Barnaby Ruhe
Quick Facts
Biography
Barnaby Ruhe is an American artist, shaman, academic, and six-time world champion boomeranger. As an artist, Ruhe, a professor at New York University's Gallatin school of individualized study, is best known for his painting marathons, otherwise known as endurance feats. His New York City studio is located within the Westbeth Artists Community.
Ruhe obtained his B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, his M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1975 and his PHD from New York University in 1989.
Ruhe received his doctorate in shamanism and art practice, an interdisciplinary effort combining psychology, anthropology, art history, phenomenology and art studio action. He was senior editor of Art/World newspaper in the 1980s and '90s and wrote the first New York City reviews of work by Francesco Clemente and The Starn Twins, as well as essays on Francisco de Goya, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. Ruhe currently serves on the board of Artists Talk on Art. A romantic artist, he incorporates sentiment, gesture and psychic journeying into his paintings, and he runs shaman healing workshops at Shamandome Camp at the Burning Man festival each summer.