Asian-inspired works, figures drawn from Hispanic California and his pastel landscapes have all received greater attention. He studied with two of the American Impressionists from Giverny and so some of his paintings can be described as works of their style of Decorative Impressionism. Lukits began his professional career as an illustrator while still in his teens, but he was also a still life painter, muralist and a prominent teacher who ran the Lukits Academy of Fine Arts in Los Angeles for more than sixty years. He had the reputation of a craftsman who made his own paints from raw pigments, constructed brushes, palettes and designed and carved frames. Lukits was responsible for keeping the "Beaux-Arts" methods of French academic system alive in the western United States and several of his students went on to prominent careers. Works by Lukits are in a number of public collections. The California Art Club in Pasadena has a large body of his work as does the Jonathan Art Foundation in downtown Los Angeles. He was a member of a number of professional art organizations, won many awards in competitions and was a life member of the California Art Club. Lukits has been the subject of a number of solo museum exhibitions since his death and his work has been included in a number of other museum exhibitions devoted to Tonalism and California and American Impressionism.