Artist List    A. C. Runquist    Images  |  Bio Albert Runquist was born in South Bend, Washington in 1894. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1920. During vacations he worked on the docks as a longshoreman, and after graduation he taught history and mathematics and coached both football and track at Benson High School, Portland, and later at Grant High School. He was at Grant for three years. During 1924-25 he spent some time in San Francisco, and during 1928 he lived in Seattle. In 1929 he went to New York as a scholarship student at the Art Students' League. He studied there for three years, returning to Portland in 1932. Late in 1933 he went down to the Oregon Coast and spent a year at Neahkahnie. In 1934 he joined the WPA Arts Project, on which he stayed for six years. During this period he executed a 5' x 12' mural for the Post Office in Cedro Wooley, Washington, on the subject of Northwest industries. He left the Project in 1940 and worked first for Willamette Iron and Steel (shipbuilders for World War II) and later for Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver, Washington. He continued there until the war ended in 1945. In 1946 Albert went down to the Coast again to the house in Neahkahnie that A. E. Doyle had designed for Harry Wentz, long time Dean of the Museum Art School. Albert and his brother, Arthur, remained there for 18 years, producing a large body of work and establishing firmly their reputation as true interpreters and painters of the Oregon Coast. Albert taught painting for one year at the Museum Art School in 1946-7, commuting from Neahkahnie. In 1963 he returned to Portland, as did Arthur. Both were actively painting until sometime in 1970. Arthur died first in 1971, and Albert followed him before the end of the year. --Barbara L. McLarty for The Image Gallery