While Sugarman graduated from City College, New York City, NY, his formal art training was under Ossip Zadkine, a Cubist sculptor. After studying at Zadkine’s school in Paris, Sugarman returned to New York in 1955 and helped to found the New Sculpture Group, an organization promoting abstract art. He also taught at Hunter College and Yale University in the 1960’s. Sugarman died in 1999 at the age of 87.
Major commissions have been installed at Empire State Mall, Albany, NY; Federal Court Building, Baltimore, MD; International Building, Miami Airport, Miami, FL; Willis Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, PA; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and other corporate headquarters throughout the United States. His sculptures have been placed in the collections at the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art all of which are in New York City, NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and at other American and European Museums. He has been honored with one-person shows throughout his career at noted museums and galleries in New York City and other American cities, as well as internationally in Düsseldorf, Zurich, Basel, Cologne, Berlin, and Amsterdam.