Karl O. Karhumaa, sculptor and teacher, dies at 90

Karl O. Karhumaa, 90, a sculptor who taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for more than 20 years, exerting a quiet but powerful influence on a generation of Philadelphia sculptors, died Monday at Wyndmoor Hills Health Care & Rehabilitation Center. He was recovering from a broken hip, friends said, when he died in his sleep.

"He had a dry sense of humor, and his sculpture has humor - it's a lot like him," said friend and fellow sculptor Jerry Klein.

Klein said Mr. Karhumaa was a figurative artist but saw figures "in a different way" than others at the academy. "He had his own way of seeing. He had his own way of sculpting. He was always simplifying his sculptures."

Sculptor Jim Victor, who studied with him in the mid-'60s, described Mr. Karhumaa as a "humanist, in a way. Sculptures had stories - that interested him. It was a narrative kind of thing. He was always interested in people, how we lived and what we did."

Mr. Karhumaa was born in Highland Park, Mich., and grew up in a Finnish community on the shore of Lake Michigan. After serving in World War II, he received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Wayne State University and a master of fine arts from Syracuse University, where he studied with architect and sculptor Ivan Meštrovic. He later worked as Meštrovic's assistant.

He then attended the academy in Philadelphia, where he met his future wife, Jill Lathrop, granddaughter of William L. Lathrop, widely considered the dean of the New Hope art colony.

After a stint teaching at Denison University, Mr. Karhumaa returned to the Philadelphia area and lived with his wife at Phillips Mill in Bucks County. They divorced in the mid-1960s.

Back in Philadelphia, Mr. Karhumaa began his productive 20-year career at the academy.

"I thought he was the most extraordinary person I ever met," said Grace Gilbert, a painter who studied with him in the mid-1970s. His former companion and long-time friend, she said she was in a painting class when Mr. Karhumaa tapped her on the shoulder with a trowel.

"You belong in sculpture," he said, looking at her canvas. "You paint like a sculptor."

"He had a way of inspiring people," she said. "Something about him made you feel whatever you were doing was the most important thing. His work was like poetry."

His son, Julian Karhumaa, said, "He was a teacher. His students absolutely loved him."

In 1987, as the academy was instituting a master's program and mulling ways to bolster its balance sheet and refocus its academic approach, Mr. Karhumaa was asked to leave.

"I was told that I did not complement the tenor of the department," he told The Inquirer at the time. His departure caused a brouhaha among academy graduates in the area. But Mr. Karhumaa, bemused by the affair, simply moved on, continuing to live and work in Philadelphia.

Artist Richard Ranck, who served as academy registrar in the 1970s, characterized him as "a thoughtful man" who "produced work his entire life."

He had exhibitions at the Michener Art Museum, the academy, the Reading Public Museum, the Allens Lane Art Center, and West Chester University, among many other venues.

Victor said Mr. Karhumaa worked until debility and injury kept him from doing so. "He talked with his hands. He said your material makes your art, a lot of what you do comes out of the materials."

Mr. Karhumaa is also survived by a daughter, Zoe Beale; a sister; five granchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services are private. A memorial service is being planned.

215-854-5594@SPSalisbury