Ruth Leaf Figurative Prints

Ruth Leaf was an American artist and a pioneer in the discipline of printmaking. While also fluent in the methods of linoleum, monotype, collagraph and collage, she is most known for her viscosity etchings and woodcuts. She authored the book, Etching, Engraving and Other Intaglio Printmaking Techniques (Watson-Guptill Publications) in 1976 while teaching at her namesake studio in Long Island and it remains the textbook used today in many schools. She was born in New York City in 1923, she studied at the New School for Social Research, Art Students League and Brooklyn College and at Atelier 17 with the groundbreaking printmaker Stanley William Hayter. She exhibited her work throughout the United States and abroad and has work in many collections, including the Library of Congress, the U.S. Information Agency, the Butler Institute of American Art and numerous university museums. Leaf has been a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists, the American Color Print Society and regional printmaking groups.