Lipman-Wulf was attended the avant-garde École d’humanité, a progressive school known as the Odenwaldschule, which centered around a humanistic approach to learning. The artist’s work “which frequently highlighted mythological and dance themes, was strongly influenced by the German Expressionist movement. Lipman-Wulf often spoke about his desire to express a sense of movement, or dynamism, and particularly his later works are characterized by a unique, semi-abstract style.”

At age 16, Lipman-Wulf was awarded a two-and-a-half year apprenticeship in Oberammergau, Germany, a town known for its famous for its re-enactments of the Passion Play. He studied with sculptor Ludwig Gies at the state Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin where Lipman-Wulf became a Master Stone Carver and succeeded Fritz Diederich as the official State Sculptor of Berlin.

Lipman-Wulf experienced success at an early age in his career when he won first prize in the 1928 Prussian State Competition. In 1937, he was awarded the gold medal at the Exposition Mondiale in Paris. His exhilaration would soon be diminished by threatening conditions in Europe. “A German Jew by birth, Peter Lipman-Wulf fled to France in 1933 where he was interned in a prison camp before emigrating to the United States in 1947.”

Though he had had been forced to flee his home Lipman-Wulf seemed to thrive in France. He once spoke of his “very intense friendship” with French sculptor-colleague Robert Coutin, his next door neighbor in Paris and how it inspired his interests in working directly from models and creating portrait busts. The artist’s touted his other relationships with the community of artist that he found in France, including sculptor Charles Despiau, some of his “sitters;” writer Eduard Fuchs; and conductor Bruno Walter.

Lipman-Wulf found asylum in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States. He lived first in New York and later in Sag Harbor, NY. Lipman-Wulf also garnered quite a reputation in the Hamptons where he was considered an influential artist and teacher. In addition to the notoriety that he achieved as an artist, Lipman-Wulf was also a prolific writer who published several works including books of poetry and a memoir.

In the artist’s own words “In looking back at the development of my style as a sculptor and printmaker, I see myself not as a developer who starts with groping steps and slowly builds up a formula of artistic expression. Being rather unpredictable, I change my style according to my mood and inspiration. Therefore, my works do not appear as an unbroken chain in which one work seems to condition the next.”