Jan De Ruth, Czech American Floral Oil Painting Jan De Ruth Vibrant Modernist Flowers in Vase

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Jan de Ruth (Czech/American, 1922-1991) Still Life of Flowers Oil on canvas, Hand signed lower right Verso bears gallery label … Read more Jan de Ruth (Czech/American, 1922-1991) Still Life of Flowers Oil on canvas, Hand signed lower right Verso bears gallery label from Harbor Gallery, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. Dimensions: 24" x 18", Framed, 33 1/2" x 27 1/2" Czech-American artist, Jan De Ruth is best known for his beautiful figurative expressionist oil paintings. Born in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia, the artist received training at Rotter Art School, Prague; Ruskin Art School, Oxford University, England; Art Students League New York; and the New School, New York as well as with artist Frederic Taubes. A native of Czechoslovakia and now an American citizen he spent the years of World War II being shunted through five concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz. He made four escape attempts and finally made good on his fifth try. In March of 1945, after being transferred to his native Czechoslovakia, he made his successful escape “knowing every step of the way.” After the war, De Ruth became the commissar in a small Czech town and remained in the post for one year, just long enough to forge some documents that allowed him to flee to England. He took up residence in London and enrolled at the Ruskin Art School in Oxford University. He arrived in the USA in 1948. From 1948 to 1955 he supported himself by working at night, earning his way painting designs on neckties and bathroom cups; as a fashion designer, illustrator, vacuum cleaner salesman, theatre manager, and actor. In ’55 Jan De Ruth made his professional debut as a full-time artist and two years later his first one-man show established him as a serious painter. His work has been acclaimed for combining the technique of the old masters with a modern manner, and has been exhibited in more than 40 one-man shows in galleries and museums across the United States. De Ruth, author of the books “Portrait Painting” and “Painting the Nude,” has devoted his entire life to painting the female face and form. He enjoys special popularity as a portraitist and has become one of the best-known painters of the nude female in the world today. Often asked why he concentrates on this most demanding of all art subjects he replies: “Each painting of the nude becomes a new experience . . . It (the human figure) is nature’s most perfect and most imperfect creation, communicating, even in silence and immobility, the physical and spiritual power-and frailty-of humanity.” His achievements also include a portrait of Ethel Kennedy for the cover of the Time Magazine. His work has been shown with Moses Soyer, Tully Filmus, Charles Levier, Martin Jackson, Thomas Strickland, Raphael Soyer, Itzchak (Isaac) Tarkay, Robert Philipp, Nicola Simbari, William Gropper, Louis Michel Eilshemius, Charles Levier, Robert Brackman, David Burliuk, Pal Fried, Samuel Marcus Adler, William Edward Norton, Andre Gisson, John Edward Costigan, Henry Martin Gasser and Romain (Erte) De Tirtoff. He was a contemporary of many of the Jewish WPA artists who lived in New York City. SELECTED AWARDS: Butler Institute of American Art Purchase Prize Ogunquit Art Center Knickerbocker Artist 1964 Audubon Artist, Grumbacher Purchase Prize National Arts Club of America Gold Medal Winsor-Newton Award of the National Arts Club MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS: B’nai B’rith Museum – Washington D.C. Florida Gulf Coast Art Center – Clearwater, Fla. Mint Museum of Art – Charlotte, N.C. Neville Public Museum – Green bay, Wisconson Lauren Rogers Museum – Laurel, Miss. Theodore Wright Art Center – Beloit, Wis. Bowling Green State College – Bowling Green, Ohio Catawba College – Salisbury, N.C. East Central State College – Ada, Oklahoma Fairleigh Dickinson University – New Jersey Rochester Public Library – Rochester, N.Y. NATIONAL EXHIBITIONS: Allied Artists of America American Artists Professional League Audubon Artists Berkshire Art Association, Berkshire Museum Boston Society of Independent Artists Connecticut Academy Knickerbocker Artists National Academy of Design National Arts Club New York City Center New York State Exposition Ogunquit Art Center Painters and Sculptors Society of New Jersey In 2008, Hilary Helstein created an award-winning documentary about the topic of artists in the Holocaust titled, “As Seen Through These Eyes,” narrated by Maya Angelou, Among the artists interviewed are Samuel Bak, Simon Wiesenthal, Ela Weissberger, Karl Stojka, Alfred Kantor and more. See less