Lois Swirnoff

Lois Swirnoff of Brookline, MA, formerly of Los Angeles, CA, entered into rest on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at the age of 92. Born in Brooklyn, NY, she was the daughter of the late Harold and Fannie (Goldstein) Swirnoff.

A renowned color scientist, visual artist, educator, and author, Ms. Swirnoff graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art in NY in 1951. She pursued her graduate studies at Yale University under the tutelage of Josef Albers, the Bauhaus Master. After receiving her BFA and MFA in 1954, she began her teaching career as Instructor in Art at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA. Subsequently, she held faculty appointments at UCLA (where she became Emerita Prof. of Art and Design in 1990), and at Harvard University from 1968 to 1975. She was the Chair of the Art Department at Skidmore College from 1977 to 1981. She returned to Cooper Union in 1991, where she held the Feltman Chair in Light before she retired in 2003. She published two critically acclaimed books, "The Color of Cities; an International Perspective", and "Dimensional Color". She exhibited her creative work in solo shows at the Farnsworth Art Museum, The National Academy of Sciences, Swetzoff Gallery in Boston, Galley BAI in NY, the Hathorn Gallery at Skidmore College, as well as in group shows in the U.S. and abroad. Her impact on art and design extended globally, as she lectured in cities from Bergen, Norway to Sydney, Australia.

Ms. Swirnoff is survived by her devoted son, Dr. Joshua A. Boyce and his wife Deb of Sherborn, her treasured grandchildren, Erica Murphy of Westwood, MA and Joshua R. Boyce of Worcester, MA, her loving brother Michael Swirnoff and his wife Christine of Glen Cove, NY, and her nephews, Alex Swirnoff of Lexington, MA and David Swirnoff of Rutherford, NJ.

Services were held privately.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Ms. Swirnoff’s memory may be made to Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, www.gardnermuseum.org