in New York City in which she displayed her experimental prints to a positive audience. A young Eleanor Antin, who would later become a famed photographer and performance artist, modeled for Gikow's early artworks. In 1959 she was awarded a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1979 she was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1982. Artistic style Gikow became renowned for her large scale paintings which depict city settings and imagery. Although, her collection of works also encompass contemporary human figures from various walks of life besides urban crowds. Originally, Gikow wished to work as a fashion or commercial artist, yet could not find work despite her qualifications due to the effects of the Depression. She was stated to have moved away from commercial art due to the inspiration she received from a classmate. The classmate had sketched the image of caged animal while on a field trip to the zoo and Gikow found the image to capture not the likeness of the creature but instead the tension and essence. Gikow found this to be what she wished to create. Her earlier experiments with printing, such as her 1943 serigraph Flood, are of a much more surreal style than her later paintings. Gikow's early prints experiment with color, shape, dimension, and tension as she employed a style leaning towards the abstract with vague human figures composed of layered shapes and an emphasis on bold colors. While travelling abroad with her husband in 1947 Gikow was exposed to master artists such as Piero della Francesca and Masaccio. Due to this influence, she came to develop her more naturalistic style in which human figures are rendered with more detail, light sketchy lines, anatomically accurate proportions, and heavy, defining shading. A piece that demonstrates this transition from abstract to naturalistic is the 1969 lithograph Protest. This work highlights her emphasis on capturing the human form with expressive strokes in a more naturalistic style. Public collections Her work can be found many institutions, including: Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern Art Philadelphia Museum of Art Whitney Museum Sources Josephson, Matthew. Ruth Gikow, New York: Maecenas/Random House, 1970 References External links Oral history interview with Ruth Gikow, 1964 Ruth Gikow on ArtNet 1915 births 1982 deaths Cooper Union alumni American women painters Soviet emigrants to the United States