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Coffee Table, by Jean B. Russum, 1960s. Walnut.
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Eight-Toed Ringo, by Jean B. Russum, 1965. Dogwood. Shown at The Baltimore Museum of Art by Invitation, 1971.
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My Lively Enemy, by Jean B. Russum, 1968.
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Medium/Discipline: Crafts, Design, Sculpture
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
Place of Death: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Born here, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Figural; Abstract; Furniture; Murals
Style/Period: Abstract
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: [DRAFT PROFILE IN PROGRESS, April '05] Wood sculptor and furniture designer Jean Bosley Russum worked out of the Monkton, Maryland studio she built with her husband, ceramicist and sculptor Olin Russum. She operated the woodworking studio for decades in conjunction with her husband's ceramics studio. She originally mentored with Tage Frid (1916-2004), a Danish woodworker and furniture maker. Tage Frid came to the United States from Denmark in 1948 to set up a woodworking program at the School for American Craftsman at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Along with Ronald Pearson, John Prip and Frans Wildenhain, Frid set up a retail outlet in Rochester, New York, called Shop One.
Jean Bosley Russum was commissioned for many furniture and sculpture pieces. In the 1950s and 60s, she produced furniture pieces for the Robertson and Sydney C. Blumenthal families in Baltimore, as well as sculpture and wall hangings for nurseries in Maryland and private collections in the Maryland-D.C.-Virginia and Massachusetts regions. In 1968, she produced for Furley Elementary School in Baltimore an untitled sculpture of carved wood panels in cast stone which forms a 12 x 45 foot border around the edge of the school's roof. Jean Russum's work is abstract, deriving from the principles of Cubism. On the occasion of her two-person 1971 exhibition with her husband, Baltimore Sun critic Barbara Gold wrote of Jean Russum's wood sculpture Arabella's Cross and other carved pieces that they, "reveal an immense amount of workmanship. Grain, markings, and the direction of growth of the branches have been captured and transmuted into something personal."
Jean Russum collaborated with her husband on a number of bas relief installations, including a piece called The Dancers at Joseph Briscoe High School in Baltimore, which depicts the profile of two abstract dancers. They also worked together on furniture pieces, such as wood tables she crafted that were inlaid with ceramic tiles produced by her husband. At their home in Monkton, both Russums pursued an interest in gardening for food and landscape design, especially with evergreens.
While she began working with wood as a furniture maker in the early 1950s, by the late 1960s, she was producing freestanding sculpture from found wood that was soaked in water, reshaped and finished.
Education/Training: Night school, general education, The Johns Hopkins University; The School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology
Taught By: Tage Frid
Art-related Employment: furniture maker; woodworker; sculptor
Selected References: Gold, Barbara. "Two Artists Up Against The Wall," Baltimore Sun, September 5, 1971.
"Russums' Art To Be Shown," The Evening Sun, August 5, 1971.
Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) Art Inventories Catalog: siris-artinventories.si.edu/.
Treadway/Toomey Galleries 20th Century Art and Design Auction, December 5, 2004: Tage Frid biography
Other Publications: Freudenheim, Leslie M. Baltimore's Public Art 1960-1980. (Baltimore, Md.: Maryland Institute College of Art and L.M. Freudenheim), 1980.
Naylor, Henry and Caroline. Public Monuments & Sculpture of Baltimore: An Introduction to the Collection, (Bethesda, Md.: The Writer's Center), 1987.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Waldorf School of Baltimore, Maryland
Single-Artist Exhibitions: Opening show, Craft Museum, American Craft Council, New York, NY, early 1950s.
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania, 1953 or 1954.
Two-Artist Show with Olin Russum, Wilmington Art Center, Delaware, 1958.
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland.
Western Maryland College, Westminster.
Furniture Craft Museum, American Craft Council, New York, NY.
Two-Artist Show with Olin Russum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, August 29-September 26, 1971.
Two-Artist Show with Olin Russum, Galerie Françoise, Baltimore, 2001.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Twelve Renowned Maryland Artists, Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland, 1972.
Back from the Future, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, 1990.
Art Showcase, Baltimore, Maryland, 1991.
Artist Contact Information: The Gallery at Monkton Community Arts Center, 410-472-0470, Representative: Tami Satterfield; 20th Century Gallery, 825 N. Howard St., Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, 410-728-3800, Representative: Steven R. Stegner.
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