Thomas Woodruff (born 1957) is a New York based artist who was born in New Rochelle, New York. He received a BFA from Cooper Union in 1979. He taught at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York City for 39 years, and was Chair of the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department for 20 years, stepping down as Chair Emeritus in 2021.School for Visual Arts
/ref> T: The New York Times Style Magazine praised Woodruff for "diversifying the curriculum" during is tenure at SVA. Much of the artist's output is in series. ''Crying Clown'', in the collection of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

, is from the ''Chromatic Aberration'' series. It is an overly sentimentalized self-portrait painted in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, showing Woodruff’s feelings of anger and loss. The

Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...

, the Brooklyn Museum, the

Greenville County Museum of Art The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) is an art museum located in Greenville, South Carolina. Its collections focus mainly on American art, and its holdings include works by Andrew Wyeth, Josef Albers, Jasper Johns (raised in South Carolina), ...

(Greenville, South Carolina), the

, the

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...

are among the public collections holding work by Thomas Woodruff. In 2022 he had an exhibition entitled ''Resurrection'' at the prestigious Vito Schnabel Gallery that was hailed as a "luminous show" by

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

. In 2023, Woodruff's work ''Francis Rothbart! The Tale of a Fastidious Feral'', published by

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was founde ...

was called "the Sistine Chapel of graphic novels" by Steven Heller in an article in

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and praised as the "gorgeous" for being "Hand-lettered with lush color paintings and moody charcoal drawings" by

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. The book was nominated for four

Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

in the categories Best Graphic Album (New), Best Painter/Multimedia Artist, Best Lettering, and Best Publication Design. The nominations prompted criticism by former students, who described him as an emotionally abusive teacher, and the book as culturally appropriative. Woodruff initially responded in a statement provided by Fantagraphics that his "frank critiques" of his students "were intended to help them develop keen minds and strong spines," and to criticism of the book that "Artists must be brave, particularly telling the stories that they need to tell." He declined the nominations a week later.

References

* Woodruff, Thomas, ''Thomas Woodruff's Freak Parade'', Hardy-Marks, 2006 ASIN: B01JO27RQY * Woodruff, Thomas, Christopher Scoates, Debra Wilbur, Bill Arning, Christopher Sweet and Nick Debs, ''Nosegays and Knuckle Sandwiches, Work by Thomas Woodruff'', Atlanta College of Art Gallery and City Gallery at Chastain, Atlanta, 1997

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodruff, Thomas 1957 births Living people American artists