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Rudy Autio

Biography to Display: 

1926Born Butte, Montana

2007Died Missoula, Montana

EDUCATION

1950BS Art, Montana State College, Bozeman, Montana

1952MFA Sculpture, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES

1951Founding resident, The Archie Bray Ceramics Foundation, Helena, Montana

1952-1957Resident Artist, The Archie Bray Ceramics Foundation

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1957Assistant Curator, Montana Museum, Helena, Montana

1981National Endowment for the Arts Grant

1957-1985Founder, Ceramics Department, University of Montana, Missoula

BIOGRAPHY 

Rudy Autio was a leader in the American Abstract Expressionist ceramic revolution, his spontaneous large scale ceramic sculptures of hand-built closed vessels were often in the form of abstracted human torsos. These spontaneous abstract sculptural forms are incised with line drawings depicting animals and the human form. He taught himself painting and covered his sculptures with colorfully glazed graphic animals and painted human figures. Autio was influenced by designer Isamu Noguchi and artists Henry Moore and Henri Matisse. 

In 1981 he traveled to Finland to work at the Arabia Porcelain Factory on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. While working with the porcelain clays and colored slips, Autio found a new color palette previously unknown to him. In addition to his sculptures, he created relief and tile murals, worked in bronze, glass and textiles (designing tapestry). He is credited with moving ceramic sculpture into the realm of fine art.

An  interview with Rudy Autio conducted October 10 and 12, 1983 by LaMar Harrington, for the Archives of American Art's Northwest Oral History Project, is available at:
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-rudy-autio-11713.

Public Collections

Public Collections to Display: 

Applied Arts Museum, Helsinki, Finland

Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Johnson Wax Company Collection, Racine, Wisconsin

Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, Norway

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon

St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

Scripps College Collection, Claremont, California

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

Shigaraki Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Japan

Smithsonian Institution Collection, Washington, D.C. 

Taideteollisuusmuseo, Helsinki, Finland

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas

Bibliography

Bibliography to Display: 

Lackey, Louana M., and Rudy Autio. Rudy Autio. Westerville, OH: American Ceramic Society, 2002.

Newby, Rick. Rudy Autio: the Infinite Figure. Helena, MT: Holter Museum of Art, 2006.

 

CV or Resume: Click Here to Download
Source: Elaine Levin Archive, University of Southern California

Website(s):

http://www.rudyautio.com/

 

Typical Marks

"AUTIO" sometimes with date, either edged into wet clay under glaze, scratched into glaze or written in black glaze or pen

"Rudy Autio" with date and title written in black

ca 1950
ca 1950
1963
1979
1984
1987
1994
1998
Vase
Date: ca 1950
Method: Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze, Slip
Courtesy thenevicaprojectcom
Courtesy thenevicaprojectcom
Sculpture with Skulls
Date: ca 1950
Method: Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Untitled
Date: 1955
Form: Sculpture
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Vase
Date: 1958
Materials: Earthenware
Method: Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.568,
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.568,
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Vase
Date: 1959
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps  College, 81.8.3
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 81.8.3
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Vase
Date: 1963
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps  College, 84.9.1
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 84.9.1
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Figurine
Date: 1964
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze, Unglazed
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps  College, 87.1.2
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 87.1.2
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Figurine
Date: 1968
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 87.1.1
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 87.1.1
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Smiling Lady
Date: 1979
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze, Incised
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Photo: John Polak
"Rolling Horse" Vase
Date: ca 1984
Form: Sculpture
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Brooklyn Museum gift of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, 1985
Photo: © 2004–2014 the Brooklyn Museum_Creative Commons_BY
Brooklyn Museum gift of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, 1985
Photo: © 2004–2014 Brooklyn Museum_Creative Commons_BY
Photo: © 2004–2014 the Brooklyn Museum, Creative Commons_BY
Inside Looking Out
Date: 1987-1988
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Photo: John Polak
Hippodrome
Date: 1994
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Margaret Pennington Collection
Photo: John Polak
Photo: John Polak
Memoir
Date: 1998
Method: Thrown, Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze, Slip
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Courtesy thenevicaproject.com
Sculpture
Method: Thrown and Altered, Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center
Photo: TMP
Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Pinched, Hand-Built
Dimensions: 4.25 " x 2.75" x 2.50"
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.402
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.402
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Sculpture
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Pinched, Hand-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.403
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.403
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Vase
Materials: Stoneware
Method: Coiled
Surface Technique: Glaze
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.105
Photo: TMP
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marer Collection, Scripps College, 78.1.105
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP
Vase
Method: Thrown and Altered, Slab-Built
Surface Technique: Glaze
Scripps College Collection, 78.1.518
Photo: TMP
Scripps College Collection, 78.1.518
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP

Citation: "The Marks Project." Last modified February 12, 2024. http://www.themarksproject.org/marks/autio