Note
Theodore Nikolai Lukits
(b. 1897, Transylvania – d. 1992, Los Angeles, CA)
GRAND CANYON
1927, Oil on canvas, 22 x 36 inches
Jonathan Art Foundation collection
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Lukits
Lukits' pastels were made on-site as studies for potential landscape oil paintings. At times he used a miner's type helmet with a light on the front so he could work outdoors at night. The artist's mastery of the technique is shown in the wide variety of outdoor scenes he depicted of various places in the Southwest.
In the mid 1930s Lukits became the third Life Artist Member of the Jonathan Club. This oil painting, as well as the pastel drawings displayed around it, represent a part of a collection of over 360 works of art that Lukits and his wife, Lucille, gifted to the Jonathan Art Foundation in 1990.