Sylvia Rutkoff

"Across the River" Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Female Artist

1950s

Sylvia Weinreb Rutkoff (1919-2011) Born in Wisconsin in 1919 and painted in New York. Arts Magazine called her work a “happy wedding of the natural image to the violent immediacy of the expressionist idiom.” She has been described as “vital” by the New York Herald Tribune and as an “outstanding colorist” by the New York Times. Her non-objective paintings of oils, sand and acrylics are done with intensity and simplicity. She received numerous reviews including this one from the well regarded art critic, Gregory Battock: “Highly sophisticated textures that speak firmly and imaginatively contribute a lot to the Art Brut works by this artist. One thinks of a gay and colorful Dubuffet. Miss Rutkoff offers naive and primitive images in a refreshing and delightful manner” The cache of paintings by Sylvia Rukoff was recently acquired through her great nephew. This important new discovery of American art is now being offered for sale. 1939 Hunter College in New York City, MA in Painting and Art History 1958 Art Student League Shows Include: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Brooklyn Museum, New York Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, Ohio Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York International Young Artists Exhibition, Tokyo 1962 Caravan Gallery, New York (two one-woman shows) 1961, 1963 Capricorn Gallery, New York NY Osaka University Art Gallery, Japan Loeb Gallery, New York University, New York, NY Gallimaufry Gallery, Croton-On-Hudson Women’s Interart Center Key Gallery, Soho, New York, NY Edward Williams Gallery, Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey National Juried Show, Summit Art Center, New Jersey Creative Gallery, New York, NY The Riverside Museum, New York, NY Sylvia taught art in the summers at Lehigh University in the 60s/70s, and was the Director of the Art Workshop in the Graduate School Fairleigh Dickinson University. She belonged to a group of artists called the Vectors, a group which included the Abstract Expressionists Ben Wilson, Frances Manacher, Rhoda Sklar, and Julius, Mary Shier and others.