Lukács gained international attention via his E-werk series—a collection of very large figure paintings that he created in the 1980s and 90s, while living in Berlin.
The paintings featured nude and semi-nude skinheads, who were depicted in heroic and classical poses in chiaroscuro, reminiscent of Renaissance art.
"[9][11] In 1984, Lukács took part in Futura Bold, a joint exhibition with fellow Emily Carr attendees Angela Grossmann, Graham Gillmore and Derek Root.
"[13] Lukács work during his stay in Berlin was considered provocative because many of his paintings featured homoerotic and sadomasochistic motifs, mixed with military and fascistic symbolism.
)[15] The paintings depicted male figures in various poses, both classical and at times erotic, who also embody neo-Nazi esthetics and symbology, such as shaven heads, Doc Marten boots, bomber jackets, tattoos and swastikas.
[2][3] His 1999 exhibition, Arbor Vitae, featured a series of thirteen black-on-white renditions of a single tree and marked a dramatic departure from the style of his earlier works.
[22] The documentary opens in the summer of 2001 and documents Lukács' journey from New York to addiction recovery in Maui, then on to Calgary and back to Vancouver.
[7][23] Lukács' work of the 1980s and 90s featured very large canvasses with thick applications of oil paint, along with other textural media such as tar, feathers, and gold leaf.
"[1] In 1996, Michael Scott of the Vancouver Sun said of the E-werk collection: "Without a doubt, they establish Lukács as one of the three or four most important artists Canada has produced in the past 50 years.
"[15] American art historian Jonathan David Katz has referred to Lukács as "one of the world’s greatest living artists.
In my earlier works, like one of the big paintings shown at Mercer Union in Toronto, there was a definite so-called homo-erotic content.
[28][29] Lukács said in a 2016 interview with the Vancouver Courier: I think the idea of doing the gay subject matter and skinheads [was] to make people deal with it.
[30] Private collectors of his work include musician Elton John, film director Fred Schepisi and Canadian entrepreneur Salah Bachir.