Theodore Nikolai Lukits 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

Decorative Impressionism

Decorative Impressionism is an art historical term that is credited to the art writer Christian Brinton, who first used it in 1911. Brinton titled an article on the American expatriate painter Frederick Frieseke, one of the members of the famous Giverny Colony of American Impressionists, "The...

. 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

California Art Club

The California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...

 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

Tonalism

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style...

 and California and American Impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

.

Early history

Lukits was born Nicolae Teodorescu in Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

, Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Theodore Lukits Senior, was a butcher and his mother was a homemaker. He came to the United States when his family immigrated in 1899, when he was two, and he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. Lukits was a child prodigy and he began formal studies at Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

 School of Fine Arts before he was twelve. His first teacher was Edmund H. Wuerpel

Edmund H. Wuerpel

Edmund H. Wuerpel was an American Tonalist painter and an important art educator who was head of the Washington University School of Fine Arts for many years. He was also a friend of James Allen McNeil Whistler who helped spread the influence of the "Tonal School" in the Midwest...

 (1866–1958). He also studied with Richard E. Miller

Richard E. Miller

Richard E. Miller was a major American Impressionist painter and a member of the famous Giverny Colony of American Impressionists. Miller was primarily a figurative painter, known for his paintings of women posing languidly in interiors or outdoor settings. He is best described as a Decorative...

 (1875–1943) in St. Louis, who had returned home from the art colony of Givery and was staying with his parents. Lukits left public school after the 8th grade in order to pursue a career in art, with the full cooperation of his parents. Lukits worked from an early age, first as an office boy and then as an airbrush artist, painting delicate girl's heads on leather.

Education in Chicago

Lukits moved to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 when he was fifteen to attend the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

. At the Chicago Academy he studied with the painter, illustrator and traveler Carl Werntz

Carl Werntz

Carl Newland Werntz was a well known Chicago painter, fine arts photographer, illustrator, cartoonist and educator who founded the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Werntz was a world traveler who was a proponent of Asian art and Japonisme. Carl Werntz was born in Sterling Illinois and dies on a...

 (1874–1944) who founded the school in 1902. He also studied with William Victor Higgins

William Victor Higgins

William Victor Higgins was an American painter and teacher, born at Shelbyville, Indiana. He studied at the Art Institute in Chicago and at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In Paris he was a pupil of Robert Henri, René Menard and Lucien Simon, and when he was in Munich he studied with Hans von...

 at the Academy, the landscape and figurative painter, who later became famous as one of the Taos Ten of the Taos art colony

Taos art colony

The Taos art colony is an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico by artists attracted by the rich culture of the Taos Pueblo and beautiful landscape. Hispanic craftsmanship of furniture, tin work and more played a role in creating a multicultural tradition of art work in the area.In 1898 a visit...

. Lukits began his career at the Art Institute of Chicago with evening, weekend and summer classes because he was unable to enroll as full-time student until he turned eighteen. Lukits studied with a number of instructors at the art institute, but his main teachers and mentors were the American Impressionist Karl Albert Buehr

Karl Albert Buehr

Karl Albert Buehr was a painter born in Germany.Buehr was born in Feuerbach - near Stuttgart. He was the son of Frederick Buehr and Henrietta Doh . He moved to Chicago with his parents and siblings in the 1880s. In Chicago, young Karl worked at various jobs until he was employed by a...

 (1866–1952), the society portrait painter Wellington J. Reynolds

Wellington J. Reynolds

Wellington J. Reynolds was a well-known Chicago portrait painter and art instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago...

 (1866–1949) and the figurative painter Harry Mills Walcott

Harry Mills Walcott

Harry Mills Walcott was a leading American painter and teacher in the first few decades of the 20th century. He was known for highly decorative scenes of childhood. He was on the staff of the Art Institute of Chicago for many years...

 1877–1930). Lukits worked under Edwin Blashfield

Edwin Blashfield

Edwin Howland Blashfield , an American artist, was born in New York City.He was a pupil of Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat in Paris beginning in 1867, and became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York...

 (1848–1936) at some point in his Chicago years, presumably as an assistant on a mural project in the Midwest, but it is not known when. He also studied with the realist painters Robert Henri

Robert Henri

Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...

 (1865–1929) Charles Webster Hawthorne

Charles Webster Hawthorne

Charles Webster Hawthorne was an American portrait and genre painter and a noted teacher who founded the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899....

 (1872–1930) and George Bellows

George Bellows

George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...

 (1882–1925) who were guest instructors at the Art Institute during Lukits' tenure. Another painters Lukits was influenced by was Housep Pushman (1877–1966). He first met the Armenian artist in 1916 in Chicago, where he had an exhibition at the Art Institute of his figurative works and Asian-themed still lifes. During his student days, Lukits shared a studio with the Swedish-born painter Christian von Schneidau

Christian von Schneidau

Christian von Schneidau was a well known California portrait painter who was recognized for his paintings of Hollywood stars and the Los Angeles elite. During the Roaring Twenties he painted Mary Pickford and other figures from the film industry as well as a number of outdoor figures done in the...

 (1893–1976). The two artists became friends in Chicago and would later renew their friendship in California where they both would paint portraits of movie stars. He won every major award at the Art Institute including the Bryan Lathrop Traveling Scholarship. During his studies at the Art Institute he paid for his studies by painting illustrations for major publications such as Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

 and The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

. After his graduation from the Art Institute in 1918, he returned for post-graduate work the following year under Karl Buehr. His last period of artistic study was a special scholarship which enabled him to study and travel with the Czech master of Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

, painter and Illustrator Alphons Mucha (1860–1939) who was exhibiting his Slav Epic murals in the United States. Lukits also attended Barnes Medical College to study human anatomy.

Professional career

After he arrived in California he rapidly became known for his portraits of early Hollywood figures Theda Bara

Theda Bara

Theda Bara , born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress – one of the most popular of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" . The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman...

, Pola Negri

Pola Negri

Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...

, Mae Murray

Mae Murray

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....

 and Alla Nazimova

Alla Nazimova

Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...

. The portrait Lukits painted of the Mexican screen legend Dolores del Río

Dolores del Río

Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...

 was exhibited at the premiere

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

 of one of her films and reproduced in newspapers in Los Angeles and Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. Lukits began the Lukits Academy in the early 1924 and he continued teaching until his retirement at age ninety. He was a well known plein-air painter, choosing the pastel medium for more than one thousand sketches he did on location in the Sierra Nevada, Death Valley

Death Valley

Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...

, the Mojave Desert

Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...

, along the California coast and at the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

. In the early 1930s Lukits also did a series of paintings of vaqueros

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 and female dancers that are know known as the Fiesta Suite, as studies for a mural project for Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

 that was never completed. This series of pastel and oil studies depicted many of the horsemen and young Latino actresses who came to Los Angeles to work as riders, stuntmen and extras in Hollywood films. Theodore Lukits has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California, the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California, the Muckenthaller Cultural Center in Fullerton, California and Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano was a Spanish mission in Southern California, located in present-day San Juan Capistrano. It was founded on All Saints Day November 1, 1776, by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order...

.

Exhibitions of the Roaring Twenties

From the mid-1920s through the early 1930s, Lukits had a number of solo exhibitions in and Southern California. The fall of 1926 may have been his successful season. He had an exhibition at the Southby Salon on Larchmont Boulevard that opened on September 23. The review in the Sunday Los Angeles Times stated "The exhibit was opened on Thursday evening by a reception at which Anita Stewart was hostess. About 100 people attended. The event of the evening was the first showing of the artist's striking portrait of Ethel Wade."
Lukits studied with Richard Miller, Charles W. Hawthorne, Housep Pushman, George Bellows, Robert Henri, Karl Buehr and Wellington J. Reynolds. He won the Bryan Lathrop traveling scholarship from the Chicago Art Institute which took him to Rome. He recently restored the much valued old portrait of St. Francis at Santa Barbara Mission and completed a portrait of Colonel Oliver S. Hershman, ex-owner of the Pittsburgh Press Newspaper. Lukits is a brilliant young painter with real portrait talent and an eye for rich, warm, color."

In November he had a showing in the Salon of the famed Hollywood restaurant the Montmatre Cafe. Owned by Eddie Brandstatter, the Montmatre was the place where film stars and society figures went to see and be seen. It was famous for its dance contests which were invariably won by the young Joan Crawford. Lukits showed his work. which included portraits, landscapes and marines at the Montmatre during the month of November and along with Count Tolstoy and the actress Dolores Del Rio, he was the guest at a pair of receptions.

Exhibitions of the 1930s

In spite of the difficulties of the Great Depression, the Los Angeles art scene still ran at a rapid pace during the 1930s. While sales were slow and artists were forced to drop their prices in many cases, the art organizations still hosted a steady stream of solo and group exhibitions and the commercial galleries that remained in business. Lukits had exhibitions at a number of the premier Los Angeles Galleries during the 1930s. In February 1931, as the Depression deepened, he had an exhibition at the Desert Gallery in Palm Springs, which was beginning to grow as a destination resort. In June he had a large exhibition of landscapes, still lifes and portraits at the Stendahl Galleries, which was arguably the premier Los Angeles Gallery of the era. In 1935 he had a solo exhibition at the Barbara Hotel in Santa Barbara. In 1937 he was invited to participate in a special exhibition at Harriet Day's Desert Inn Gallery in Palm Springs, Twenty Paintings by Twenty Artists that included the work of Maurice Braun

Maurice Braun

Maurice Braun was an American artist who became known for Impressionist landscapes of southern California. He was born in Hungary on October 1, 1877, however by the age of four young Maurice and the Braun family had migrated to the United States and settled in New York City...

, Hanson Puthuff and Maynard Dixon. That same years Harry Muir Kurtzworth curated an exhibition at the Los Angeles Public Library titled Tonal Impressionism with the works of Frank Tenney Johnson

Frank Tenney Johnson

Frank Tenney Johnson was a painter of the american west, and he popularized a style of painting cowboys which became known as "The Johnson Moonlight Technique". Somewhere on the Range is an example of Johnson's moonlight technique...

, Jack Wilkinson Smith, Alson Clark and Theodore Lukits with a number of moody works by each artist. In the 1930s a number of Hollywood make-up artists studied with Theodore Lukits. The prominent make-up artist Louis Hippe (1909–1967) advocated the study of drawing and anatomy under Lukits in order to understand the planes and facial structure of the human head and how it would appear under artificial light, and a number of other make-up artists followed him to Lukit's atelier in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the younger make-up artists who studied with Lukits was Bill Reynolds, the brother of the Hollywood great Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

.

Marriages

Theodore Lukits met the aspiring artist and actress Eleanor Merriam (1909–1948) in 1931 when she came to study with him. Despite her parent's opposition, a personal relationship developed rapidly. She became one of her husband's favorite models. He painted a well exhibited pastel portrait of her in 1932, a prize-winning artistic oil portrait titled "Gesture" in 1934 and another portrait in 1936. In 1937, the couple eloped to Santa Barbara and were married. In 1940, they purchased a comfortable Spanish-style home on Citrus avenue, just south of Wilshire Boulevard, adjacent the exclusive Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Under Lukits' instruction, Eleanor Merriam Lukits became a fair painter. However, her work was always reminiscent of her husband's because she shared similar props for her still lifes and painted the same models. Additionally, at least in the early 1930s she worked by her future husband's side. He often worked on her pastels and paintings and his bolder, more confident, stroke can be discerned according to his biographer. Eleanor Lukits was outgoing and so she drew her husband into the social whirl of Los Angeles where she proved to be adept at cultivating patrons and portrait sitters. The couple showed their work together extensively and she participated in many of the exhibitions for women artists of the Southland in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1948, as she and her husband were transferring gasoline from one container to another in their basement, the vapors were ignited by a pilot light. Both Eleanor and Theodore were burned, but her internal injuries led to her death in the hospital. Several years later, Theodore Lukits began dating Lucille Greathouse, a Disney animator and also one of his students. They were married in 1952 after a short courtship. Lukits and his second wife lived a quieter social life but they exhibited and were active with a number of Southern California's art organizations in the 1950s and early 1960s. From 1952 to 1990, Lucile Lukits helped her husband run his school and business affairs and her assistance helped put the school on firmer financial footing. After her husband's death, Lucile Lukits took over management of her husbands artwork and estate before passing the responsibility on to his students. In 1997, feeling the effects of Parkinson's Disease, she moved to Utah to be closer to her family. She passed away in Utah in 2003 at the age of ninety-four. There were no children from either of Lukits' marriages.

Late career

The last generation of students that Theodore Lukits taught in the 1970s and 1980s included a number of notable figures. The Plein-Air pastelist Arny Karl

Arny Karl

Arny Karl was one of the key artists in the early stages of the California Plein-Air Revival, which started in the 1980s and continues to this day...

 (1940–2000) studied with Lukits from 1968 to 1978. The well known artist and longest serving President of the California Art Club

California Art Club

The California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...

 Peter Seitz Adams

Peter Seitz Adams

Peter Seitz Adams is one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters and an important figure in contemporary Southern California art. He is the longest serving President of the California Art Club and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena...

 (b. 1950) worked under Lukits' guidance for seven years, from 1970 to 1977 and the western landscape and cowboy painter Tim Solliday

Tim Solliday

Tim Solliday is a contemporary California Plein-Air Painter and Western Artist who is known for his San Gabriel Valley landscapes and his paintings of American Indians and other western subjects. He studied with the California Impressionist portrait and landscape painter Theodore Lukits in the...

 b. 1952) worked with him for five years. The art curator, writer and dealer Jeffrey Morseburg (b. 1957) studied with him for several years and went on to become Lukits biographer and to assemble his estate collection.

Other notable students of the 1970s included James Zapacosta, Kalan Brunink, Entera, Art Pastusak, Bridget Duffy, Leonore Rae Smith and Steve Brown. Of these students, Karl, Adams and Solliday went on to work extensively in the pastel medium in Lukits' tradition. In 1990, Lucile and Theodore Lukits, who was then in declining health, donated a large collection of his work to the Jonathan Art Foundation in Los Angeles. This collection, which includes a large selection of his pastels as well as a number of portraits, has been loaned out to museums for a number of the Lukits exhibitions that have been mounted after his death.

Posthumous Exhibitions

Since his death in 1992, Theodore Lukits work has been the subject of a number of solo exhibitions at a number of museums in California. His work has also been part of many other museum exhibitions devoted to California Plein-Air Painting

California Plein-Air Painting

The term California Plein-Air Painting describes the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the...

 and figurative art. In 1998, a traveling show was organized under the auspices of the California Art Club. Titled Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist, the exhibition was devoted to his Asian-inspired work. It included a number of the decorative portraits that Lukits did of Asian subjects, some of his plein-air pastels with a strong Japanese influence and a few of his still lifes of Asian antiques.

This exhibition, curated by Jeffrey Morseburg and Peter Adams, opened at the Pacific-Asia Museum in Pasadena, California, the organizing venue and then moved on to the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard and finally to the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton, where it was combined with some of Lukits' Hispanic-themed works for a new exhibition titled Theodore Lukits: From Mandarins to Mariachis. These exhibitions included many of his high-key, brightly colored works. There was an illustrated color exhibition catalog with essays by Jeffrey Morseburg published in conjunction with the two Asian-themes exhibitions.

Lukits did many studies and portraits of Mexican and Mexican-American sitters, some of which were studies for mural projects. These works were the subject of two different exhibitions at Mission San Juan Capistrano, in 1998 and 1999. The second exhibition titled Theodore Lukits: The Spirit of Old California was centered on what has been called his "Fiesta Suite" a collection of paintings that were studies for a mural of an old California fiesta that was to have been done for Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

. Held at the Mission San Juan Capistrano Museum in the Old Soldier's Barracks of the historic mission, the exhibition was viewed by thousands of visitors to the mission. It included more than a dozen figurative works, a collection of pastels and some works that were actually painted on the grounds of the missions in the 1920s.

The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art has a notable collection of Plein-Air pastels by Theodore Lukits and two of his students, Peter Seitz Adams and Arny Karl. These have been central to two exhibitions at SAMA, one in 1999, devoted to landscape pastels and the other in 2008, which featured watercolors and pastels.

Mission San Juan Capistrano was the site of another Lukits exhibition in 2001 titled Romance of the Mission which was held in the courtyard of the mission in conjunction with the annual benefit dinner. Paintings and pastels by Theodore Lukits have also been included in a number of the California Art Club's Annual Gold Medal Exhibitions as part of their showings of works by historic members.

Partial Exhibition Record

• 1926 - Solo Exhibition, Theodore Lukits, The Southby Art Salon, Hollywood, California, Opened, September 23, 1926
• 1926 - Solo Exhibition, Exhibition of Portraits and Paintings by Theodore Lukits, Cafe Montmatre Salon, Hollywood, California November,4 1926 (23 Works including Portraits and Landscapes)
• 1926 - Solo Exhibition, Annual Winter Exhibition, Portraits and Paintings by Theodore Lukits, Cafe Montmatre Salon, Hollywood, California November, 25 1926 (39 Works including Portraits and Landscapes)
• 1928 - Solo Exhibition, Edgewater Beach Club, Santa Monica, California, September, 1928 (22 Works Including Portraits, Landscapes and a Maritime Work)
• 1930 - Group Exhibition, Ebell Salon, Los Angeles, California, March, 1930
• 1930 - Solo Exhibition, Ainslie Galleries, Los Angeles, California, November 1–30, 1930 16 (16 Works including Figurative works and Landscapes)
• 1931 - Solo Exhibition, Desert Paintings by Theodore Lukits, Desert Art Gallery, Palm Springs, California, February 1–28, 1931
• 1931 - Solo Exhibition, Stendahl Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California, June 1–13, 1931, (27 Works including decorative portraits and landscapes)
• 1935 - Solo Exhibition, Barbara Hotel, Santa Barbara, California, Circa 1935 (Exhibition featuring "Sierra Moonlight" and "Laughing Mood" hosted by John Yuke)
• 1935 - Group Exhibition, Biltmore Salon, Hotel Biltmore, Los Angeles, California
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, International Aeronautical Art Exhibition, Los Angeles Museum, Los Angeles, California, February 5–19, 1937 (Won E.K. Hill Trophy for Best of Show for Portrait of Thea Rasche)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Mission Inn Riverside, California, February 20–21, 1937 (Works by Lukits, Schuster, Askenazy, Yens, Foster, Warner etc.)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, California Art Club Exhibition, Municipal Art Commission Galleries, February, 1937 (Exhibited "Shadow of the Cross, Capistrano and a landscape)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Fourth Annual Exhibit of Paintings, Clearwater Junior High School, Clearwater, California, March 8–21, 1937 (Lukits exhibits Old Ironisides, with Wendt, Gleason, Braun)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Paul Francesco Lupo Studios, Hollywood, 1937 (Exhibited portraits along with Geza Kende, John Hubbard Rich, Hernando Villa)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Ebell Salon, Eighth Competitive Exhibition of California Artists, Los Angeles, California, May, 1937 (Portrait of Eleanor Merriam titled Gesture)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Exhibition of Twenty Paintings by Twenty California Painters, Desert Inn Gallery, Palm Springs, California, April 1937 (Lukits' work Reminiscence exhibited with Dixon, Puthuff, Braun, Pelton)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Tonal Impressionism
  Tonal Impressionism
  Tonal Impressionism is an art historical term that refers to works of art that are "mood" paintings with simplified compositions, done in a limited range of colors, as with Tonalist works, but using the brighter, more chromatic palette of Impressionism...
  
  , Los Angeles Art Association Gallery, Los Angeles Public Library, June, 1937 (Show with Lukits, Frank Tenney Johnson, Alson Clark)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Women's City Club of Long Beach, (Small group show with Jack Smith, Frank Tenney Johnson, Edgar Payne, Lukits exhibited "Gesture, Gordon Smith portrait)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, Friday Morning Club, October, 1937 (Lukits lectured with Willy Pogany and Frank Tenney Johnson on topic of Old Master Painting)
• 1937 - Solo Exhibition, Lukits Studio, Los Angeles, California, November 4, 1937 (Exhibition and unveiling of Laura June Williams portrait)
• 1937 - Group Exhibition, October Ebell Salon Exhibition, October, 1937 (Lukits exhibits with Kosa Jr., Schuster, Warner, Borg, Tenney Johnson, Parshall)
• 1938 - Group Exhibition, 11th Annual Purchase Prize Exhibition, Gardena High School, April 19-May 4, 1938 (Lukits exhibits Spring Symphony with Fechin, Dixon, Wendt Payne)
• 1938 - Solo Exhibition, Ken-Mar Salon, Hollywood, California, April 25, 1938 (Exhibition of Lukits portraits in conjunction with musical event)
• 1938 - Group Exhibition, Ebell Salon of Art, Ninth Competitive Exhibition of California Artists, Los Angeles, May 1938 (Exhibited Kurtzworth Portrait with Payne, Wendt etc.)
• 1938 - Solo Exhibition, Theodore Lukits, Women's Club of Hollywood, Hollywood, California, April 24- May 1, 1938 (Unveiled Kurtzworth Portrait and showed 25 other works)
• 1939 - Group Exhibition, Portraits, Ebell Salon of Art, Ebell Club, Los Angeles, California, March, 1939 (Exhibited Portrait with Von Schneidau, Foster, Bensco, Rich, Foster)
• 1939 - Group Exhibition, 21st Annual Exhibition, Laguna Beach Art Association, August 8–9, 1939 (Lukits exhibited with Smith, Puthuff, Harris, Procter, Brandt, Warner)
• 1942 - Group Exhibition, Annual Exhibition, Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (Won First Prize for Gesture)
• 1950 - Group Exhibition, Tri-Club Exhibition, Painters and Sculptors Club, Women Painters of the West, Artists of the Southwest, Greek Theatre, (Lukits judged and exhibited Mother and Daughter Portrait)
• 1952 - Group Exhibition, Tri-Club Exhibition, Painters and Sculptors Club, Women Painters of the West, Artists of the Southwest, Greek Theatre, (Lukits was H.C., Exhibited Untitled Portrait)
• 1953 - Group Exhibition, Tri-Club Exhibition, Painters and Sculptors Club, S.F.V. Professional Artists Guild, Artists of the Southwest, Greek Theatre, (Lukits Exhibited Spirit of the Missions with A.S.)
• 1953 - Group Exhibition, San Fernando Professional Artists Guild, May 1–31, 1953, Sherman Oaks Galleries, Los Angeles, California
• 1962 - Group Exhibition, Tri-Club Exhibition, Painters and Sculptors Club, Women Painters of the West, Artists of the Southwest, Greek Theatre, (Lukits judged, was H.C., Exhibited Demonstration Sketch)
• 1991 - Solo Exhibition, Pastels of Theodore Lukits, Carnegie Museum, Oxnard, California, March 15-May 6, 1991 (Extensive Collection of works from the Jonathan Foundation Collection, also students)

Posthumous Exhibition Record

• 1994 - Group Exhibition - The California Art Club: 85 Years, Carnegie Museum, Oxnard, California, (The Jonathan Foundation's Marine, Late Afternoon, was exhibited as one of the historic works)
• 1995 - Solo Exhibition - Pastels of Theodore Lukits, Los Angeles Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles, January 12-March 31, 1995 (Pastels and Grand Canyon Works)
• 1996 - Solo Exhibition - Moods of Nature: Paintings by Theodore Lukits, February 5-March 28, 1996, Santuario de Guadalupe, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Large exhibition of Estate Pastels and Jonathan Works)
• 1997 - Group Exhibition - East Coast Ideals ~ West Coast Concepts: The Living Legacy of the Boston School and the California Impressionists, Carnegie Museum; Oxnard, California, March 8 - May 18, 1997
• 1997 - Group Exhibition - East Coast Ideals ~ West Coast Concepts: The Living Legacy of the Boston School and the California Impressionists, Academy of Art College; San Francisco, California June 2–29, 1997
• 1997 - Group Exhibition - East Coast Ideals ~ West Coast Concepts: The Living Legacy of the Boston School and the California Impressionists, Springville Museum of Art; Springville, Utah, August 1 - September 28, 1997
• 1998 - Group Exhibition - 89th Annual California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, Works by Historic Artists of the California Art Club (Lukits' Portrait of Eleanor Merriam Lukits along with works by Bongart, Cooper, Parker)
• 1998 - Group Exhibition - California Plein-Air Painting: Selections from the Johnathan Art Foundation and the Jonathan Club Collection, Gallery at 777, June 23, 1998–September 11, 1998 (Works by Manheim, Lukits, Adams, Reiffel)
• 1998 - Group Exhibition - Treasures of the Sierra Nevada, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Los Angeles, California, May 28 - August 30, 1998 (Two High Sierra Pastels Exhibited, One Reproduced in Catalog)
• 1998 - Group Exhibition - Treasures of the Sierra Nevada, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, California, September 12 - October 30, 1998 (Two High Sierra Pastels Exhibited, One Reproduced in Catalog)
• 1998 - Solo Exhibition - Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist, The Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, October 17-November 29, 1998 (Series of Asian works on exhibit, lecture by Jeffrey Morseburg)
• 1998 - Solo Exhibition - Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist, The Carnegie Museum, Oxnard, California, December 12, 1998–February 21, 1999 (Series of Asian works on exhibit, lecture by Jeffrey Morseburg)
• 1999 - Group Exhibition - Contemporary Romanticism: Landscapes in Pastel, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania, April 4 - May 30, 1999; (Exhibited: "Sierra Moraine" and featured in catalog)
• 1999 - Solo Exhibition - Mandarins to Mariachis: An Exhibition of Paintings by Theodore Lukits, May 7–31, 1999 Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, California (Large exhibition of Asian and Californio-themed works)
• 1999 - Solo Exhibition - Theodore Lukits & The Spirit of Old California, November 18, 1999–January 13, 2000, Mission San Juan Capistrano Museum (Including Californio Themed Works and Plein-Air Pastels)
• 2000 - Group Exhibition - 90th Annual California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition - Paintings by Historic Artists of the CAC, June 4-July 30, 2000. Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena, California ("Idle Hour" Exhibited)
• 2000 - Group Exhibition - California Art Past and Present: Sponsored and Curated by the California Art Club and the Johnathan Art Foundation, October 6–8, 2000, Pasadena Women's City Club, Pasadena, California
• 2001 - Group Exhibition - 91st Annual California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition-From the Desert to the Sea: Paintings by Historic Artists and CAC Members, May 6-July 29, 2001, Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena, California (Capistrano Moonlight exhibited)
• 2001 - Solo Exhibition - Romance of the Mission, Mission San Juan Capistrano, California, September 29, 2001 (Special Exhibition in courtyard of Mission San Juan Capistrano for annual benefit)
• 2002 - Group Exhibition - 92nd Annual California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition-Selection of Paintings by Historic Artists of the CAC, June 30-August 25, 2002, Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena, California (September Sunset exhibited)
• 2008 - Group Exhibition - From Charles Burchfield to Peter Adams: Watercolors and Pastels from the Permanent Collection, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, March 21-September 14, 2008, Loretto, Pennsylvania (Lukits "Sierra Moraine" included)

Studio Locations

• 1804 S 13th Street, St. Louis, 1900s
• 2620 Geyer Avenue, St. Louis, 1907–1910
• 1700 12th Street, St. Louis, 1911–1912
• 341 E. 42nd Street, Chicago, 1913–1914
• 1513 W. Madsion, Chicago, 1915
• 1740 W. Adams, Chicago, 1916–1920
• 1193 Leighton Avenue, Los Angeles, 1922
• 1100 W. 49th Street, Los Angeles, 1920s, 1930s
• 121 South Normandie, Los Angeles, 1930s
• 736 South Citrus, Los Angeles, 1940–1992

Portrait Commissions

• Theda Bara, c. 1920 (Actress)
• Mae Murray, c. 1922 (Actress)
• Alla Nazimova, c. 1922 (Actress)
• Alex Maltz, c. 1922 (Violinist)
• Pola Negri, c. 1922 (Actress)
• The Southby Children, 1926 (Dual Juvenile Portrait)
• Dolores Del Rio, 1926 (Actress)
• Colonel Oliver Herschman, 1926 (Businessman - Newspaper Owner)
• Mrs. Oliver Hershman, 1926
• Charles Fieldler, c. 1926 (Businessman)
• Al Jolsen, c. 1928 (Actor)
• Marguerite Chapman, c. 1934 (Actress - Demonstration Portrait)
• Richard Keane, c. 1930 (Shakespearean Actor)
• Mrs. Ray ("Mal") Milland, 1942 (Socialite)
• Thea Rasche, 1937 (Aviatrix)
• Mr. Harry G. Daniels, 1943 (Businessman - H.G. Daniel's Artist's Supply)
• Mrs. Harry G. Daniels, 1943
• Alexander Finta, c. 1946 (Sculptor)
• Mrs. William Wyler, c. 1945 (Socialite)
• Peter Seitz Adams, Artist, c. 1974 (Artist)

Gallery Representation

• J. W. Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (1910s, 1920s)
• Southby Salon, Hollywood, California, Los Angeles, (Late 1920s)
• Montmatre Cafe Salon, Hollywood, California (Late 1920s)
• Kievits Gallery, Vista del Arroyo Hotel, Pasadena, California, (1920s)
• Kievits Gallery, Flintridge Hotel, Flintridge, California, (1920s)
• Ainsle Galleries, Los Angeles, California, (1920s, 1930s)
• Isley Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, (1930s)
• Desert Art Gallery, Palm Springs, California (1930s)
• R.C. Vose Galleries, Boston (1929–1941)
• Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles (1930s)
• Desert Inn Gallery, Palm Springs (1930s, 1940s)
• Doug Jones Gallery, La Jolla, California (1960s, 1970s)
• Zantmann Gallery, Carmel, California (1970s)
• Howard Morseburg Galleries, Los Angeles, California, Portrait Commissions (1970s)
• Jeffrey Morseburg, West Hollywood, California, Estate Representation

Memberships

• California Art Club, Pasadena, California, Honorary Life Member, 1920s, 1930s, 1970s
• Painters and Sculptors League, Chicago, Illinois, 1910s, 1920s
• American Artists' Professional League, New York, New York, 1920s,
• American Federation of Fine Arts, New York, New York, 1920s, 1930s
• American International Academy, Baltimore, Maryland, 1920s, 1930s
• American-International Fine Arts Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1930s
• Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s
• Laguna Art Association, Laguna Beach, California, 1920s
• International Artists Club, Hollywood, California, 1920s
• McDowell Club of Allied Arts, Los Angeles, California 1920as
• American Artist's League, New York, New York, 1920s, 1930s
• International Artists League, New York, New York, 1920s, 1930s
• Jonathan Club, Life Artist Member, Los Angeles, California 1931–1992
• Los Angeles Art Association, Los Angeles, California 1930s
• Riverside Art Association, Riverside, California, 1930s
• Hollywood Association of Artists, Hollwyood, California, 1940s
• Santa Monica Art Association, Santa Monica, California, 1940s
• Valley Artists Guild, Los Angeles, California, 1950s
• Society for Sanity in Art, Chicago, Illinois 1930
• Artists of the Southwest, San Francisco, 1940s, 1950s
• Co-Ordinating Committee for Traditional Art, Los Angeles, California, 1940s, 1950s
• San Fernando Valley Professional Artists Guild, Los Angeles, California, 1940s, 1950s

Public collections

• Nantucket Historical Society, Nantucket, Massachusetts
• California Art Club, Pasadena, California
• The Jonathan Art Foundation, Los Angeles, California
• The Southern Alleghenies Museum, Loretto, California
• The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California

Prominent Students of Theodore Lukits

• Corinne Malvern
  Corinne Malvern
  Corinne Malvern was an American commercial artist, active as a fashion advertising artist and illustrator of children's books between the early 1930s and her death in 1956. She painted magazine covers and worked as Art Editor of Ladies Home Journal magazine...
  
   (1901–1956) Illustrator, Art Director
• Peter Seitz Adams
  Peter Seitz Adams
  Peter Seitz Adams is one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters and an important figure in contemporary Southern California art. He is the longest serving President of the California Art Club and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena...
  
   (b. 1950) Plein-Air Painter, President, CAC
• Arny Karl
  Arny Karl
  Arny Karl was one of the key artists in the early stages of the California Plein-Air Revival, which started in the 1980s and continues to this day...
  
   (1940–2000) Plein-Air Painter
• Gino Rafaelli, Illustrator, Art Director
• Tim Solliday
  Tim Solliday
  Tim Solliday is a contemporary California Plein-Air Painter and Western Artist who is known for his San Gabriel Valley landscapes and his paintings of American Indians and other western subjects. He studied with the California Impressionist portrait and landscape painter Theodore Lukits in the...
  
   (b. 1950) Western Painter, Plein-Air Painter
• Mario Rueda, Prominent Teacher, Illustrator
• Frank Ordaz Jr., Prominent Illustrator, Animator, Fine Artist
• Allen Londraville, Illustrator, Fine Artist
• James Verdugo, Fine Artist
• Idelle Weber
  Idelle Weber
  Idelle Weber is an American artist most closely aligned with the Pop art and Photorealist movements.-Biography:Weber was born in Chicago, IL in 1932. She attended Scripps College in Claremont, California, and UCLA, where she received a BA in 1954 and an MA in 1955...
  
  , (b. 1932) Contemporary Artist
• Nancy Kominsky
  Nancy Kominsky
  Nancy Circelli Kominsky was an Italian-American artist and television presenter....
  
   (b. 1915) Artist, British Television Personality
• Chester Russell Williams (1921–1994) American and British Artist

See also

• California Plein-Air Painting
  California Plein-Air Painting
  The term California Plein-Air Painting describes the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the...
  
  
• Tonal Impressionism
  Tonal Impressionism
  Tonal Impressionism is an art historical term that refers to works of art that are "mood" paintings with simplified compositions, done in a limited range of colors, as with Tonalist works, but using the brighter, more chromatic palette of Impressionism...
  
  
• Tonalism
  Tonalism
  Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style...
  
  
• American Impressionism
  American Impressionism
  Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
  
  
• Decorative Impressionism
  Decorative Impressionism
  Decorative Impressionism is an art historical term that is credited to the art writer Christian Brinton, who first used it in 1911. Brinton titled an article on the American expatriate painter Frederick Frieseke, one of the members of the famous Giverny Colony of American Impressionists, "The...
  
  
• California Art Club
  California Art Club
  The California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...
  
  
• Early California Artists
  Early California Artists
  Early California Artists are a subset of American Western artists, painting in the mid-to-late 19th century. Their styles varied from realistic representation to the imagined....
  
  
• Richard E. Miller
  Richard E. Miller
  Richard E. Miller was a major American Impressionist painter and a member of the famous Giverny Colony of American Impressionists. Miller was primarily a figurative painter, known for his paintings of women posing languidly in interiors or outdoor settings. He is best described as a Decorative...
  
  
• Carl Werntz
  Carl Werntz
  Carl Newland Werntz was a well known Chicago painter, fine arts photographer, illustrator, cartoonist and educator who founded the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Werntz was a world traveler who was a proponent of Asian art and Japonisme. Carl Werntz was born in Sterling Illinois and dies on a...
  
  
• Peter Seitz Adams
  Peter Seitz Adams
  Peter Seitz Adams is one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters and an important figure in contemporary Southern California art. He is the longest serving President of the California Art Club and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena...
  
  
• Arny Karl
  Arny Karl
  Arny Karl was one of the key artists in the early stages of the California Plein-Air Revival, which started in the 1980s and continues to this day...
  
  
• Tim Solliday
  Tim Solliday
  Tim Solliday is a contemporary California Plein-Air Painter and Western Artist who is known for his San Gabriel Valley landscapes and his paintings of American Indians and other western subjects. He studied with the California Impressionist portrait and landscape painter Theodore Lukits in the...
  
  

Books and Exhibition Catalog References

• A Catalog of the Officers and Students of Washington University, Pg. 324, Washington University, St. Louis, 1911 (Lukits is listed as Theodore Lukits Jr., 2630 Geyer Avenue, St. Louis)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1913–1914 (Lukits appears in summer school evening classes)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1914–1915 (Lukits appears in summer school evening classes)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1915–1916 (Lukits appears in evening school classes)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1916–1917 (Lukits appears as full time student)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1917–1918 (Lukits appears as full time student)
• Circular of Instruction of the School of Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Decorative Designing, Normal Instruction, Illustration and Architecture., Art Institute of Chicago, 1918–1919 (Lukits appears as graduate student)
• Scholarship Awards, Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1918 ( Monthly Bulletin - mention of Theodore Lukits winning Lathrop Traveling Scholarship for $800)
• Scholarships, Annual Report of the Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago, Volume 41-44, Pg. 47, 1919 (Mention of the Lathrop Traveling Scholarship for $800)
• Frederick Magnus Brand Memorial Prize Winner, Annual Report, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1918 (Bound Annual - Lukits won Magnus Brand Memorial Prize for Composition)
• Brandstatter, Eddie, Brochure for Lukits' Exhibition at the Montmatre Cafe, 1926 (Exhibition Brochure)
• Catalog of Copyrights, Artists, Pt. 4, Volume 21-22, Pg. 16, United States Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1926 (Copyright Listing)
• California Art and Architecture, Volume 36, 1929 (Lists past Lukits Exhibitions held during the year)
• Lukits Exhibit, Desert Art Gallery, Palm Springs, California Arts and Architecture, Volume 39, Page 8, February, 1931 (Lists Lukits exhibition, February 1–28, 1931)
• Mallett's Index of Artists, Pg. 264, 1935 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Reuter, Herman, Colorists, Arts Magazine, Volume 2, Page 3, 1936 (Column on colorists by Reuter states "Theodore Lukits stands alone in the department of elemental richness")
• American Art Annual, Volume 36, Issue 2, Pg. 393, American Federation of the Arts, Washington D.C., 1947 (Listing)
• Who's Who in American Art, 1940–1941, Page 407 (Biographical Entry on Lukits)
• International Who's Who, Volume II, Pg. 531, 1947 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• White, James Ferry, National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 39, Pg. 80, 1967 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Who's Who in California, Who's Who Historical Society, Pg. 466, 1971 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Dawdy, Doris, Ostrander, American Artists of the West, Volume 2, Pg. 173, 1974 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Moure, Nancy, Dictionary of Artists in Southern California Before 1930, Dustin Publishing, 1977 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• McCall, Dewitt, Clinton, California Artists 1935–1956, Pg. 72, 1981 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Moure, Nancy, Publications in Southern California Art, 1,2,3, Dustin Publishing, 1984 (Bibliographical References on California Art - Listings)
• Castagno, John, American Artists' Signatures and Monograms: 1800–1989, Pg. 232, Scarecrow Press, 1990 (Dictionary of Monograms and Signatures - Examples)
• Bellah, Suzanne, The Pastels of Theodore Lukits, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, California, 1991 (Essays by Suzanne Bellah, Recollections by Peter Adams, Tim Solliday, Biographical Essay by Peter Adams and Suzanne Bellah of Carnegie Museum)
• Goode, Stephen H., American Humanities Index, Volume 16, Part 2, Pg. 1871, 1991
• Official Museum Directory, American Association of Museums, Pg, 80, 1992
• Stern, Jean, Treasures of the Sierra Nevada, Exhibition Catalog, California Art Club, Pasadena, California, 1998 (Lukits Sierra Pastel Reproduced in Exhibition Catalog)
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Theodore Lukits, An American Orientalist, Exhibition Catalog, Pacific Asia Museum, 1998 (Essays on Lukits and his Asian Subjects)
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, The Spirit of Old California, November, 1999 (Short Essay in Small Color Catalog)
• Young, William, Mallett's Index of Artists: International Biography, Including Painters and Sculptors, Pg. 264, 1999 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Tomor, Michael, PhD, Contemporary Romanticism: Landscapes in Pastel, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania, April 4-May 30, 1999 (Exhibition Catalog with essays on Lukits and his students)
• Artists of the World, A Bio-Biographical Dictionary, Index A-Z, Pg. 384, 2000 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Stern, Jean & Morseburg, Jeffrey, California Art Club: 90th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, California Art Club, 2000, Exhibition Catalog, California Art Club, Pasadena, California, 2000 (Biography and "Idle Hour" reproduced with other historic works)
• Dini, Jane & Morseburg, Jeffrey, California Art Club: 91st Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, California Art Club, 2001 (Biography and "Capistrano Moonlight" exhibited with other historic works)
• Stavig, Vikki, The Revitalization of the California Art Club, California Art Club: 91st Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, Exhibition Catalog, California Art Club, Pasadena, California, 2001 (Reproduced September Sunset)
• Hughes, Eden, Artists in California 1786–1940, Hughes Publishing, 2001 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Havlice, Patrica Pate, Index to Artistic Biography: A Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, Pg. 1157, Scarecrow Press, 2002 (Biographical Dictionary - Listing)
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, unpublished manuscript for biography on Theodore Lukits, 2009
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Catalog Essay Manuscript for Jonathan Art Foundation, Los Angeles, California, 2010
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Theodore Lukits. Org, Official Lukits Web Site, Essays and Biographical information (Various Essays on Lukits, extensive archival sources)

Periodical References (Articles and Illustrations)

• Theodore Lukits, Artist of the Month, The Republic Item, October, 1918, Chicago, Illinois
• Unsigned Article, Art as a Civic Asset, The Broadway World, November, 1926 (Illustration of the Dolores Del Rio Portrait)
• Clover, Madge Charming Painting by Lukits, Los Angeles Saturday Night, December 30, 1933 (Weekly Review, Lukits work on cover)
• Clover, Madge, Lukits Exhibit at Barker Brothers, Los Angeles Saturday Night, January 13, 1934 (Weekly Review, Reproduction of Sierra Scene Quietude)
• Clover, Madge, Tranquility by Theodore Lukits, Los Angeles Saturday Night, February 17, 1934 (Weekly Review, Reproduction of the Marine, Tranquility)
• Clover, Madge, The Bandit by Theodore Lukits, Los Angeles Saturday Night, March 17, 1934 (Weekly Review, Reproduction of the Californio Work, The Bandit)
• California Art News, December 11, 1934 (Art & Culture Newspaper, Article on Lukits School)
• Cover Illustration, Los Angeles Saturday Night, February 6, 1937 (Weekly Review, Portrait of Esther Rose on Cover)
• Women's Club of Hollywood News, April, 1938 (Article on Lukits exhibition in April 1938)
• The Jonathan, Theodore Lukits: Who's Who in Jonathan Members, The Johnathan, October, 1941 (Magazine of the Jonathan Club)
• The Private Life of Ray Milland, Movies Magazine, September, 1942 (Image of Lukits' Portrait of Mal Milland)
• Chevalier, Paul, Art Committee Uncovers Last Club Life Artist, The Jonathan, March, 1987 (Magazine Article)
• Chevalier, Paul, Lukits Art Collection donated to Jonathan, July, 1990 (Magazine Artile)
• Chevalier, Paul, Lukits on Loan, The Jonathan, September, 1990 (Note on loan of pastels from Jonathan Collection)
• Pastel Paradise, Southwest Art Magazine, April 1991 (Column on Carnegie Museum Exhibition)
• Gjertson, Stephen, Theodore Lukits: A Light in the Desert, Classical Realism Journal, Volume II, Issue I (6 Page Magazine Article)
• Los Angeles Magazine, Display Advertising, Pg. 128, April, 1998 (Advertisement for "Oriental Still life from George Stern Fine Arts)
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Theodore Lukits, Part I, California Art Club Newsletter, October, 1998
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Theodore Lukits, Part II, California Art Club Newsletter, December, 1998
• Mandarins to Mariachis, Orange Coast Magazine, April, 1999 (Preview of Exhibition at Muckenthaler Cultural Center)
• Mandarins to Mariachis, Orange Coast Magazine, Pg. 173, May, 1999 (Preview of Exhibition at Muckenthaler Cultural Center)
• Morseburg, Jeffrey, Theodore N. Lukits, Para Todos Magazine, San Juan Capistrano, California, November, 2001 (Spanish Language Article on Lukits for Mission San Juan exhibition)

Miscellaneous References

• Lukits, Lucile, Lukits Academy Tuition Records, 1952–1990, Lukits Archive
• Lukits, Lucille, Theodore Lukits: The Torchbearer, Unpublished Handwritten Essay, c. 1992, Lukits Archive

Website & Online References

• Ancestry.Com, Online research site, Lukits family history, U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization, Department of State Records, Immigration, Citizenship
• Merrell, Eric, Honorary Life Members of the California Art Club, CAC Web Site, 2007–2010
• Merrell, Eric, Historic Membership Roster of the California Art Club, CAC Web Site, 2008–2010
• Stern, Jean, Treasures of the Sierra Nevada, Exhibition Catalog, 1998

Newspapers References

• Lindsay, Estelle Lawton,Santa Barbara Quake Restores $20,000 Treasure to Padres, Los Angeles Evening Express, July 22, 1925 (Front page article with Lukits and Unrestored Ptg.)
• Lindsay, Estelle Lawton, Brush Blots out Damage Quake Caused, Los Angeles Evening Express, August 12, 1925 (Front page article with Lukits and Restored Painting)
• New York Times, Earthquake Restores St. Francis Portrait, September 20, 1925 (Clipping on Lukits' Restoration of St. Francis Painting for Santa Barbara Hotel)
• Los Angeles Sunday Times, Beauty and Elegance, September 26, 1926, pg. 31, (Photograph of the Ethel Wade portrait with caption of Southby Salon)
• Lukits Weds, Artists Bare Rites in Santa Barbara, April, 1937 (Clipping existent, unmarked, probably from Los Angeles Times or Herald Examiner)
• Theodore Lukits Reveals Nuptials, April, 1937 (Clipping existent, unmarked, probably from Los Angeles Times or Herald Examiner)
• Shower Given for Mrs. Lukits, May 1937 (Clipping existent, unmarked, probably from Los Angeles Times or Herald Examiner)
• Bride Secretly Wedded Now Shower Guest, May, 1937 (Clipping existent, unmarked, probably from Los Angeles Times or Herald Examiner)
• Stevens, Otherman, Now and Then, Los Angeles Examiner, May 31, 1932 (Newspaper Review)
• Long Beach Press Telegram, Posing by Critics of Art Condemned, March 16, 1938 (Lecture by Lukits at Long Beach Art Association)
• Los Angeles Times, c. March, 1938 (Note that Lukits will be guest artist for the Women's Club of South Pasadena)
• Reuter, Herman, Painter Real Colorist, Reviewer States, Hollywood Citizen News, April 9, 1938 (Positive review of portrait exhibition at Hollywood Women's Club)
• Hollywood Citizen News, Lukits Portraits Accorded Praise, Hollywood Citizen News, Saturday, April 16, 1938 (News Clipping, Reproductions of Laura June Williamsportrait and Portrait of the Artists' Wife)
• Lusk, Freeman, Possibly Hollywood Citizen News, April, 1938 (Over the top review of Lukits portrait exhibition at Hollywood Women's Club)
• Millier, Arthur, Brush Strokes, Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1938 (Announcement of Kurtzworth portrait unveiling)
• Wilshire Press, April 25, 1938, (Short review of Lukits exhibition at Hollywood Women's Club and note of painting Mrs. Harry Muir Kurtzworth and Her Daughter Constance)
• Art, Music Mingle when Ray Millands Entertain Friends, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1942 (Article on Unveiling of Lukits' Portrait of Mrs. Ray ("Mal") Milland)
• Ray Millands Honor Artist at Unveiling, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, June 2, 1942 (Article on Unveiling of Lukits' Portrait of Mrs. Ray ("Mal") Milland)
• Explosion in Basement Burns Artist and Wife, Los Angeles Times September 10, 1948 (News Clipping)
• Eleanor Lukits, Dies of Explosion Burns, Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1948 (News Clipping)
• Mrs. Eleanor Lukits Funeral Services, Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1948 (News Clipping)
• School head Addresses East Los Angeles Art Club, Los Angeles Tribune, May 7, 1953 (News Clipping)
• Morseburg Jeffrey, Lukits Obituary, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1992 (News Clipping)
• Woodard, Josef, In Vivid Pastel, April 4, 1991, Los Angeles Times (Review of Lukits Pastel Exhibition at the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard)
• McKinnon, Lisa, Artist's Sketches Push Pastel to Limit, Ventura Press Courier, April 4, 1991 (Review of Lukits Pastel Exhibition at the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard)
• Indyke, Dottie, Nature's Moods Plus Portraits of the Stars, Unknown Publication, Santa Fe, New Mexico, February–March, 1996 (Preview of Lukits Exhibition at Santuario de Guadalupe)
• Woodard, Josef, Oriented East, Strong Asian influence is seen in Oxnard art exhibitions, Los Angeles Times, 1998 (Review of Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist at the Carnegie)
• Kirkman, Chuck, Art Show Opening, Ventura County Star, December 13, 1998 (Photograph of Peter Adams and Jeffrey Morseburg with Lukits painting reproduced and released by AP)
• Rice, Ruth, Melding Two Into One, Art Exhibition Combines Pastels and Watercolors, The Tribune Democrat, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, April 8, 2008 (Article on Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art Exhibition, From Charles Burchfield to Peter Adams)

External links

• Official Educational Web Site Devoted to Theodore Lukits
• Preview of the 1999 Exhibtion "Mandarins to Mariachis" at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton, California
• Real Estate Listing for Lukits' former Hancock Park home and studio
• Honorary Life Members of the California Art Club
• Historic Membership Roster of the California Art Club
• Web Site Dedicated to the Plein-Air Pastel Painter Arny Karl, Student of Theodore Lukits
• Web Site of American Legacy Fine Arts, Pasadena, California, Representatives for Lukits' Students Peter Seitz Adams and Tim Solliday
• Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, SAMA, Web Site, Collection of Plein-Air Pastels includes works by Theodore Lukits and his students
• Web Site for Pacific Asia Museum, Site of Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist Exhibition
• Web Site for Mission San Juan Capistrano, Site of Theodore Lukits Exhibitions and Some of his Works
• Theodore Lukits' Fiesta Suite Exhibition at Mission San Juan Capistrano, Traditional Fine Art Online Web Site Preview
• Theodore Lukits: An American Orientalist Catalog at the CAC Gift Shop
• Historic L.A. Site with Location of Montmatre Cafe, Site of Lukits Exhibitons in the 1920s