Rudy Autio – (1926 – 2007)
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RUDY AUTIO – (1926 – 2007) His friends called him the “Finnish Buddha,” an affectionate term expressing their deep admiration for one of the icons of the American ceramic field. The son of Finnish immigrants, Autio stayed close to his Montana origins, teaching and working in Missoula, MT until his death. With his close friend Peter Voulkos he was one of the founding artists of the Archie Bray Foundation, serving as its director for a time and continuing to support its mission. He is best known for his ceramic vessels, sensuous and voluptuous, with figures and images that wind and weave around the piece decorated with gloriously rich colors. American Crafts Magazine stated that : “If Peter Voulkos has been considered the Picasso of the American sculptural ceramics movement, then Rudy Autio is its Matisse.”1 In addition to the ceramics, Autio has done commissions for tile and ceramic relief murals; worked in bronze, concrete, glass, metal, and fiber; and continued with his love of drawing. He has been recognized with numerous awards and the inclusion of his work in many prestigious collections. 1. Joe Nickell, Jamie Kelly, and Betsy Cohen. “Rudy Autio, 1926-2007.” Missoulian, June 21 2007. ARTIST’S STATEMENT - RUDY AUTIO “There are always new possibilities in ceramics. You have to let them happen. I usually handbuild. I’ve used a variation of slab and coil building for the past twenty years. It’s fast for me. I like to use engobes wet on soft clay, then sgraffito draw through.” 1. Quoted in: Susan Peterson. The Craft and Art of Clay, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. RESUME - RUDY AUTIO 1926 Born, Butte, MT 1944-1946 U.S. Navy 1946-1950 B.S., Applied Art, Montana State College, Bozeman, MT 1950-1951 Summer work - Archie Bray Foundation with Peter Voulkos 1952 M.F.A., Sculpture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 1952-1957 Founding Resident Artist, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT 1957 Assistant Curator, Montana Museum and Historical Society, Helena, MT 1957-1984 Professor, Ceramics and Sculpture, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 1963 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in Crafts Visiting Professor of Art, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1972 Named one of Ten Outstanding Educators, University of Montana 1977 Honorary Member of the National Council of Education in the Ceramic Arts 1978 American Ceramic Society Award Fellow American Craft Council 1980 National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman Fellowship 1981 Governor’s Award in the Visual Arts, Montana 1981, 1982 Visiting Artist, Arabia Porcelain Factory, Helsinki Finland 1982 Visiting Lecturer, Applied Arts University, Helsinki, Finland 1983 Champion Paper Company Award 1984 Elected Distinguished Scholar by the faculty of the University of Montana Professor Emeritus, School of Fine Arts, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 1985-2007 Studio Artist, Missoula, MT 1986 Honorary Member, Ornamo, Finland’s Designer Organization Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD 1987 Visiting Eminent Scholar of Art, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL Distinguished Alum, Montana State University 1993 “Centennial 100” Graduate of Montana State University 1999 Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship, American Crafts Council 2001 Meloy-Stevenson Award of Distinction, 50th Anniversary of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts 2007 Master of the Medium Award, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum 2007 Died, June 20, 2007, Missoula, MT BIOGRAPHY - RUDY AUTIO The son of immigrants from Finland, Rudy Autio was born in Butte, MT, where his father was a miner and his mother worked as a cook in a boarding house. At home, only Finnish was spoken, and Rudy did not learn English until he began attending school. Butte, at that time, was at its peak as a mining community enriched by immigrants from a number of countries. The hard-working, diverse population brought with them a mix of cultures, and the result was an urban environment that Autio likens to Brooklyn as opposed to the generally rural areas that surrounded them. Autio credits the public school system with giving him his first exposure to the arts which included poetry, drama, art appreciation, and the inclusion of artists from the WPA program in the school curriculum. The WPA artists also taught classes in the evening, and it was there that Autio learned to draw. In 1944 Autio joined the U.S. Navy, serving for two years during World War II as an aviation machinists’ mate, repairing airplanes in Fallon, NV. He returned home to Montana and attended college at Montana State College in Bozeman on the GI Bill, studying under Frances Senska who was establishing a ceramics department. At Montana State he earned his B.S. degree in Applied Art in 1950; he also met Lela Moniger who would become his wife in 1948 and Peter Voulkos who would become his friend. Following his graduation from Montana State, Autio enrolled in Washington State University, Pullman, WA, receiving his M.F.A. in Sculpture in 1952. During the previous summer, Autio and Voulkos had worked at Western Clay Company in Helena, MT, a brick-making company owned by Archie Bray. In addition to operating his factory, Bray had an interest in art, and he invited Autio and Voulkos to use the factory kiln to fire their ceramic pieces. Impressed by what he saw, Bray established the Archie Bray Foundation devoted to the advancement of ceramic art with Voulkos and Autio among the founding resident artists. After his graduation, Autio joined the Bray full time as a resident artist, remaining until 1957 when he left to become Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture at the University of Montana, Missoula, MT. He headed the program there until he retired as Professor Emeritus in 1985. Retirement from teaching did not mean retirement from art, however, and he remained an active studio artist until the end of his life. Inspired by Voulkos and his work at Black Mountain College, Autio’s early work was primarily Abstract Expressionist pots. He was also creating public art – stained glass windows, tile murals, and bronzes. He found the work less satisfying than he had thought and, searching for a more fulfilling approach, returned to drawing the figure and to clay. He described a workshop in 1970 in Apple Valley, CA, where he was hand- building a vessel and talking about working with figures. Challenged by one of the students to make a figure, Autio looked at the vessel he had been assembling, began to see the outlines of a figure in the shape, and through manipulation, drawing, and glazing, a figure emerged. Autio had found his voice. Today Autio is probably best remembered for these sculptural ceramics, vessels rich with figurative drawings that wrap and weave around the piece in gorgeous hues of glaze. His spare, outlined figures pay homage to his admiration of Dubuffet and Matisse and the early Greek black figure vases among others. While originally he drew the figures before constructing the piece, he later made the vessel and then allowed the shape to suggest the figures. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 allowed him the luxury of uninterrupted time to work. He returned to his roots, so to speak, by spending the time in Helsinki, Finland where he worked at the Arabia Porcelain Factory. He discovered new materials and glazes and, as Montana art historian Rafael Chacon has said, the result was “…integral sculptural objects…as dynamic as the rich paintings that cover their surfaces.”1 In addition to the vessels he also constructed murals of tile and ceramic relief, similar to work he did when he first started working at the Bray. His commissions can be seen at several churches in Montana as well as on commercial buildings in Montana, Tokyo, and Seattle. He worked also in bronze, concrete, glass, metal, and fiber, as well as continuing to pursue his love of drawing. During the course of his career, Autio received a number of prestigious awards. In addition to the NEA grant, he received a Tiffany Award in Crafts in 1963 which allowed him to travel to Italy, an incredible experience for someone who had traveled little outside the west. That was followed with an American Ceramic Society Art Award in 1978 and then the National Endowment grant in 1980. He returned to Helsinki the following year to do a workshop. That year also, 1981, he received the first Governor’s Award in the state of Montana and was named outstanding visual artist. Other honors include being chosen a Fellow of the American Crafts Council, honorary member of the National Council of Education in the Ceramic Arts, and an honorary Doctorate of Art from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore. In addition, he was chosen as a Regent’s Master at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, given a gold medal by the American Crafts Council, and received the Renwick’s Master of the Medium Award in 2007. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, among others. Rudy Autio was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005. Treatments allowed him a few more years and he continued with his art work up until his death; he ultimately lost his battle June 20, 2007. The legacy he left, in addition to his body of art, includes the numerous artists he taught and influenced and his role in the founding of the Archie Bray. Ceramic artist Ken Little stated: “If the ceramics world had a Mount Rushmore, it would be Peter Voulkos, Rudy, Paul Soldner and Don Reitz…He [Autio] was the Thomas Jefferson of Mount Rushmore.”2 1.