Rudy Turk
Rudy Henry Turk, was an American visual artist, art historian, curator, and museum director. He served as the director emeritus and former curator of the Arizona [State University Art Museum] in Tempe, Arizona. Turk was elected as an honorary fellow by the American Craft Council in 1988.
Biography
Rudy Henry Turk was born on June 24, 1927, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Sheboygan ; the University of Tennessee ; 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, before serving as director of the fine arts gallery in San Diego. He was the founding director and curator of the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona, starting in 1967 and he retired in 1992.
Turk's own artwork was in the mediums of painting, pottery, printmaking, and sculpture. He took his first art class in the 1950s, and he found inspiration in early Christian art and catacomb paintings.
He died on August 14, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was survived by his wife Wanda Lee Turk and their four children.