Dr.  Erwin Lubit, Sculpture

Patchogue, NY, 631-289-0294

elubit@optonline.net

Dr. Erwin Lubit, dentist. oral surgeon, orthodontist, sculptor and humanitarian, was born in Brooklyn, where his second home was the sculpture court at the Brooklyn Museum. There he developed his lifelong fascination with the human body, its skeleton and muscles, and the constant changes between them which affect motion and emotion. You can study the human body all your life and still not discover all of its mysteries," he claims. His keen interest in the planes and contours of the human face in particular led to his training in orthodontics, with a specialization in treating patients born with craniofacial deformities, especially cleft palate. In 1946, during his internship at Kings County Hospital. he found a secret room with a half dozen abnormally formed children hidden from the public. He determined then and there to help those children and others like them.

For 25 years, he was a distinguished professor at the NYU College of Dentistry and formed a cleft palate center at Beth Israel Hospital. For the last 20 years, at his own expense, he has traveled to Israel, where he examines Arab and Jewish children born with facial deformities, and has lectured extensively on that subject.

His first love, however, is figurative sculpture. He loves the process of taking a lump of clay and molding it into a face and figure, using his knowledge of the muscles and proportions of the head and neck to create a lifelike work of art. He also makes his own molds, and casts,  and patinas all his own pieces. Dr. Lubit says: "The act of creating is a compulsion with me. Taking lifeless clay, wood or stone and changing it into an object that produces an emotion within me is the mystery of life itself:'

Although he has never had any formal art education other than short courses with well known sculptors Bruno Lucchisi, Evangelis Frudakis and Domenico Facci, Dr. Lubit's work has been shown in over 40 shows on LI and New York City,  He has won numerous awards for his work, eliciting praise such as "...among the most exceptionally beautiful and sensitive sculptures were those created by retired Patchogue dental surgeon Erwin Lubit, whose simple and graceful work reflects a keen sensitivity about the beauty of the human body."  Other comments state: "To look at his work, you are in awe of its beauty. It is poetically tender, dynamic, wildly melancholic and reflects the personal eloquence of a deeply philosophical, sensitive man. It is a privilege to watch this artist at work."  There are as many dimensions to this man as there are to his work. Each of them reflects a sensitivity to both the real world of deformity and the ideal world of classic beauty.  To Dr. Lubit, one does not diminish the other. "Proportion is beauty; deviation is character." (Biography written by Joyce Mann).

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