Rudy Turk

Rudy Henry Turk (1927—2007), was an American visual artist, art historian, curator, and museum director.^[1][2] He served as the director emeritus and former curator of the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona.^[1][3] Turk was elected as a honorary fellow by the American Craft Council (ACC) in 1988.^[4]

Biography

Rudy Henry Turk was born on June 24, 1927, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S..^[5] He attended the University of Wisconsin–Sheboygan (now University of Wisconsin–Green Bay; B.S. 1949, education);^[6] the University of Tennessee (M.A. 1951, history);^[6] and did postgraduate work at Indiana University in 1956.

Turk held a position from 1960 to 1965 as director of the Richmond Arts Center in Richmond, California,^[7] before serving as director of the fine arts gallery in San Diego (now the San Diego Museum of Art).^[3] He was the founding director and curator of the Arizona State University Art Museum (formerly the Matthews Center) in Tempe, Arizona, starting in 1967 and he retired in 1992.^[8]

Turk's own artwork was in the mediums of painting, pottery, printmaking, and sculpture.^[1] He took his first art class in the 1950s, and he found inspiration in early Christian art and catacomb paintings.^[3]

He died on August 14, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona.^[9] He was survived by his wife Wanda Lee Turk (née Borders) and their four children.^[9]

References

External links

• ASU tribute page and video