The first time I saw Professor Senska, I was a freshman at Montana State University. Attending a gallery opening, Frances, Jessie Wilber, Gennie and Bob DeWeese entered the crowded event, as they gilded in they greeted the Art School Director. By the time I entered school in 1975, these iconic art instructors were retired, yet the news quickly passed through the crowd, it was Bob DeWeese who was written about in the famed book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” that had been published the year before. Frances and Jessie were part of Montana art folklore; Frances the grand ceramic instructor of nationally recognized Peter Voulkos, father of ceramic abstraction and Rudy Autio, the father of figurative ceramics. Jessie Spaulding Wilber (1912-1989) was noted for her woodblocks, lithographs, silk screens and her oil and gouache paintings. Jessie and Frances were art partners and built a home in Bozeman where they both had studios on the lower level, a printing studio for Jessie and a ceramic studio for Frances.
Frances Senska in a 1957 photograph
Basement of Hannon Hall
Educational Background:
Over the years, Frances became known as the “Mother of Montana Ceramics”, however her original studies in lithography should not be overlooked. Her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Iowa focused on this subject, and if you dig through museum and library records, you will discover works in the Brooklyn Museum (NY) and the Holter Museum (MT) and at the Library of Congress and the Princeton University Library. Both libraries own her “Houses in Butte” print.
Her ceramics education was more training on the job, plus some time at the Institute of Design in Chicago, the Cranbrook Academy and the Pond Farm at Gurneyville, CA, where she studied under noted ceramic artist Marguerite Wildenhain.
Her first teaching position was at Grinnell College in 1939, in these early years, she taught the basics: traditional drawing and painting classes and developed her own teaching style and methods. With World War II breaking out during that same time frame, Grinnell eliminated her position in exchange for a physicist, and Senska was out of a job. She did what many did during the war time, she enlisted in the Navy, it was a sure job. The Navy sent her to San Francisco, a wonderful port of call, where she studied with Edith Heath (California Labor School) and started throwing her first pots. She was discharged from the Navy in 1945 and returned to the University of Iowa to get her teaching certificate and continue her art studies, gradius of the GI Bill funding for veterans.
While Senska had now been bitten by the ceramic bug, the University of Iowa did not have a ceramics program and so during the summer of 1946 she transferred to Cranbrook to study with the Finnish designer Maija Grotell. Grotell was a pioneer in ceramics arts in America and her style was a cross between art and industrial design, useful items that possessed good design and beauty. Grotell influenced a whole group of students about simple straightforward design.
At the end of Senska’s summer in 1946, she received the message that Montana State College was interested and she moved to Bozeman to teach in the Department of Applied Art that was part of the home economics department. She started creating a ceramics program in the basement of what would now be Hannon Hall, complete with kick wheels and handcrafted eclectic kilns. During the summer of 1950, Senska expanded her understanding of ceramics and went off to California to study under Marguerite Wildenhain. Wildenhain was a Bauhaus-trained potter who focused on the art process and craftsmanship.
Senska created and firmly established the ceramics program at Montana State University, she taught for over twenty-seven years. She literally taught some of the most noted international and regional ceramic artists of our time. Peter Voulkos taught at UC Berkeley, Rudy Autio at the University of Montana, Al Tennant at the University of Alaska, Ray Campeau at Bozeman High School, and numerous full-time ceramic artists such as George Dunbar.
The Process and Cultural Influences - Chicken Wine Set and a Hungarian Partridge:
When it came to ceramics Senska did the entire process; digging the soil, mixing the clay, creating the glazes, and establishing the firing techniques. She frequently used earthenware soil from Bear Canyon outside of Bozeman and a stoneware clay near Lewistown, Montana.
She was known for listening to African music while she worked, this was not surprising as she was born in the port city of Batanga in the German Empire colony of Kamerun now Batanga, Cameroon. She was the only child of Presbyterian missionaries, her father a doctor, her mother a teacher, and Senska was schooled at home. Clearly her African childhood impacted her entire life, and could frequently be seen in her prints and pottery.
Her lifelong interest in African culture and design had her creating her “Good Luck” pots that she sometimes labeled with “YA BA BO.” The term means “it will be nine,” a medicine man’s incantation for good luck, as in Cameroon culture nine is a lucky number. This explains why Senska created her wine carafe sets with nine cups. The carafe base has hand-detailed chicken’s feet, and the spout has detailed eyes. The body shows a plump chicken and the wide round tail-feathers work as a handle. The cups are each painted with baby chicks reminding us of her missionary roots from the Gospel of Matthew: “ As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”
Chicken Wine Set
Beyond her carafe sets she created standard ware pottery pitchers, bowls, lidded vessels, and her small signature hand-molded Hungarian Partridges. These decorative birds are small and intimate and people just want to pick them up and hold them. These birds have big feet, and her design and glazes make them look a little awkward, disheveled or ruffled. This is what makes them so adorable. As for a function use, Senska created these small partridges to fill every space between the pots in the kiln, showing Senska’s efficiency and frugality of using every amount of space.
Hungarian Partridge Figurine
Honors:
Later on in life, Senska became known as the “Mother of Montana Ceramics” and in 1979 the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts awarded her an Honorary Life Membership. Montana State University in 1982 recognized her contributions to the Ceramic Arts with an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. The honorary degree was for her achievements as both a teacher and spearheading the ceramic arts in Montana. In 1988 she received the Fellow Award from the American Craft Council and the Montana Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. The Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT) gave her the Meloy-Stevenson Award of Distinction for Outstanding Service and the Holter Museum of Art mounted the Frances Senska: A Life in Art, a retrospective exhibition.
Senska’s eclectic life of the exotic and mundane has put her in the trail-blazer history books of art. Her work and educational influences will remain for generations to come.
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References:
H.G. Merriam, Arts in Montana, Mountain Printers, 1977.
The Holter Museum of Art, Exhibit Catalog: Frances Senska, A Life in Art, Helena, MT, 2004
Marjorie Smith, I Make Pots: From Montana Students and Big Sky Clay, Frances Senska Helped Craft a Ceramic Revolution, Montana State University News, Bozeman, MT, Oct. 1, 2010.
Frances Maude Senska, Wikipedia.
©2021. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists and art movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The photos and blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #waller-yoblonskyblogspot #walleryoblonskyblogspot #francessenska
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