Ford Ruthling
1933 - 2015
In every generation, we sense that some people are forward-looking, while others weigh the import of history as a guide for their lives. However, a few recognize as links between our shared past and what is yet to be. Just such a link is Ford Ruthling. The family of William Penhallow Henderson employed Ruthling's mother, and his family counted John Sloan among its intimates. Ruthling studied art at the University of New Mexico with Randall Davey. After a lengthy tour of duty in the military, Ruthling became the curator of exhibitions at the Museum of International Folk Art under Alexander Girard.
In the 1930s, the tiny northern New Mexico village of Tesuque seemed far from New Mexico's art centers of Taos and Santa Fe. However, it was not far enough to keep the young Ford Ruthling from being steeped in the spirit of creativity. The Mexican and New Mexican crafts which surrounded him developed in him a love of nature. Living things fascinated Ruthling. The variety of animal life and the forms of plants as they cycled through their growing season developed his sense of style.
The curious ways in which the natural world's beings combined and recombined led Ruthling to create images with a kind of subtle humor. They also taught him to utilize many media in what he made. Ruthling's cross-media versatility led him to make use of tin, wood, clay, iron, and paper, in addition to oil and canvas for his paintings, for which he is most famous.
