Ture Bengtz

Ture Bengtz (1907 – November 10, 1973) was a Finnish-American artist associated with the Boston Expressionist School, an influential teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and director of the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts. He also had a television show, "Bengtz on Drawing," on Boston's PBS station in the late 1950s.

Early life and education

Bengtz was born in Åland, Finland, in 1907. At the age of 18 he emigrated from Finland to the United States to live with his relatives in Medford, Massachusetts. He worked as a house painter and went to night school to learn English. While taking an art class at night school, a teacher noticed Bengtz's talent and suggested he apply to an art school.

Bengtz enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (the "museum school") in 1928. He won the school's top scholarship, the Paige Traveling Scholarship, which allowed him to study in Europe for two years. He graduated in 1933. He founded the Graphics Department in 1939 and became head of the Drawing and Graphic Arts Department in 1941. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Fogg Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and other museums and private collectors. His papers are on file with the Boston Public Library.

The Art Complex Museum named its Bengtz Gallery in his honor, and published a collection of his lithographs in 1978. In 2007, the centennial of his birth was marked in Finland with an exhibition at the Önningebymuseet, and in 2010 the Finnish Government issued a postage stamp featuring a detail from the stained glass window he created for St. Olaf's Church.