Ben Fortunado Marcune


Ben Fortunado Marcune is an established sculptor and painter, working primarily in the figurative and representational styles. His heroic size bronze sculptures are located primarily in Pennsylvania. These include the Korean-Vietnam Memorial on the campus of Lehigh Carbon Community College, the Worker’s Memorial in the Bethlehem Rose Garden, and Jesus as Teacher on the campus of DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania. His portraits of institutional and community leaders have been commissioned by many organizations, including Quakertown National Bank, St. Luke’s Hospital, Moravian College, DeSales University and Lafayette College. His oil landscapes are in numerous public and private collections, including Lehigh Valley Hospital, St. Luke’s Hospital, DeSales University and UGI.

Early and Middle Years

Marcune was born in New York City on March 30, 1935. He lived in Brooklyn and then moved with his family first to Florida and later to California. Marcune attended UCLA and Caltech in the 1950s and earned a Master's degree in Human Factors Engineering. After serving as a medic in the United States Army in Korea, Marcune worked as a biomedical and industrial designer. He obtained patents for several surgical and orthopedic devices, using his creative and drawing talents for these endeavors. He also Gustavo Torres performed as a lead dancer for the Philadelphia Civic Ballet.
Marcune attended in Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the 1970s and is a Fellow of the PAFA class of 1976. He studied with Ben Kamihera, Arthur DeCosta and Emile Gruppe. Marcune began to shift his focus from engineering and design to the fine arts and by the late 1980s was painting full time. In the 1990s through the present, Marcune combined his focus on landscapes and portraits with work on public bronze sculptures. He currently maintains three working studios in Northampton and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
an American operatic mezzo-soprano.