Lackwinni Mangoon

There were 1,000 different exhibits on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art's annual May show last week but. like homing pigeons, socialites hustled to the sculpture department to see what too, too amazing Russell Aitken had to show this time. They were not disappointed. A Special Award for Sustained Excellence was given him for a brilliantly glazed ceramic figure entitled The Futility of a Well Ordered Life.

Described as "a bit of surrealism to end all surrealism" by Ceramist Aitken, the figure was a burlesque of the paintings and parties of Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dali (TIME, Nov. 26). It was a very white lady with turquoise blue hair, clock faces for breasts and lamb chops sprouting from her shoulders. In a turquoise lined square aperture in her stomach stands a brightly colored vase. A fried egg is in one hand, a blue fish in the other. Around her stomach is a girdle of field mice. Directly in front of her polished thighs are two little football players, on roller skates, carrying guitars.

Bitterly do less endowed young Cleveland artists wish that Russell Barnett Aitken, 25, did not do quite so many things so well. There is no question of his ability as a potter. Since 1931 his amusing, brilliantly colored animals and figures have persistently won prizes in, Cleveland, New York, Syracuse, wherever pottery is shown. His works have been bought by such shrewd collectors as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mrs. Juliana Force. But that is just the beginning of his talents. Ceramist Aitken has been called the Richard Halliburton of modern art.

Not to be confused with sober, middle-aged Sculptor Robert Aitken or able, young TIME-FORTUNE Photographer Russell Aikins is Ceramist Russell Barnett Aitken. Son of David Aitken, electric ty coon, he inherited his interest in animals from his father, who started life as a fur trader at Rat Portage in the Rainy River country, Ontario. At the age of nine he was modeling clay robins, baking them by an open fire. He loved to skin weasels so that he might study their muscular structure. To study ceramics Russell Aitken went to the Cleveland Art School rather than an Eastern university. He has worked in porcelain factories in both Austria and Germany as an invited student.

Ceramist Aitken has also served as a guide in the Ontario woods, been adopted by the Ojibway Indians with the tribal name of Lackwinni Mangoon (Lone Wolf). He teaches sculpture and plays polo at White Sulphur. He once flew a planeload of pottery from Cleveland to Newark, paddled through Germany in a kayak, crossed Austria on skis, engaged in sabre duels with the student Korps Hilaritas of Vienna. Polo, aviation, duck shooting and skeet are his favorite recreations.

In Cleveland he has two studios, one downtown for work, another for parties at his swank country place. "Beaverbrook." The Beaverbrook studio is built at the water's edge so that Ceramist Ait ken can shoot ducks from the window. All the furniture in this studio has been specially designed by Ceramist Aitken, from the polished maple radio to the bronze portrait of himself. The ceramics in his bathroom are of standard design.

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