Untitled

Ruth A. Wall

As seen in this explosive, abstract piece, Wall's style was backed by strength combined the rare abandonment of caution, which until the advent of Abstract Expressionism was rarely seen in the mainstream. She chose earth tones and jagged lines that also challenged the mid-20th century ideals of feminine expression. She wields the litho crayon with force and aplomb, uninterested in wan romanticism. 1952 was a seminal year for Ruth Wall, a former WWII Women's Army Corps engineer and ferrier pilot who had arrived to the art world later in life.

The bulk of her printmaking work came about in this single year. At the end of 1952, she left for Paris and studied painting, showing her work at the Museé des Beaux-Arts and the Salon des Realities Nouvelles. When she returned to the CSFA in 1955 it was only briefly, before the travel bug took hold and she devoted several decades to seeing the world, only doing art when there was time.

Wall was born in Wyoming on 10 September 1917. In 1919, her family moved to a homestead on an Indian reservation in Uintah, Utah where she was raised and later worked as a field hand during the Depression. After graduating from high school, Wall enrolled in Brigham Young University where she was a member of the theatrical Mask Club. At Brigham Young she majored in speech and minored in physical education. Upon graduating in 1938, Wall began teaching high school.

With the onset of World War II, Wall moved to Los Angeles. She took an engineering course and then worked as an Army materiel inspector throughout Los Angeles County. She enlisted on 7 September 1944 and joined the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Wall had hopes of becoming a pilot but at the time women were banned from combat. Instead she became a ferrier, flying various planes from manufacturing plants to training fields.

Upon her discharge in 1949, Wall moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the G.I. Bill that enabled her to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA; now the San Francisco Art Institute). She moved to San Francisco in 1949 and the following year began courses in drawing, painting, and printmaking under James Budd Dixon and Robert McChesney. In 1952, she discovered lithography.

In 1952, Wall departed for Paris where she studied painting at the Académie Frochot. While in Paris, her work was exhibited in group shows at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Salon des Realities Nouvelles, and Galerie Huit. Returning to the CSFA in 1955, renamed the San Francisco Art Institute, Wall continued her studies under Nathan Oliveira and Elmer Bischoff. She devoted her time to art before a desire to travel required her to work full time. Wall lived in North Beach, the famed San Francisco artistic community for fifty-five years. Over the years, Wall participated in various exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area.