Born to a
Jewish family in
Romania, Sachs first received art training as a child under his father. He immigrated to the U.S. due to
antisemitism in Europe at age 17, settling in
Chicago. Sachs later returned to Europe to attend art school in
Germany, spending the 1910s in
Munich, where he founded the Munich School of Expressionists (Munich Expressionist Werkstätten). Upon returning to the United States in 1920, Sachs exhibited at the
Art Institute of Chicago and established the Chicago Industrial Art School. Afterward, Sachs became the first Director of the Dayton Museum of Fine Arts, now the
Dayton Art Institute. During this time, he also served as the U.S. representative of artist
George Grosz. Around 1925, Sachs moved to
Los Angeles to design the interiors of the new Gas Company building. As a muralist and decorator, Sachs went on to design the interiors of many Los Angeles landmarks, including the
Bullocks Wilshire building (now home to
Southwestern Law School),
Union Station,
Los Angeles City Hall, and the Title Insurance and Trust Company Building. An educator as well as an artist, Sachs also directed the Creative Art Students League of Los Angeles. Sachs was active within the L.A. Jewish exile community of artists, writers, and filmmakers who had fled Europe due to the rise of
Nazism, and later the
Holocaust. His friend, the architect
Rudolph Schindler, designed Sachs' L.A. house, the Manola Court Apartments. == Works ==