David Ruff

Who is David Ruff?

David Ruff born New York 13 November 1925 - died Turin 7 June 2007 was an American artist.

He studied print-making with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York's Greenwich Village from 1947 to 1948. He studied painting with Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

He ran The Print Workshop in San Francisco from 1950 to 1955, publishing poetry and teaching etching and engraving. He co-founded The Jargon Society with American poet Jonathan Williams in 1951. The first print that Jargon made was a folded pamphlet with a poem by Williams and an etching by Ruff. Just 150 copies were produced. A show of his graphic work and fine letterpress editions was held at the Book Club of California in 1953.

In 1955, he printed Pictures of a Gone World, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the first of the City Lights Pocket Poets series of anthologies. The same year he returned to the east coast, settling in Woodstock, NY.

His search for new artistic directions led him to travel - from France, to the Netherlands and England - and finally to Italy.