Richard Swanson Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1944 -

Richard Swanson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1944. He came to Helena in 1974 as a ceramic
artist at the Archie Bray Foundation. His formal education includes a Master of Science Degree in
Psychobiology from the University of California and an MFA a
t age 50 from the University of Montana.
He currently maintains three Helena studios: one with his artist wife, Penny Prince Swanson
for making utilitarian and sculptural clay vessels; a warehouse space, where he works in media as diverse as
barbwire, cockleburs, straw, peat moss and metal; a welding studio for fabricating large scale public
sculpture.

Richard’s figurative clay vessels have homes in many institutions including the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art and the Mansfield Center for Pacific A
ffairs. His fourteen public art sculptures have
permanent homes throughout the Northwest, including a series of three large sculptures that energize the
School of Music and Dance courtyard at the University of Oregon. His lyrical, rhythmic aesthetic has
let to several collaborations with choreographers in which dancers animate the sculptures and sculptures aid
the dancers in the illusion of defying gravity, encouraging both sculptor and dancer to explore new
rhythmic possibilities, while adding dimension to an age old concern of the sculptor .... that of breathing
life into inanimate material.

An important aspect of all my figurative sculpture, teapots included, is the way forms relate and flow
together. I am constantly combining and simplifying to enhance movement/rhythm/unity. My work is
informed by historical examples