Obituary: Lucian Krukowski, artist and professor emeritus, 93 – The Supply

Lucian Krukowski, a painter and professor emeritus of philosophy in Arts & Sciences at Washington College in St. Louis, died Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, at his house in St. Louis. He was working in his studio, and writing, till shortly earlier than his dying. He was 93.

Born in New York Metropolis in 1929, the one baby of Polish immigrants, Krukowski didn’t converse English till age 7. As a teen, he studied violin on the Juilliard College and in 1952 earned a bachelor’s diploma from Brooklyn Faculty. He spent the following two years on lively obligation with the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a rifle teacher and a comic-strip artist.

In 1955, Krukowski earned a bachelor’s diploma in positive arts from Yale College. He quickly joined the college on the Pratt Institute in New York, the place he accomplished a grasp’s diploma in 1958. He offered his first solo exhibition, at New York’s Staempfli Gallery, in 1960.

Krukowski joined the WashU college in 1969 as dean of the College of High-quality Artwork (now the Faculty & Graduate College of Artwork on the Sam Fox College of Design & Visible Arts), serving in that capability till 1976. In 1972, Krukowski additionally enrolled as a part-time doctoral candidate within the Division of Philosophy in Arts & Sciences, and he took a sabbatical yr, in 1976-77, to complete the diploma.

“Nobody took me too significantly, together with myself, once I first timidly proposed … that I examine for a PhD,” Krukowski instructed the WashU File. “All of us thought that after just a few programs, I’d have sufficient and stop.”

However Krukowski persevered and accomplished his dissertation, “The Attribution of ‘Artwork’ to Objects,” in 1977. Krukowski explored situations essential for making use of the time period “artwork” in addition to situations underneath which artwork objects can lose that standing. He later wrote the books “Artwork and Idea: A Philosophical Examine” and “Aesthetic Legacies,” amongst others.

Although Krukowski remained a professor of artwork, in 1977 he additionally joined the WashU philosophy college, as an adjunct and later as a full professor, and chaired that division from 1986-89. He was named professor emeritus in 1996.

Marilyn Krukowski, a professor emerita of biology in Arts & Sciences, and Krukowski’s spouse of 58 years, died in 2013. He’s survived by their daughter, Samantha; granddaughter, Zoë; and by his longtime companion, Ute Schweitzer Levi.

A celebration of Krukowski’s life will happen from 3-6 p.m. April 8 at Joe’s Cafe and Gallery, 6008 Kingsbury Ave., St. Louis, Mo., 63112. The household asks that these attending convey a bottle and a plate of finger meals to share.

The household is working to determine an endowed scholarship in Krukowski’s identify for first-generation, first-year artwork college students on the Kansas Metropolis Artwork Institute, the place Samantha is the Sosland Household Chair of Basis Research and a member of the college. Items to the Lucian Krukowski Memorial Scholarship Fund will be made right here.