Ruth Gikow (; January 6, 1915 - April 2, 1982) was an American visual artist known primarily for her work as a genre painter. Her paintings often depict human figures interacting with an urban environment. Early life Ruth Gikow was born on January 6, 1915, in the Russian Empire to Boris, a photographer, and Lena Gikow. In 1920, the family emigrated to New York City due to civil war and pogroms against the Jewish community. Once in New York City, the Gikow family found themselves in poverty, rather than the middle-class comfort they enjoyed in Ukraine. Ruth's skill was prominent even in youth, as she excelled in drawing in elementary school and entered Washington Irving High School at age thirteen in which she furthered her artistic skills. Later, she studied at the Cooper Union Art School, where she studied under school director Austin Purvis, Jr. and regional artist John Steuart Curry. She was not present for the "simple diversions of her age group" due to prioritizing her art and her night time job at Woolworth's. In her second year of Art School, she was awarded a scholarship which she used to work with fellow painter Raphael Soyer. She joined the New York City WPA Federal Art Project in 1935, where she was allowed to dedicate herself to her artwork full-time. Career In 1939, inspired by the muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, she applied and later won a commission to paint murals for Bronx Hospital, Rockefeller Center and the New York World's Fair. After the events of Pearl Harbor and once the Federal Arts Project was abandoned, Gikow's murals were solely sought after by New York department stores wishing to commission wall paintings. Gikow became disillusioned with mural painting due to the commercial aspect of these commissions. With other associates, she founded the American Serigraph Society in which she developed her technique with silk screen printing. Helfond was included in the 1940 MoMA show American Color Prints Under $10. The show was organized as a vehicle for bringing affordable fine art prints to the general public. Her work was also included in the 1947 and 1951 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions of the National Serigraph Society. In 1946 she married the artist Jack Levine, whose dedication and concentration inspired and challenged her own work. In the same year she held her first solo exhibition at the Weyhe Gallery