Biography | Exhibitions | Resume | Sculptures
Biography
Irwin Luckman was born in 1922 in New York and grew up in an ethnic all-Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. His childhood interest in art was encouraged in high school by the Arts Project of the PWA (one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs to revitalize the economy by providing jobs during the Great Depression of the 1930s). The PWA employed artists to teach enrichment courses in the public schools after school hours. A class taught by an unemployed sculptor was Irwin’s introduction to sculpture, which became a major interest in his life.
In 1939 Irwin won a scholarship to Cooper Union, the art school in New York City. While at Cooper, Irwin was introduced to architecture by working as a draftsman for an architect in Manhattan. Throughout Irwin’s life he referred back to Cooper Union as the school where inspired teachers taught the fundamentals of artistic perception, rigorous technique, creativity and innovation.
In 1941 the Second World War burst into everyone’s private life with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before completing the 4-year degree at Cooper Union, Irwin entered a wartime training program to study radar as a civilian. He was drafted into the Infantry, did basic training in Kentucky.At this time it was expected that the war in Europe would soon be over. But suddenly the Germans broke through. He was shipped out, landed in Wales, went onto the coast of France, was in combat in the Battle of the Bulge and then in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His assignment was on a front-line ammunition truck, which was always the “target of the day”. He had many close calls with death, including an episode when his ammunition-laden truck went off the side of a mountain road in snow and ice, and a night when a buddy and he almost froze to death standing guard at a road crossing in the woods in Belgium.
After graduating, he designed and worked as a carpenter on the construction of a house in New York. Then he moved to California to design a house for a friend who had become a paraplegic from war injuries. Together they designed a unique house which had special architectural features that gave his friend maximum independence in the activities of daily living and few transfers between prosthetic aids.The design for the house was published in several architectural magazines but unfortunately the house was not built.
During the next years he worked as a Union Carpenter, as a draftsman for a Berkeley firm that designed schools and he passed the Architecture Licensing exam. He became a Licensed Architect in California in 1955.
He started a private architectural practice in Oakland doing residences, remodelings and painting architectural renderings for other architects. Renderings (drawings of architectural projects before they are built) used his Fine Arts training as well as his innate skill in imagining three-dimensional forms. His architectural practice included small private homes, public buildings, a fire station, park and recreation buildings and parks. His imaginative design for a Children’s Theater was built in Oakland under his construction supervision. Photos and articles about the theater were published. For a time, while he and his friend Burns Cadwalader were in partnership, they produced a soaring restaurant design to span Dimond canyon in Oakland. The restaurant was not built but the design was published in the French magazine BATIR and in the British magazines INTERBUILD and ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN in1960.
In 1961 he closed his private practice to become – for a year – Professor of Architecture at the University of Xalapa in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. He returned to the Bay Area in 1962 to become Chief of Plans Design and Construction for the East Bay Regional Park District. There he designed a number of structures, some built with his own Regional Parks crew – the beautiful Cull Canyon swim facility, the popular Environmental Center (Museum) in Tilden Park, the innovative Equestrian Center off Skyline Blvd. He briefly became General Manager of the District.
In 1968 he changed to a new field – Environmental Planning. He opened a consulting practice designing mining plans for the surface mining of construction materials. He created his own mission – to ensure that his client companies adhered to environmental values and that they came to realize environmental requirements would serve their own business interests as well.
He retired in 1999 at age 77. Finally, after not handling clay for 60 years, he returned to sculpture.
From 1999 to 2007 his major activity was sculpture.
His sculptures were exhibited in many juried exhibitions in California, including a one-man show at the Hatch Gallery in 2012.
Irwin Luckman died on August 14, 2013 at the age of 91.
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Exhibitions
JURIED AND MEMBER EXHIBITIONS
Pro Arts, Oakland CA : Juried Annual 2000
Berkeley CA : Art Center Annual Members Showcase 2001,2002,2003,2004,2006,2007
Laney College : Student Annual 2001
Sacramento Valley Sculpture Artists : Juried Annual 2002,2003,2004
Northern California Arts : Juried Bold Expressions 2002,2003,2004
Mill Valley CA : Juried Artisans Humor in Art 2003
Sebastopol CA : Center for the Arts Juried Passageways 2003
Bay Area Student Sculpture : Biennial 2004
Danville CA : Fine Arts Gallery Juried The Art of Music and Dance 2005
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento CA : Crocker-Kingsley Juried 74th Exhibition 2005
Danville CA : Fine Arts Gallery Juried The Art of Architecture 2005
Alameda CA : Art Center Juried Contemporary Abstracts 2005
Sebastopol CA : Center for the Arts Juried Born of Fire 2005
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA : Juried Bay Area Annual 2005,2006,2007
Marin Society of Artists : Juried National Exhibition 2006
Cloverdale CA : Juried Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit 2008
Roseville CA : Blueline Gallery/Crocker-Kingsley Juried Exhibition 2012
SOLO SHOW
Hatch Gallery, Oakland CA 2012
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Resume
Education
1939-1942 Cooper Union School of Fine Arts, NYC
1945 Architectural Association, School of Architecture, London, England
1948 Bachelor of Architecture, Columbia University, NYC
1955 Registered Architect, State of California
Experience
1943-1946 US Army Infantry, combat in Europe, World War II
1948-1954 Designer and carpenter
1955-1961 Private architectural practice
1961-1962 Professor at School of Architecture, University of Veracruz, Jalapa, Mexico
1962-1968 Chief of Plans, Design and Construction, and then General Manager of East Bay Regional Park District, San Francisco Bay Area
1968-1999 Environmental planner and consultant
Sculpture
1999-2007 Active as sculptor
2000-2012 Exhibitions
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His Sculptures
More than half of Irwin Luckman’s sculptures have been sold. Please email luckman-sculpture@sonic.net to inquire about whether particular pieces are available and for pricing information.
