Cornelis Ruhtenberg

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Cornelis Ruhtenberg (November 18, 1923 - 2008) [1] was a Latvian-American painter.

Contents

Life

Ruhtenberg was born in Riga, Latvia to Hanne Helmsing Ruhtenberg, and Jan Ruhtenberg. [2] [3] [4] She and her two brothers grew up in Latvia, Germany, and Sweden, with the family moving to Berlin in the late 1920s after Jan received a scholarship to Berliner Technische Hochschule. [3] [4] In 1931 her parents divorced, and Ruhtenberg chose to stay with her mother in Berlin while her father moved to Sweden to work. [4] She studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Berlin between 1941 and 1946, during which time she lived with her mother. [2] [3] In 1942, her senior year of high school, she broke both arms in a gymnastics accident and was thus able to avoid joining Nazi youth labor groups; by the time she had recovered, the government was more focused on the war than bureaucracy, and didn't follow up with her. [3] She maintained a low profile for the remainder of the war, despite being an associate of Karl Hofer and Max Kaus, and was not attacked by the Nazi party. [3] While laying low, she focused on her painting. [3] After the war ended, she would scavenge plywood from demolished buildings to paint on. [3] Around the same time, she was named one of Germany's 25 greatest living painters by the Prolog group, and one of only four women on the list. [3]

She immigrated to the United States in April or May 1948, where she reunited with her father, who had lived in the country since 1932. [1] [5] In May of that year, she exhibited 15 paintings at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. [3] Other artists from the center said there was "no explanation for the astonishing talent she has developed under unimaginable conditions". [3]

She lived in and exhibited her art in New York City [6] before moving to Iowa with her husband, Jules Kirschenbaum, whom she had met in 1952 and who taught at Drake University. [5] [7] In 1954 one of her paintings was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [8] She exhibited art at the Museum of Modern Art three times: in 1955, 1956, and 1962. [9] In 1957 she illustrated a children's book, Straps the Cat, which was written by Claudia Lewis. [10] [11]

Ruhtenberg died in Issaquah, Washington in 2008. [2]

Style

Ruhtenberg primarily painted figures who were "caught in their own contemplative worlds", and who were more loosely and abstracted painted compared to the environments they were set in. [2] [5] She favored muted colors in her works, [2] [5] and tended to paint fairly flat backgrounds. [12]

Works

Three of Ruhtenberg's works are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 Dresden, SLUB. "Cornelis Ruhtenberg, Mexico". digital.slub-dresden.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Cornelis Ruhtenberg". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Ruhtenberg Paintings Depict Great Talent During Wartime" (PDF). Colorado Springs Free Press. May 31, 1948.
  4. 1 2 3 Fernandez, Megan (2011-08-01). "Loved & Lost: The Life of Jan Ruhtenberg". Indianapolis Monthly. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Works – Cornelis Ruhtenberg – People". Iowa State University eMuseum. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  6. ↑ P, S. (1949-09-16). "6 ART EXHIBITIONS AT GALLERIES HERE; Cornelis Ruhtenberg's 'Flutist' Outstanding at Passedoit -Water-Colors at Babcock". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  7. ↑ Worthen, Thomas Fletcher (2006). Jules Kirschenbaum: The Need to Dream of Some Transcendent Meaning. University of Iowa Museum of Art. p. 8. ISBN   978-0-87414-155-9.
  8. ↑ Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (1954). Annual Report of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. p. 28.
  9. ↑ "Cornelis Ruhtenberg on MOMA Exhibition Spelunker". www.moma.org. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  10. ↑ The Publishers Weekly. F. Leypoldt. 1957. p. 99.
  11. ↑ Recommended Children's Books, as Professionally Evaluated by Librarians for Librarians in Library Journal. 1957. p. 14.
  12. ↑ "Art: The Reappearing Figure". Time. 1962-05-25. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 2023-07-12.
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