Cyrus Running (1913-1976)

Hiro Fine Art is interested in purchasing artworks by Cyrus Running.

Cyrus Running was born on August 2, 1913 to parents born in America with ties to Norway. Though he was born in Veblen, South Dakota, he was educated in Montana and Idaho, receiving his high school education in Zumbrota, Minnesota. He received a BA degree in history and biology at St. Olaf College in 1934. Graduate work was pursued at the School of Fine Arts, Yale University. By 1940, Running received his MA from the University of Iowa, studying with Grant Wood.

He taught science and music at a high school in Wisconsin, and art at the University of Omaha, before moving on to chair the art department at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN in 1940. In the same year Running married artist Eldred Thorpe, and they raised four children. While holding this position, he studied at the University of Minnesota, and received a MFA from the Instituto Allendo, San Miguel, Mexico. Running had close ties to Luther College through his older brother Orville M. Running, the College Artist and long-time art department chair. Their younger brother, Paul D. Running was a faculty at Bowling Green State University.

Through Cyrus Running’s leadership, the art department visual arts program at Concordia was expanded. For thirty years, he annually designed the Christmas concert backdrops. He remained active at Concordia until retiring in 1974. Two years after his death, a bronze bust of the artist was dedicated, along with the college gallery named in his honor, the Cyrus M. Running gallery. Many of his works are today displayed across the campus.

Running exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Red River annual art exhibitions, the James J. Hill House, and the Luther College Fine Arts Festivals. He served as a judge at festivals, created architectural commissions, illustrated books (Fjords and Faces and Streiftog: Stemninger og Skildringer, both by Kristian Prestgard in 1937), and a booklet on stewardship.