Celebrated Italian-American Sculptor Bruno Lucchesi Dies at 99

Italian-American sculptor Bruno Lucchesi died in New York this week, just weeks shy of his 100th birthday, according to his family and Cavalier Galleries. Lucchesi, who arrived in New York City in 1958 from his native Lucca, Italy, has sculptures in major institutions throughout the U.S., including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and more.

“Bruno had an extraordinary gift for capturing the human spirit,” Ron Cavalier, founder of Cavalier Galleries, which represented the artist, said in a statement. “He sculpted effortlessly—it was as if the clay in his fingers came from his soul. He was the first major artist to show with the gallery early on in my art career. He was a creative genius and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”

Lucchesi, who is survived by his wife Ann Rosow-Lucchesi and many relatives and friends, was also a beloved teacher who mentored thousands through workshops and publications. During his seven-decade career, he was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Sculpture Society’s Medal of Honor for Achievement in Encouragement of American Sculpture, and more, and was the subject of three books by author David Finn.

“The gentleness, kindness, simplicity, modesty of Bruno Lucchesi are ever present in his work,” Finn wrote in Bruno Lucchesi: Sculptor of the Human Spirit. “His people are wonderful to behold and a privilege to photograph. His genius is to express a joy of life even when he shows conditions that create misery and suffering, for Lucchesi’s subjects seem to feel that being alive is its own reward. His gift to us is that, as observers and lovers of his people, we feel their sense of gratitude in our own hearts.”

In honor of his incredible artistic contributions, Cavalier Galleries will present “The Memorial Bruno Lucchesi Exhibit” in the fall.