Kettle
circa 1980
Print
28″ x 34″
Ruth Lauer (b.1964)
Ruth Lauer was born in 1964 in Brooklyn, New York.
She eventually went to study art at Yale University where she completed her graduate studies (MFA), and where she also taught painting, printmaking, and drawing.
After her time at Yale, Ruth moved to New York City where she became a well known artist and an active participant in the art boom amidst the hundreds of galleries in the East Village. Eventually, dealer Laurie Seeman of Cooper-Seeman exhibited and represented her work. These pieces come from her collection of work from the East Village in the 1980s.
In the late 80s, Ruth broke her back in a car accident. She was bed ridden for a whole year in order to heal. In response to her experiences, Ruth created a body of work about conventional forms that contain the human body: bed, chair, bathtub, coffin, etc.
Her work is almost exclusively black and white, and widely varies in its treatment of the paper. After departing from printmaking, Ruth transitioned to working with ink and graphite.
Following her back injury Ruth discovered yoga, which brought her to travel to India to study its practice. Today she is a renowned yoga teacher and has published several contemplative books on yoga. She is also a visiting artist at Dartmouth College.