Sven Lukin

After immigrating to the United States in 1949, Sven Lukin trained as an architect at the University of Pennsylvania. A meaningful encounter with University lecturer Louis Kahn caused him to pivot, transitioning into a career as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Yet, architecture and an emphasis on the structural form remained at the heart of his practice. In the 1960s, Lukin was creating large-scale sculpture evocative in form of the prints seen here. Despite Lukin’s devotion to the use of flat areas of color and simplified forms, the sculptural elements of these forms is palpable, and the shapes remain voluminous yet flattened. In moving from the 3D to the 2D, Lukin employs large expanses of opaque color to either emphasize or diminish space on paper. This tension between flatness and form makes this painting a unique work of minimalism that differentiates from the work of his contemporaries.