Andrée Ruellan, 101, Dies; A Painter of Her Century
deb...@comcast.net
By MARGALIT FOX, NY Times
Published: August 6, 2006
Andrée Ruellan, a noted painter of the 1930's and 40's whose
complete body of work spans almost the entire 20th century, died on
July 15 in Kingston, N.Y. She was 101 and lived for many years in
Shady, N.Y., near Woodstock.
Her death was confirmed by a friend, Daniel Gelfand. Ms. Ruellan leaves
no immediate survivors.
A child prodigy, Ms. Ruellan first exhibited her work at 9. As a young
woman, she was known for her sympathetic depictions of scenes from
ordinary life, which she observed on the streets of New York and in her
travels in the American South.
Reviewing an exhibition of Ms. Ruellan's work in 1940, The New York
Times called it "light, fresh and largely in the true field of
American genre," adding, "it is never without strength and
clarity."
Last year, in honor of Ms. Ruellan's 100th birthday, a retrospective
of her work was organized by the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Ga.
It is currently on view, through Aug. 27, at the Columbus Museum in
Columbus, Ga.
Ms. Ruellan's work is in the permanent collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and
elsewhere.
Andrée Ruellan (pronounced roo-ELL-en) was born in Manhattan on April
6, 1905, to parents who had come from France. Her father, André, was
an aviator and airplane mechanic.
Ms. Ruellan began drawing early. In 1914, when she was 9, the Ashcan
School painter Robert Henri invited her to join a group show in the
East Village; she contributed watercolors and drawings of urban street
life. That year she also had an illustration published in The Masses, a
progressive magazine.
In 1920 Ms. Ruellan's father was killed in an airfield accident, and
she began selling her work to support herself and her mother, Lucette.
The same year she was awarded a scholarship to the Art Students League
of New York, where she studied with the noted painter Maurice Sterne.
For much of the 1920's, she and her mother lived in Paris. There she
met John W. Taylor, a painter, whom she married in 1929. Soon
afterward, the couple moved to Shady, where they were for decades part
of Woodstock's lively artists' colony. Mr. Taylor died in 1983.
During the Depression Ms. Ruellan and her husband made several trips to
the South, which resulted in some of her most memorable work. Her
paintings from the period are notable for their portrayals of ordinary
African-Americans at work and at play.
"Crap Game" (1936), perhaps Ms. Ruellan's best-known painting,
depicts a group of black men in Charleston, S.C., engaged in an avid
game of dice. But the muted palette and the stark emptiness of the
background convey the straitened circumstances of black life in the
Depression-era South.
In later years Ms. Ruellan's work was more influenced by Surrealism
and Abstract Expressionism. But to the end of her career - she
continued to draw until she was well into her 80's - she remained a
Realist, committed to the idea that art should represent solid,
flesh-and-blood humanity.
"People are never just spots of color," Ms. Ruellan told American
Artist magazine in 1943. "What moves me most is that in spite of
poverty and the constant struggle for existence, so much kindness and
sturdy courage remain. Naturally I want to paint well-designed pictures
- but I also wish to convey these warmer human emotions."
Bill Schenley
> Andrée Ruellan, 101, Dies; A Painter of Her Century
> Andrée Ruellan, a noted painter of the 1930's and
> 40's whose complete body of work spans almost the
> entire 20th century, died on July 15 in Kingston, N.Y.
> She was 101 and lived for many years in Shady, N.Y.,
> near Woodstock.
http://archive.liveauctioneers.com/archive/1104/2012006_1_md.jpg
http://www.artoftheprint.com/jpegimages/ruellan_andree_masques.jpg
http://www.franklinriehlman.com/featured_artists/ruellan/ruellan_FlowersGlass.jpg
http://www.woodstockny.org/run/living/images/25%20Andre%20Ruellan%20%20Simone.jpg
> During the Depression Ms. Ruellan and her husband
> made several trips to the South, which resulted in some
> of her most memorable work. Her paintings from the
> period are notable for their portrayals of ordinary
> African-Americans at work and at play.
http://www.telfair.org/ec/collections/collection/paintings/savannah.gif
http://www.askart.com/AskART/photos/NOR8212004/508.jpg
> "Crap Game" (1936), perhaps Ms. Ruellan's best-known
> painting, depicts a group of black men in Charleston, S.C.,
> engaged in an avid game of dice. But the muted palette and
> the stark emptiness of the background convey the straitened
> circumstances of black life in the Depression-era South.
http://www.columbusmuseum.com/exhibitions/images/future/Ruellan.jpg