He entered advertising and publishing design upon graduation and taught at the Ray School in Chicago and the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. He was a senior book designer for the Language Arts Department at Scott Foresman & Co. His painting Sunday Afternoon in Lincoln Park won First Prize at the New Horizons Annual Exhibition in 1975, and his painting Head won the Renaissance Prize at the Artists of Chicago and Vicinity Show.
In 1985, he won a Painting Award from the Beverly Art Center, and in 1986, he was Curator's Choice at the Art Sales and Rental Gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also exhibited his watercolors at the International Watercolor Show. In 2005, the Chicago Public Radio program Hello Beautiful! featured Amft in an extended audio visit to his home studio.[1]
For more than 70 years, Amft worked in a variety of media—oils, watercolors, collages, sculptures, photographs. His photography and design have won over fifty awards and have been reproduced in Graphics Annual, N.Y. Art Director Annual, Life, and Photo Graphics. His sculpture, Dog, won an award in the 1994 Beverly Art Center Annual Exhibition and his Whistler's Mother sculpture won the Best of Show Award at the 1997 Later Impressions' Exhibit held at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.
1978 Painting and Sculpture Today (Indianapolis, Indiana)
1975 New Horizons — Painting Award Annual
1975 Chicago Vicinity Show: Renaissance Prize (Chicago)
1965 Washington Museum (Tacoma)
1958 Pennsylvania Academy Annual (Youngstown, Ohio) Purchase Prize Butler Institute of Art (New York)
1952 Hallmark Show: Hallmark Award
1947 Pepsi Cola Annual
1940, 1956, 1963, 1974, 1975 Chicago and Vicinity Show
1938, 1939, 1941 International Watercolor Show
Reviews
Bonesteel, Michael. Review of photography at Rotunda Gallery, Highland Park, Illinois. "Living in Their Own World", Evanston Review (February 18, 1993)
Two-man show at Art Rental Gallery. Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (November–December 1978, vol. 72, no. 6)
"Great Treasures from the Art Institute of Chicago", Reproductions of 7 of Amft's "Modified Masters", Chicago Magazine (April 1977)
Kultermann, Udo. "Van Gogh in Contemporary Art", Art Voices South (January 1976)
"Les Americans a Paris". Reproduction of "Pink Sunglasses" (Mona Lisa), Le Dessin (January 1976)
Who's Who in American Art (1976)
Kind, Joshua. Article on Chicago Vicinity Show, New Art Examiner (February 1975)
Reproduction of "Head". Sun Times (December 15, 1974)
Article related to Amft's winning First Prize in "New Horizons", 1972, Evanston Review (June 29, 1972)
Arts Club Members Show. Chicago Sun Times (April 22, 1973)
Schultze, Franze. Review of exhibition at Welna Gallery, Chicago Daily News (March 18, 1972)
Anderson. Don. Review of Welna Exhibition, Chicago Sun Times (January 11, 1970)
Wagner, Robert. Review of exhibition at Welna Gallery, Chicago Trlbune (January 3, 1970)
Haydon, Harold. Review. "What does this talent outpour mean?" Review of 75th Artists of Chicago & Vicinity Show.
Burckhardt, Edith. Review of one-man show at Morris Gallery, New York: A-"Grandpa Moses of Concrete" [when?]
Article showing Amft's photographs of the sculpture of self-taught artist, Fred Smith. LIFE (November 1969)
Sawin, Martica. Review of one-man show at Morris Gallery, New York, Arts Magazine (January 1958)
