Charles Rudy

"To some extent, Rudy's highly-prized sculpture is a reflection of his love of- if not Ottsville then- southeastern Pennsylvania. For Rudy's sculpture is clean, simple, strong; it has its basis in southeastern Pennsylvania's virtues. And it runs to such themes as Young Bull and Pennsylvania Farm Wife."
-Bern Ikeler, Bucks County Traveler, 1952

Charles Rudy achieved national status as a sculptor for his work on public buildings across the country, as well as for his prize-winning sculptures. His most famous commissions included Noah on the Bronx post office in New York, the Sun Seaman's Memorial in Delaware, the Confederate War Memorial on Stone Mountain in Georgia (now very controversial), and the World War II Memorial at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1954.

Some local commissions are the frieze on the Lehigh County court house, two bas-relief profiles of Benjamin Franklin on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, and the flagpole base outside the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been exhibited at such prestigious institutions as the Corcoran Gallery, the Carnegie Institute, and the National Sculpture Society, as well as at local Bucks County galleries. One of his most popular sculptures, The Letter, won a gold medal award from the National Sculpture Society. Rudy's artistic development started in the stained glass studio of his father, artist Horace Rudy, and continued during his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A 1942 Guggenheim fellow, Rudy taught as the head of Cooper Union's Sculpture Department for ten years. He also held teaching positions at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art, Michigan State College, and Philadelphia Museum School of Art.

Charles Rudy was part of the exhibition The Rodin Legacy in conjunction with Rodin: The Human Experience Selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Collections exhibit at the Michener Art Museum in 2015. The Legacy exhibit explored the influence of Rodin on 20th century and contemporary American sculptors, some of whom continue to embrace Rodin's legacy with their interest in naturalism and the partial figure, direct carving, and a desire to express inner psychological states through the physical form.

Virtually Rudy: New Dimensions in Sculpture was on view at the Michener Art Museum in the winter of 2018. Nine sculptures by Charles Rudy from the Michener Art Museum permanent collection were on display alongside three-dimensional representations made possible through a partnership with the Google Cultural Institute.

View Charles Rudy's sculptures in 3D on Sketchfab.

Education and Training
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1924-1928
Cresson European Traveling Scholarship, 1927-1928

Teachers and Influences
His father, J. Horace Rudy, a stained glass artist
Albert Laessle and Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Connection to Bucks County
In 1936, Charles Rudy and his wife Lorraine bought a 1785 stone house and farm near Ottsville with money awarded from a competition held by the National Post Office. A native Pennsylvanian, born in York County, he found his inspiration from the land and the world around him. Rudy lived and worked at his studio on the farm until his death in 1986.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Charles Rudy exhibited with Katharine Steele Renninger, George Anthonisen, Ben Solowey, George Nakashima, Raymond Barger, Anne Darrow, George Papashvily, and other Bucks County artists. The Rudys were neighbors and friends of writer John Wexley and actor Walter Slezak.

Stained glass artists and painters, George and Alice Sotter, studied and worked with Rudy's father, J. Horace Rudy in Pittsburgh and York.

Rudy was an active member of the community, serving as trustee of the Stover Mill in Erwinna, and as an active member and trustee of the Tinicum Civic Association for over 25 years. In 1980, he received the Bucks County Art Award for Excellence in Art. He participated in the annual Bucks County Sculpture Shows and the Phillips' Mill Art Exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collection of the James A. Michener Art Museum. His sculptures of eleven figures, 18 feet high, decorate the facade of the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown.

During World War II, Rudy worked as a welder in an aircraft plant. To alleviate the boredom at the plant, he made sculpture out of the scrap metal he collected there.

Major Group Exhibitions
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1930, 1935, 1946, 1976
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1932, 1943
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 1935, 1941-1946
Treasury Department Art Projects: Painting and Sculpture for Federal Buildings, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1936
Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture Designed for Federal Buildings, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1939
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1938
World's Fair, New York, New York, 1939
Lincoln, Nebraska, 1940
American Federation of Arts, Traveling Exhibition, 1940
National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1942
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, New York, 1944
50th Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1979
Rodman House, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, n.d.
Stover Mill, Erwinna, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, n.d.
Woodmere Art Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, n.d.
The Rodin Legacy, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2015
Virtually Rudy: New Dimensions in Sculpture, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2018
Architectural League, n.d.
National Sculpture Society, n.d.
Century Association, n.d.
Michigan State, n.d.
University of Nebraska, n.d.

Major Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Commissions
Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown, South Carolina, 1935
Noah, Bronx Post Office, New York, New York, 1938
US Government Building, New York World's Fair, 1939
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1948
Seaman's Memorial, Sun Oil Company Park, Marcus Hook, Delaware, 1949
University of Pennsylvania Memorial Flag Pole, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1952
Confederate Memorial, Stone Mountain, Georgia
Virginia Polytechnical Institute, 1954
Republic Steel Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1956
Bas-reliefs of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Camden, New Jersey, 1956
Statue of Edgar Allen Poe, Richmond, Virginia, 1957
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1960
Bas-Relief, Lehigh County Courthouse, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1963
Pennsylvania Historical Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1964
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1964
Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1964
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1976

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Head of Sculpture Department, Cooper Union, New York, New York, 1931-1942
PAFA Summer School, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, 1937-1950
Artist-in-Residence, Michigan State College, East Lansing, Michigan, 1948
Instructor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1950-1951
Skowkegan Art School, Skowkegan, Maine, 1954
Instructor, Philadelphia Museum School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1959-1960
Honorary Degree, York College of Pennsylvania, 1981

Major Awards
Cresson Scholarship for European Travel and Study, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1927-1928
Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1935
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1942
Award in Sculpture, Academy of Arts and Letters, 1944
Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1947
Bucks County Prize, Phillips' Mill Exhibition, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1961
Gold Medal, National Sculpture Society, 1973
Outstanding Artist, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1976
300 Years of American Art, Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1976
50th Anniversary Retrospective, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1979

Affiliations and Memberships
National Academy of Design
National Sculpture Society
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania State Art Commission, 1949-1972