Frances Senska
Frances Senska | |
---|---|
Born | (1914-03-09)March 9, 1914[1] Batanga, Cameroon |
Died | December 25, 2009(2009-12-25) (aged 95) Bozeman, Montana, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Known for | Ceramics |
Movement | Bauhaus |
Frances Maude Senska[1] (March 9, 1914 – December 25, 2009) was an art professor and artist specializing in ceramics who taught at Montana State University – Bozeman from 1946 to 1973. She was known as the "grandmother of ceramics in Montana".[2] During her career, she trained a number of now internationally known ceramic artists.[3]
Life and career
Senska was born in the port city of Batanga in the German Empire colony of Kamerun,[4] (now Batanga, Cameroon). She was the only child of Frank Radcliff Senska and Georgia B. Senska (née Herrald), Presbyterian missionaries.[1] Her father was a physician who founded Sakbayémé Hospital in the town of Sakbayeme in the highlands region of Bassa in Kamerun, her mother was a teacher who worked at the local missionary school.[1] Frances was schooled at home; it took three days to walk to the nearest public school, and her parents felt this was too far away in case she fell ill with a tropical disease.[5]
She came to America for the first time in 1929.[6] She graduated from University High School in Iowa City, Iowa.[7] She earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1935 and 1939, respectively.[8] Her undergraduate training was in lithography,[9] and her graduate degree in applied arts (specializing in sculpture.)[8][10]
She taught art at Grinnell College from 1939 to 1942.[1] In the summer of 1941, she took art classes at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California.[1] But in 1942, her teaching position at Grinnell was eliminated so that the college could hire a physics professor.[10] That summer, she briefly studied ceramics under László Moholy-Nagy at the School of Design (now the IIT Institute of Design) in Chicago. Moholy-Nagy had a strong influence on Senska, influencing not only her ceramic design but her teaching style as well.[11]
She served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, where she was trained as a pilot.[2][5][6] During her time in the military, she was posted to a base in San Francisco, California. She rose to the rank of lieutenant. She became interested in ceramics after taking a class from Edith Heath, then teaching at the California Labor School.[12][13] In the summer of 1946,[1] she attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art (now Cranbrook Educational Community), where she studied under Maija Grotell[12] (one of the most important studio potters of mid-20th century America).[8]
She began teaching at Montana State University in Bozeman in 1946.[10] The school's Department of Applied Art hired her to teach ceramics. But she did not, at that time, consider herself a ceramicist. "I started teaching ceramics with the merest little scrap of knowledge. I had had just two quarters of ceramics when I started teaching. I just learned it right along with the class," she later said.[10] Senska decided to build a ceramics program from the ground up. Olga Ross Hannon, the department's head, gave her $300, and she and her first class of students took over a storeroom in the basement of Herrick Hall, purchased foot-driven potter's wheels, and built an electric kiln from scratch.[10] Continuing to train in ceramics, Senska attended a workshop taught by noted French-American ceramic artist Marguerite Wildenhain at the Pond Farm artists' colony near Guerneville, California, in the summer of 1950.[1] Senska later said that she learned her hand technique from Wildenhain.[10] Her students included a number of influential ceramicists, including Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos.[14][15] While teaching at Montana State, Senska met fellow art professor Jessie Spaulding Wilber. The two women became lifelong friends and companions.[10] "We had a big thing in common -- childhoods with a lot of moving around,"[16] Frances said. "It was a great way to spend a childhood. Other kids had groups of friends and neighborhoods they grew up with, which is nice. On the other hand, it's real nice when you don't really feel you need to be part of a group."[16] Senska retired from teaching in 1973.[10]
Wilber died October 2, 1989. Senska died on Christmas Day 2009 at her home in Bozeman, Montana.[2]
Legacy, honors, and collections
Senska helped to found several important arts organizations. She was one of the founding members of the Montana Institute of the Arts in 1948, served as the organization's Crafts Chair from 1954 to 1956, and was its director from 1961 to 1962.[6] She also helped found the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, in the early 1950s.[5]
Senska received many honors throughout her life. These include:
- 1964 – Elected a Fellow of the Montana Institute of the Arts.[6]
- 1979 – Elected an Honorary Member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.[17]
- 1982 – Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Montana State University.[5]
- 1988 – Elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council.[5]
- 1988 – Recipient of the Montana Governor's Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts.[18]
- 2003 – Recipient of the Archie Bray Foundation's Meloy-Stevenson Award of Distinction for Outstanding Service.[6]
Her lithographic prints have been collected by the Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Princeton University Library.[9]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Frances Maude Senska (1914–2009)." Bozeman Daily Chronicle. December 28, 2009. Accessed 2011-10-15.
- ^ a b c "Pioneering Montana artist Frances Senska dies at 95". Missoulian. Associated Press. December 27, 2009. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ Ostermann, p. 111; Slivka and Tsujimoto, p. 35-36.
- ^ Levin, p. 188.
- ^ a b c d e "Oral history interview with Frances Senska, 2001 April 16". Smithsonian Institution. April 16, 2001. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "Humble Grace: A Tribute to Frances Senska". Yellowstone Art Museum. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ "Frances Senska". Luther College. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ a b c Folk, Thomas. "Frances Senska: Studio Potter." American Ceramics. 8:2 (Summer 1990), page 34.
- ^ a b Merriam, p. 79.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Smith, Marjorie. "I Make Pots." Mountains & Minds: The Montana State University Magazine. Spring 2010. Accessed 2011-10-15.
- ^ Newby, pages 43-44.
- ^ a b Newby, page 43.
- ^ Established as the Thomas Mooney Labor School in 1942, the California Labor School was a college established by trade union activists and funded by member unions of the American Federation of Labor, Congress of Industrial Organizations, and several wealthy California families. It closed in 1957 after falling under suspicion as a Communist Party USA-infiltrated organization. See: Johnson, pages 43-46.
- ^ "Frances Senska". Craft in America. Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
- ^ "Frances Senska - Art All The Time". Montana PBS. March 21, 1997. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
- ^ a b Rainbolt, Jo (June 25, 1979). "An Elephant in Every Yard - Frances Senska, Jessie Wilbur: Pottery and Printmaking Cohabit". Missoulian.
- ^ "Honorary Members." National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts. 2011. Accessed 2011-10-15.
- ^ McConnell and Forbes, p. 39.
Bibliography
- Senska, Frances. Frances Senska: A Life in Art. Helena: Holter Museum of Art, 2004.
- Johnson, Mark Dean. At Work: The Art of California Labor. San Francisco: California Historical Society Press, 2003.
- Levin, Elaine. The History of American Ceramics, 1607 to the Present: From Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1988.
- McConnell, Gordon and Forbes, Donna. Yellowstone Art Museum: The Montana Collection. Billings, Mont.: Yellowstone Art Museum, 1998.
- Merriam, H.G. The Arts in Montana. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1977.
- Newby, Rick. "Art." In The Rocky Mountain Region: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures. Rick Newby, ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004.
- Ostermann, Matthias. The Ceramic Narrative. London: A&C Black, 2006.
- Slivka, Rose and Tsujimoto, Karen. The Art of Peter Voulkos. New York: Oakland Museum, 1995.
External links
- Frances Senska on the Early Clay Movement. Craft in America (PBS) video short
- Suitcase Lesson: Frances Senska, Artist, University of Montana Western
- "'A Beautiful Spirit': Origins of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts". Archived from the original on February 28, 2012. PDF version
- I Make Pots: From Montana Students and Big Sky Clay, Frances Senska helped craft a ceramics revolution. Montana State University Communications, October 1, 2010.
- v
- t
- e
- Adda Husted Andersen
- Dorothy Meredith
- Ed Rossbach
- Frans Wildenhain
- Harvey Littleton
- Lenore Tawney
- Lili Blumenau
- Peter Voulkos
- Sam Maloof
- Toshiko Takaezu
- Trude Guermonprez
- Florence Eastmead
- Francis Sumner Merritt
- Margaret Patch
- Mary Lyon
- Maurine Roberts
- Rudolph Schaeffer
- Arline Fisch
- George Nakashima
- Gerry Williams
- Hans Christensen
- Katherine Westphal
- Joan Mondale
- Margery Anneberg
- Rose Slivka
- William Brown
- Bernard Kester
- Joel Myers
- Margret Craver
- Mary Nyburg
- Tage Frid
- Warren MacKenzie
- Eudorah Moore
- Robert W. Gray
- John Mason
- Kay Sekimachi
- Marianne Strengell
- Maurice Heaton
- Richard Thomas
- Ted Randall
- Harold Brennan
- Sydney Butchkes
- Dale Chihuly
- Kenneth Ferguson
- Wendell Castle
- Beatrice Wood
- Claire Zeisler
- Dominic Di Mare
- Edward Moulthrop
- Heikki Seppä
- June Schwarcz
- Richard DeVore
- Robert Sperry
- Val Cushing
- Carlyle Smith
- James Wallace
- Jonathan Fairbanks
- LaMar Harrington
- Albert Green
- Arthur Carpenter
- C. Carl Jennings
- Frances Senska
- Fritz Dreisbach
- Glen Kaufman
- Harrison McIntosh
- Mark Peiser
- Mary Scheier
- James McKinnell
- Nan Bangs McKinnell
- Paul Soldner
- Phillip Fike
- Polly Lada-Mocarski
- Ted Hallman
- Walter G. Nottingham
- William Daley
- C. Malcolm Watkins
- James Melchert
- Lloyd Herman
- Marion Stroud Swingle
- Paul J. Smith
- Rudy Turk
- Edris Eckhardt
- Frances Higgins
- Francis Whitaker
- Gertrud Natzler
- Lillian Elliott
- Margaret Tafoya
- Michael Higgins
- Otto Heino
- Otto Natzler
- Viktor Schreckengost
- Vivika Heino
- Blanche Reeves
- R. Leigh Glover
- Cynthia Schira
- David Shaner
- Edgar Anderson
- Joyce Anderson
- James 'Mel' Someroski
- Karl Martz
- Kurt Matzdorf
- Marvin Lipofsky
- Robert Arneson
- Stanley Lechtzin
- Walker Weed
- Helen Drutt English
- Mildred Constantine
- Ruth DeYoung Kohler
- Betty Woodman
- Gerhardt Knodel
- Jere Osgood
- John Marshall
- Kenneth Price
- Margarete Seeler
- Oppi Untracht
- Robert G. Hart
- Albert Paley
- Henry Halem
- John McQueen
- Merry Renk
- Patti Warashina
- Robert Ebendorf
- Rude Osolnik
- Stephen De Staebler
- Viola Frey
- Lee Nordness
- Betty Cooke
- Claude Horan
- Garry Knox Bennett
- Helena Hernmarck
- Jun Kaneko
- Kenneth Bates
- Mark Levine
- Mary Lee Hu
- Jean Griffith
- Virginia Harvey
- Chunghi Choo
- Jack Earl
- Ka Kwong Hui
- Lia Cook
- Bob Winston
- Ron Nagle
- Tommy Simpson
- William Keyser
- Sandra Blain
- Dan Dailey
- Edwin Scheier
- Eleanor Moty
- James Bassler
- Judy McKie
- Richard Mawdsley
- Richard Shaw
- William Harper
- Paulus Berensohn
- Dorothy Barnes
- Helen Shirk
- Irena Brynner
- Nancy Crow
- Paul Marioni
- Ralph Baccera
- Therman Statom
- Fred Marer
- Adrian Saxe
- Anne Wilson
- Cynthia Bringle
- Eugene Pijanowski
- Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski
- James Krenov
- Joyce Scott
- Marjorie Schick
- Paul Stankard
- Christa C. Mayer Thurman
- Theodore Cohen
- David Ellsworth
- Gary Noffke
- Joan Livingstone
- John Glick
- Michael James
- Norman Schulman
- Thomas Patti
- Warren Seelig
- Alice Rooney
- Harlan Butt
- Jane Sauer
- John Cederquist
- Paula Winokur
- Robert Winokur
- Garth Clark
- Ana Lisa Hedstrom
- James Tanner
- Kurt Weiser
- Norma Minkowitz
- Tom Joyce
- Albert LeCoff
- Akio Takamori
- Howard Ben Tré
- Jason Pollen
- Kiff Slemmons
- Walter Hamady
- Stuart Kestenbaum
- Arturo Sandoval
- Marilyn da Silva
- Mark Lindquist
- Richard Notkin
- Robert Brady
- William Morris
- Nanette Laitman
- Adela Akers
- Glenda Arentzen
- Gyöngy Laky
- John Horn
- Robyn Horn
- Tony Hepburn
- Toots Zynsky
- Wendy Maruyama
- Lois Moran
- Benjamin Moore
- Bernard Bernstein
- Carol Shaw-Sutton
- Jamie Bennett
- Louis Marak
- Rosanne Somerson
- Robert Pfannebecker
- Ginny Ruffner
- John Garrett
- John Stephenson
- Rebecca Medel
- Ron Ho
- Susanne Stephenson
- William Hunter
- Janet Koplos
- Andrea Gill
- Anne Currier
- Dante Marioni
- Lewis Knauss
- Sharon Church
- Sherri Smith
- Thomas Loeser
- Bruce Pepich
- John Gill
- Jane Lackey
- Michael Hurwitz
- Judith Schaechter
- Bruce Metcalf
- William Carlson
- Tina Oldknow
- Nick Cave
- Michael Cooper
- Françoise Grossen
- Chris Gustin
- Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
- Hank Murta Adams
- Edward S. Cooke Jr.
- Mark Burns
- Thomas Gentille
- Thomas Hucker
- Mary Jackson
- Beth Lipman
- Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
- Susan Cummins
- Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
- Sonya Clark
- Lisa Gralnick
- Katherine Gray
- Annabeth Rosen
- Bob Trotman
- Patricia Malarcher
- Teri Greeves
- Karen Hampton
- Nancy Koenigsberg
- Keith Lewis
- Kristina Madsen
- Mark Pharis
- Preston Singletary
- Tip Toland
- Carolyn Mazloomi
- Howard Risatti
- Lowery Stokes Sims
- Syd Carpenter
- Michael A. Cummings
- Einar and Jamex de la Torre
- Yuri Kobayashi
- Mark Newport
- Michael Puryear
- Diego Romero
- Lynda Watson
- Diana Baird N'Diaye
- Cindi Strauss
- Recipients of the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship
- Dorothy Liebes (1970)
- Anni Albers (1981)
- Harvey Littleton (1983)
- Lucy M. Lewis (1985)
- Margret Craver (1986)
- Peter Voulkos (1986)
- Gerry Williams (1986)
- Lenore Tawney (1987)
- Sam Maloof (1988)
- Ed Rossbach (1990)
- John Prip (1992)
- Beatrice Wood (1992)
- Alma Eikerman (1993)
- Douglass Morse Howell (1993)
- Marianne Strengell (1993)
- Robert C. Turner (1993)
- John Paul Miller (1994)
- Toshiko Takaezu (1994)
- Rudolf Staffel (1995)
- Bob Stocksdale (1995)
- Jack Lenor Larsen (1996)
- Ronald Hayes Pearson (1996)
- June Schwarcz (1996)
- Wendell Castle (1997)
- Ruth Duckworth (1997)
- Sheila Hicks (1997)
- Kenneth Ferguson (1998)
- Karen Karnes (1998)
- Warren MacKenzie (1998)
- Rudy Autio (1999)
- Dominic Di Mare (1999)
- L. Brent Kington (2000)
- Cynthia Schira (2000)
- Arline Fisch (2001)
- Gertrud Natzler (2001)
- Otto Natzler (2001)
- Don Reitz (2002)
- Kay Sekimachi (2002)
- William Daley (2003)
- Fred Fenster (2005)
- Dale Chihuly (2006)
- Paul Soldner (2008)
- Katherine Westphal (2009)
- Albert Paley (2010)
- Stephen De Staebler (2012)
- Betty Woodman (2014)
- Gerhardt Knodel (2016)
- Jun Kaneko (2018)
- Joyce J. Scott (2020)
- Jim Bassler (2022)
- Lia Cook (2022)
- Richard Marquis (2022)
- Judy Kensley McKie (2022)
- John McQueen (2022)
- Patti Warashina (2022)
- Nick Cave (2024)
- Wendy Maruyama (2024)
- Anne Wilson (2024)