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Ruth Gikow Signed Art Proof Print (Jack Levine's Wife)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 310.00 USD
Ruth Gikow Signed Art Proof Print (Jack Levine's Wife)
This is shoreline landscape on a warm, azure sea coast. * * * Artist: Ruth Gikow * Signature: In pencil, lower right * Medium: Lithograph on rag paper, deckled lower edge * Edition: Unnumbered artist's proof, marked "E.A" in pencil, lower left * Sheet size: 20 x 26 1/2 inches * Condition: Excellent; minor edge wear * * * Biography: * Ruth Gikow (1915 - 1982) was born in the Russian Ukraine, and soon after her family emigrated to the Lower East Side of New York where they lived in poverty. With a desire to become a fashion artist, she enrolled at Cooper Union, and became enthralled with painting instead. Gikow worked on the Federal Arts Project of the WPA, but afterwards found little commercial success with her art. She married artist Jack Levine, and this inspired her to further her artistic career. Abstract Expressionism was the prominent movement at the time, in the 1950's, yet Ruth stayed with figural realism. In 1959 she was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She is recognized today as a prominent Jewish woman artist. Her work can be found in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.