Wilfred A. Readio

Mid Century Colorado River Landscape

c.1940

Wilfred A. Readio was a noted painter, lithographer and educator who was active and lived in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Massachusetts. He received his education from Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he studied under Arthur Watson Sparks and A.V. Churchill. He eventually became a member of the faculty and was the founder of the "American Industrial Design Department" — which was renamed the "Department of Pictorial Design" in 1944 — where for a short time he was the acting head of the faculty. He taught drawing and lithography classes, and one of his famous pupils was Andy Warhol. Readio was known for his scenes of Pittsburgh and Colorado. In the 1930s through 1960s, he regularly spent summers in Colorado, where he owned a home. Much of his work during this time was dedicated to producing images of the local Colorado landscape and mining towns of the San Juan Mountains and vicinity. He died in 1961.