Born in New York City, Amen began drawing at the young age of four. By the time he was fourteen years old, he won a scholarship to the Pratt Institute. He emulated Michelangelo's masterpieces and spent years perfecting his own unique style. From 1942 to 1945 he served with the Armed Forces. He headed a mural project and executed murals in the United States and Belgium. He had his first exhibition was at the New School for Social Research in New York and his second at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington in 1949. His travels throughout Israel, Greece, and Turkey in 1960 led to a retrospective at the Artists House in Jerusalem. Irving AmenHe then studied in Paris where he had one-man shows in painting, woodcut, ​and sculpture. Besides practicing his art, Amen also taught classes in sculptor and printmaking at such schools as the Pratt Institute (1961) and at Notre Dame University(1962). Commissions include a Peace Medal in honor of the Vietnam War and 12 stained glass windows for the Agudas Achim Synagogue in Ohio. He is listed in Mantle Fielding Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers and the Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists by Paul Cummings. A positive attitude, love of mankind, and religious background emanate from his work.