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"S," by Olin L. Russum, 1960s.
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Mutation White, by Olin L. Russum, late 1960s-70s.
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Torso, by Olin L. Russum, early 1990s. 20 x 16 x 40 in.
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Medium/Discipline: Crafts, Design, Sculpture, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Bangor, Maine
Place of Death: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Ceramics; Abstract; Vessels; Figural; Mosaic; Pottery
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: [DRAFT PROFILE IN PROGRESS, April '05] Artist and educator Olin Lansing Russum, Jr., or "Russ," was a ceramics and clay sculpture artist who was active in Maryland, working out of a Monkton studio he built with his wife and wood sculptor, Jean Bosley Russum. Olin Russum is known for his sculptural vessels as well as his figural or abstract, formally organic sculpture that is often designed to be situated outdoors. His works range from functional ware to widely various sizes of freestanding sculpture and architectural bas-relief murals as large as 20 x 50 feet. At the beginning of his career, he worked first in earthenware and later in stoneware and porcelain. He developed a reputation for wheel-thrown and altered or hand-built vessels, and abstract, bas-relief ceramic murals.
Garden Sculpture (1961) is a work by Russum held by the Smithsonian comprising three pieces of grogged stoneware that is free-form hand-built sculpture with penetrations at various places with the light brown grogged stoneware body scraped with white slip. The Nest (1971), commissioned and funded through the City of Baltimore's One Percent for Art program, is a ceramic tile composition in place at Samuel Coleridge Taylor Elementary School; it is an abstract, giant creature with a long body extending from its camel-like head and undulating across the length of the wall. The tiled bas-relief is brown, rust, white and ivory in coloring. The husband and wife Russum team collaborated on a number of pieces, including wood tables and modular pieces inlaid with ceramic tile compositions, and a 1971 bas-relief affixed to the side of the Joseph Briscoe High School building (Baltimore, Maryland) depicting the profile of two abstract dancers. In a 1976 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Russum talked about working in clay: "It's a beautiful medium, really. It's very expressive, a very free medium."
Olin Russum was born in Maine and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He earned a B.A. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.F.A. at Claremont Universities in Claremont, California. He was hired as head of ceramics at the School for American Craftsmen, then located in Alfred, New York at Alfred University and remained with the school as it moved to the Rochester Institute of Technology (New York) from 1948-1951. In 1951, he was called for military service in the 101st Signal Battalion of the U.S. Army Air Corps in Korea and in 1953 was discharged with the rank of major, having earned a Bronze Star. After returning from war, he and wife established their Monkton, Maryland artists' studio; they resided in the area for the next four decades. Mary Ann Mears, Baltimore sculptor said, "When I hit Baltimore in 1970, there were certain artists who were very important, and Russ was one of them. He was the elder statesman of the arts community." (Pat van den Beemt, "Russums' Work On Sale Last Time," The North County News, February 10, 2005.)
Throughout his life, Russum taught art classes at the Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), The Baltimore Museum of Art (1960-71), served as artist-in-residence at Towson University (1962-65) as well as for the Potter's Guild of Baltimore and as an instructor of Master Classes for the Kiln Club of Washington, D.C. from 1960 forward.
In addition to seven architectural commissions completed at Claremont Universities in California while a graduate student there, Olin Russum was commissioned for many architectural works at schools and churches in the Maryland region, including at the Jewish Community Center (1960), City Spring Elementary School (1966-67), Patterson High School (1968), Callaway Elementary School (1970-71), Church of the Nativity (1971, 1975), Samuel Coleridge Taylor Elementary School (1971-72), Briscoe Junior High School (1971-72), St. Joseph's Parish (Cockeysville, 1976) and School 260 (1984), all of which reside in the Baltimore area. Commissions for companies in the Maryland-D.C.-Northern Virginia area include Americana Landmark (1964), Watergate Village (Annapolis, 1964), Hampton House Apartments (Towson, 1965), Magna Properties (Baltimore, 1966), Uptown Federal Building (1966), Gulf-Reston (Reston, Virginia, 1967), Adam's Rib Restaurant (Washington, D.C., 1969), Maryland National Bank (Baltimore, 1969) and The Elizabeth (Chevy Chase, 1990-91). Russum was also commissioned to create two fountains for Westwood Fashion Place in Houston, Texas in 1975.
Olin Russum showed his work in many invitational exhibitions throughout Maryland and elsewhere in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, India, Argentina and Italy. He also participated in the National Community Arts Program through the Housing and Urban Development Department of the United States government.
Olin Russum's work resides in the collections of the Lang Gallery, Claremont Universities, Claremont, California; Rochester Museum of Fine Art, Rochester, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; St. Paul Gallery of Art, St. Paul, Minnesota; Museo Internationale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy; Museum and Library, Montevideo, Uruguay; Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.; and the Wustum Museum, Racine, Wisconsin. His work is held in private collections in England, France, Holland, Canada and the United States. In Maryland, D.C., Virginia and Massachusetts, Russum's pieces have been acquired by nurseries, landscapers and collectors.
Education/Training: B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1940; M.F.A. Claremont Universities, Claremont, California, 1948
Taught By: William Manker, Claremont Colleges (Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School), 1940-41, 1946; Millard Sheets; Richard Petterson
Art-related Employment: ceramicist; sculptor; art instructor; potter
Other Employment: U. S. Army Air Corps
Selected References: Cloutier, Dane. Correspondence and phone interview with Olin Russum; taped dialogue of Olin Russum, December 1992. (Montecito Publishing, St. Louis, MO).
Shapiro, Stephanie. Impressions of, and in, Clay, Baltimore Sun, September 25, 2000, 1F.
Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) Art Inventories Catalog: http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/.
"Up Front - Olin (Russ) Russum, 1919-1998," Ceramics Monthly. v. 47:5, 1999.
van den Beemt, Pat. "Russums' Work On Sale Last Time," The North County News, February 10, 2005.
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
Single-Artist Exhibitions: Lang Gallery, Claremont Universities, Claremont, California.
Two-Artist Show with Jean Bosley Russum, Wilmington Art Center, Delaware, 1958.
Washington Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Rochester Museum of Fine Art, Rochester, New York.
Two-Artist Show with Jean Bosley Russum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, August 29-September 26, 1971.
Two-Artist Show with Jean Bosley Russum, Galerie Françoise, Baltimore, 2001.
Two-Artist Show with Carlton Leverette (as part of the Tour de Clay exhibitions), Galerie Françoise, Baltimore, 2005.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Western Maryland College, Westminster, Maryland.
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland.
Lippman Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland.
87 Flower and Garden Show, Festival Hall, Baltimore, Maryland.
Artshowcase, Baltimore, Maryland.
Baltimore Collects, Baltimore Clayworks, 2000.
Potter's Guild of Baltimore (as part of the Tour de Clay), 2005.
The Gallery at Monkton Community Arts Center, 2005.
Awards: Diplome D'Honneur, Premier Festival International De La Ceramique (Cannes, France), 1955.
Two silver medals, 2nd International Ceramic Exhibition (Ostend, Belgium), 1959.
Two gold medals, International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics (Prague, Czechoslovakia), 1962.
Gold medal, Ceramics International (Buenos Aires), 1962.
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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