1934

Born: Riga, Latvia

1949

Immigrates to the United States

1958

Arrives in New York

Lives and works in New York City

EDUCATION

1953-1955

B.F.A. Program, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

AWARDS AND HONORS

1966                          

Fine Arts Fellowship, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

1991                           

Grant Recipient, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation

2001                          

Award Recipient, The Francis J. Greenburger Foundation

2002                         

Individual Support Grant, The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1959

Sven Lukin: Paintings & Drawings, Nexus Gallery, Boston, March 3-28

1961

Sven Lukin: Paintings, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, January 9-28

1962

Sven Lukin, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, May 29-June 22

1963

Sven Lukin, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, October 27-November 23

1963-1964

Sven Lukin, The Pace Gallery, Boston, December 9, 1963-January 5, 1964

1964

Sven Lukin: New Paintings, The Pace Gallery, New York, October 13-November 7

1966                      

Sven Lukin: Recent Works, The Pace Gallery, New York, February 5-March 2

1968                      

Sven Lukin: Shaped Paintings, The Pace Gallery, New York, November 16-December 11

1978-1979                             

Sven Lukin: New Work, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 5, 1978-January 28, 1979

1981

Sven Lukin: New Work, Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York, November 21-December 17

1987

Sven Lukin: Facing East from Manhattan, Gallery FACE, Tokyo, November 26-December 13

1992

Spudism, Machado Fine Arts, Watermill, New York

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1961

The Quest and the Quarry, Rome-New York Art Foundation Inc., Rome, Italy, May-September

1961-1962

The 1961 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, PA, October 27, 1961-January 7, 1962

1962-1963

Annual Exhibition 1962: Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 12, 1962-Februrary 3, 1963

1964

The Classic Spirit in 20th Century Art, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, February 4-29

67th Annual American Exhibition, The  Art Institute of Chicago, February 28-April 12

American Drawings, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, September-October

The Shaped Canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, December

1965

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The 29th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 26-April 18

1966

Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Structure, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, May 11-

     June 30

The Pace Gallery, New York

University of Colorado, Boulder

1966-1967

Vormen van de Kleur, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 20, 1966-January 15, 1967

Annual Exhibition 1966: Sculpture and Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 16, 1966-February 5, 1967

1967

Formen der Farbe, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany, February 18-March 26

Color, Image, and Form, The Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, April 11-May 21

1967-1968

1967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 13, 1967-February 4, 1968

1968

Painting: Out from the Wall, Des Moines Art Center, IA, February 16-March 10

1969

Highlights of the 1968-1969 Art Season, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, June 22-September 14

Editions at Pace, The Pace Gallery, New York

1969-1970

One Man's Choice, Dallas Museum of Art, TX, December 14, 1969-January 18, 1970

1969 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 16, 1969-Februrary 1, 1970

1970

The Pace Gallery, New York

L'Art Vivant aux Etats-Unis, Fondation Maeght, Paris, July 16-September 30

1971      The Pace Gallery, New York

1974     Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, September 15-December 15

1983                      

Beyond the Plane: American Constructions, 1930-1965, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, October 29-December 31

1987

Museum for Foreign Art, Riga, Latvia

2004                     

Four Americans, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, February 12-March 13

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin

Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, New York

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, Bayside, New York

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SELECTED BOOKS AND CATALOGUES

Aldrich, Larry. Highlights of the 1968-1969 Art Season. Ridgefield, CT: The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, 1969.

Alloway, Lawrence. American Drawings. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1964.

Alloway, Lawrence. The Shaped Canvas. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1964.

Anderson, Dennis and Glenn Lowry. The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection and Plaza Memorials. New York: Rizzoli, 2002.

Ashton, Dore. L'Art Vivant aux Etats-Unis. Paris: Fondation Maeght, 1970.

Baro, Gene. Color, Image, and Form. Detroit, MI: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1967.

Battcock, Gregory. Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1968.

Baur, John. 1969 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969.

Beeren, W.A.L. and E. de Wilde. Vormen van de Kleur. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1966.

Blesh, Rudi. The Classic Spirit in 20th Century Art. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1964.

Dyer, Carlus. Tenth Anniversary Exhibition. Ridgefield, CT: The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, 1974.

Goodrich, Lloyd. Annual Exhibition 1962: Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1962.

Goodrich, Lloyd. Annual Exhibition 1966: Sculpture and Prints. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1966.

Goodrich, Lloyd. 1967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1967.

Halley, Donald M. Painting: Out from the Wall. Des Moines, IA: Des Moines Art Center, 1968.

Humblet, Claudine. The New American Abstraction: 1950-1970. Milan: Skira, 2007.

Judd, Donald. Donald Judd: The Complete Writings, 1959-1975. Halifax, NS: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2005.

Lukin, Sven. Sven Lukin: Facing East from Manhattan. Tokyo: Gallery FACE, 1987.

Maxon, John. 67th Annual American Exhibition. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1964.

Meyer, James. Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.

Pfahler, Georg K. Formen der Farbe. Stuttgart, Germany: Württembergischer Kunstverein, 1967.

Read, Herbert. The Quest and the Quarry. Rome, Italy: Rome-New York Art Foundation, Inc., 1961.

Sandler, Irving. The Empire State Collection: Art for the Public. Albany, NY: Empire State Plaza Art Commission, 1987.

Siegel, Jeanne. Artwords: Discourse on the 60s and 70s. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1992.

Smith, Gordon M. Contemporary Art—Acquisitions, 1966-1969. Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1969.

Toher, Jennifer. Beyond the Plane: American Constructions, 1930-1965. Trenton: New Jersey State Museum, 1983.

Tuchman, Maurice. Sven Lukin: New Work. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1978.

Varian, Elayne. Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Structure. New York: Finch College Museum of Art, 1966.

Washburn, Gordon Bailey. The 1961 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Institute, 1961.

Weller, Allen. The Joys and Sorrows of Recent American Art. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1970.

Williams, Herman Warner, Jr. The 29th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. Washington, DC:  The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1965.

SELECTED PERIODICALS

Ashton, Dore. “New York Commentary.” Studio International 177, no. 908 (1969): 95.

Ashton, Dore. “The Artist as Dissenter.” Studio International 171, no. 876 (1966): 166.

Baker, Elizabeth C. “Solid Anti-Geometry.” Art News 65, no. 1 (1966): 56-57, 74-76.

Benedikt, Michael. “New York Letter.” Art International 10, no. 10 (1966): 65.

Blok, Cor. “New Shapes of Color.” Art International 11, no. 2 (1967): 47.

Colpitt, Frances. “The Shape of Painting in the 1960s.” Art Journal 50, no. 1 (1991): 52-56.

Glueck, Grace. “Alone at Last—With a Trend.” New York Times, 1 December 1968, D41.

Goldin, Amy. “In the Galleries.” Arts Magazine 40, no. 6 (1966): 55.