The Early Years: 1940s to 1950s

Born in Genoa, Italy on September 16, 1938, Coco was named Ruth Constance by her parents, Alisa Moscato Lippmann, herself an artist, and Heinz Lippmann, a physician. A few months after her birth, she emigrated to the United States to escape war-torn Europe, along with her mother and her grandmother, Nonna Emma Carpi Moscato. The journey to America was difficult. Nonna Emma cooed endlessly to soothe Ruth during the long ocean voyage. The cooing turned into a nickname, “Coco,” which stuck. Coco’s father reunited with the family in Manhattan several years later.

When she was ten-years old, Coco’s growing family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey, where she discovered her love for painting in oils.

Coco is an accomplished Julliard-trained pianist. She studied contemporary art at the University of Michigan and graduated from Adelphi University in New York with a B.A. in Arts in 1959. In her early years, ink, etching, and oil crayons dominated her artworks as Coco experimented with sculpture and watercolors.

Above: Top, Left to Right - Whitestone Bridge, Etching (1959); Progress from Poverty, Ink (1958); Spring Fever, Etching (1959). Bottom, Left to Right - Clown, Ink (1959); Adelphi Art, Pencil (1959); Untitled, Ink (1959).

Below: Left - The Dance, Oil Crayons (1959); Right - Bicycle - Ink (1959)