RUTH OHARA

O'HARA--Ruth Printz. Modern art dealer and gallerist Ruth Printz O'Hara passed away peacefully on Saturday, December 7th. She was 88 years old. Ruth was born on the lower east side of Manhattan on January 19th, 1931 to Sam Printz and Bertha Rossen Printz, immigrants from Eastern Europe. As a teenager she was beguiled by the modern art at MOMA and the Met. A 1948 graduate of Seward Park High School, Ruth graduated from Baruch College cum laude in 1952 with a BBA. After working briefly as a publicist and theatrical agent, Ruth spent seventeen years as a gallery assistant and bookkeeper for FAR Gallery at 65th and Madison Avenue, dealing in impressionist and first generation modern art. In 1956 Barney O'Hara asked Ruth if he could have a lick of her ice cream cone at Ocean Beach on Fire Island and they were married that same year. Steven O'Hara was born in 1958, and Jonathan O'Hara was born in 1960. Ruth and Barney raised them along with Sharon O'Hara, Barney's daughter from his first marriage. In 1971, after FAR Gallery closed, Ruth established a private practice, Ruth O'Hara Fine Arts, at 61 East 77th Street. She developed an international reputation specializing in European Modernism and Post War American Art, including the works of Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Duane Hanson, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and many others. In 1990 Ruth co-founded O'Hara Gallery in the famed Fuller Building on East 57th Street where it operated for about 20 years. In addition to her career as an art dealer, Ruth had a great passion and keen eye for design, and was an avid collector. Her homes in New York City, Fire Island and later Sag Harbor included art and decorative arts as varied as Old master Prints, Ancient Roman glass, African and Oceanic masks, Deco furniture, Machine Age, Modern and Contemporary Art. Throughout the course of her career Ruth nurtured and mentored many younger women's careers. She was curious, adventurous, passionate and endlessly generous. With long silver hair and vivid blue eyes, many will recall the sparkle and smile with which she took on the world. Ruth found joy in art, gardening and most of all her family. She was very active in the arts community and believed in supporting living artists. She thoroughly loved her garden in Sag Harbor and as a philanthropist she created the Ruth Printz O'Hara Professorship in Holocaust Studies at Baruch College. Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Barney, and brother, Jack Printz. Ruth was greatly loved and will be deeply missed. She is survived by her two loving sons, Jonathan and Steven, her stepdaughter Sharon Black and six grandchildren, Sean and Nicki Black, Sam, Oliver, Pauline and Julia O'Hara. The family is also endlessly grateful for the kindness and support of Ruth's longtime friend and caregiver, Ella Lewko. The family will have a private ceremony on Wednesday, and request no gifts or flowers.