Robert C. Turner

American, (1913–2005)

Robert Chapman Turner was born in Port Washington, New York, in 1913. He studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he obtained two fellowships that allowed him to travel throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Attracted by the physicality and handmade aspects of ceramics, he later changed his course of studies, and in 1949 he obtained an MFA in industrial ceramic design from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Later, he was invited to start the ceramics program at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. In 1952, he established a studio in Alfred Station, New York, and became a faculty member at Alfred University’s school of art and design, where he taught ceramic art until his retirement in 1979.