Lewis Zacks, Artist Was 83
Lewis Zacks, a much-admired artist who lived in Springs, died on Nov. 16, a day after his 83rd birthday, at New York Presbyterian Hospital, following complications of a failed surgery.
He was born in Taunton, Mass., the only son of Etta Hoberman and Robert Zacks. At the age of 5, he could draw anything his mother placed in front of him. When he was in middle school, a teacher who thought his talent remarkable gave up her Saturdays to drive him to Providence so that he could study at the Rhode Island School of Design.
After graduating from Taunton High School and Boston’s Vesper George School of Art, Mr. Zacks was drafted into the Army in 1951. He was assigned to Officer Candidate School on Eta Jima in Japan, while the rest of his group of basic trainees were sent directly to Korea. Mr. Zacks completed his training and rejoined his unit in Korea only to learn that almost every one of the men had been killed during their first week of combat. Each Veterans Day, for more than 60 years, he would remember and mourn those men.
Back home, aided by the G.I. Bill, he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1953 to 1954. At the same time, he was taking courses at Tufts in a joint program leading to teaching art in college. In 1955, he decided, instead, to begin an art career in New York as a freelance designer and illustrator for ad agencies and book publishers. During his career as a commercial artist, he continued his study of fine arts at Pratt and Parsons, creating oil paintings, solar prints, watercolors, lithographs, collages, and etchings.
His passion for working in different mediums was the source of his joy, although it did, sometimes, make it difficult for art reps to categorize him for commercial purposes. Still, for the past 20 years, following his retirement from his multimedia company, he enjoyed seeing much of his work admired and sold.
Zacks & Perrier, the multimedia company he started in 1967 with his friend and partner, Mark Perrier, was a leading producer of films, videos, live stage productions, museum exhibits, and conventions for major corporations. The two, during the height of their success, were known in the industry as the fathers of multimedia. Mr. Zacks created the images. Mr. Perrier wrote the words.
Their production highlights include the Washington State Pavilion at the 1986 World’s Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia; the U.S. exhibit at the Paris Air Show in 1980; a 35-millimeter film, “The Boy From Mars,” at NASA’s Spaceport in Florida; a video wall at the IBM Gallery in New York City; “Art Cars,” a multi-screen film for BMW featuring Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg making original paintings on automobiles; “The Intrepid,” a film about the aircraft carrier that was screened on the vessel when it opened to tourists in New York; an exhibit in the Soviet Union for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the NBC affiliates show, in which the network presented its new season of programming, and the Coty Fashion Awards.
Mr. Zacks was married for 42 years to the poet Fran Castan. Together they traveled extensively, always working on their art while on the road. One result was the book “Venice: City That Paints Itself,” a collection of paintings and ?poems done during two long stays in that city.
Ms. Castan said the couple have enjoyed life with their blended family: From Mr. Zacks’s first marriage, Daniel and Stephen Zacks. From Ms. Castan’s first, Jane Castan, whom Mr. Zacks adopted and raised. Happily added in the last 24 years were their children’s spouses and five grandchildren.
A gathering to celebrate Lewis Zacks’s life will be announced in the near future. Donations in his memory can be sent to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978, or Meals on Wheels, 33 Newtown Lane, East Hampton 11937, two organizations Mr. Zacks believed in and supported.