Roy Carruthers, painter, printmaker, illustrator, graphic designer, and art director, was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on December 14, 1938. Carruthers studied at the Port Elizabeth Technical College Art School, which apprenticed him in the advertising agencies in Port Elizabeth. From 1956 to 1968, he worked as an art director and graphic designer, first in South Africa, then in London, where he moved in 1960. He spent most of the 1960s living England before he immigrated to the United States in 1968. He settled in Old Greenwich, Connecticut and commuted to New York City for many years working in the advertising industry. In 1974, he decided to devote himself entirely to fine art but returned to the advertising world in the 1980s. He eventually opened his own advertising and graphic design firm in the New York borough of Queens. Carruthers taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1975. As a fine artist, he produced paintings, drawings, sculpture, etchings, and lithographs. His collaboration with Editions Press in San Francisco produced colour lithographs and sculpture.
Carruthers' work was honoured with an award from the American Institute of Graphic Art in 1973 and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1973. His works were exhibited throughout Europe, South Africa and the United States. In 1982 he returned to South Africa as a guest of the Department of National Education and was honored with a touring museum exhibition of his work. Carruthers is represented in the collections of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts; University of Wyoming Art Museum; the Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Ulrich Museum at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greenboro; and the Ponce Museum, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Roy Carruthers died on May 3, 2013, in Bunnell, Florida.
1971 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse #1 War
oil on canvas 40.6 x 61 cm1972 Girl with lion and hoop n' stick
oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm1975 The Psychiatrist
pencil on paper 64 x 54 cm1976 The Engineer, Watson
pencil on paper 47 x 42.4 cm1977 Three Smokers
oil on canvas 181 x 144.8 cm1978 A Message from Magritte
oil on canvas 190.5 x 132.7 cm1978 Suitor with Voyeur
graphite on paper 47 x 50.2 cm1979 One man drinking tea, the other just sitting there
oil on canvas 183 x 137 cm1979 The Interview
oil on canvas 190 x 239 cm1980 Seated man with books
chalk on paper 127.6 x 95.2 cm1980 Still life with safety razor
colour lithograph 76.2 x 56.9 cm1980 Still life with safety razor
pencil on paper 76.2 x 56.9 cm1980 The Drinkers
oil on canvas 185.4 x 190.5 cm1980 Woman drinking
pencil on paper 81.5 x 42.5 cm1981 Study #1
lithograph 27.9 x 21.5 cm1982 Man tying shoelaces
charcoal on paper 145 x 83 cm1982 Untitled (Three Figures)
oil on canvas 152.4 x 121.9 cm1983 The Bather
oil on canvas 101.6 x 60.9 cm1983-86 Untitled
oil on canvas 200 x 168.3 cm1989 Immeasurably
oil on canvas 20.25 x 24.3 cm1998 The Venus of Ponte Vedra
oil on canvas 67.3 x 99.6 cm1999 The Couple
oil on canvas 184.1 x 145.4 cm
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| Afternoon Tea oil on canvas 68.75 x 47.75 cm |
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| Figural colour lithograph 131.4 x 48.2 cm |
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| Open drawers lithograph (size not given) |
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| Open toe sling-backs lithograph (size not given) |
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| Peacock Lady acrylic on canvas 76.2 x 60.9 cm |
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| Ship of Fools oil on canvas 106.6 x 152.4 cm |
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| Sleeping Woman colour lithograph 73.7 x 98.8 cm |
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| Southpaw colour lithograph 36.8 x 31.75 cm |
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| Still-Life with Coffee / Tea Pots lithograph (size not given) |
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| The Left Handed Bureaucrat lithograph on wove paper 107 x 74 cm |
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| Victorian House Fire oil on canvas 53.3 x 43.1 cm |
