Elliot Rudie

Elliot Rudie was born September 5, 1939 in Dundee, Scotland. After completing a Diploma in Drawing and Painting from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1960, he hitchhiked to London, where he worked as a kitchen porter for about six months and then set off to Paris, hoping to find work and set up a studio to pursue a career as an artist. Unable to establish himself, he returned to Scotland, but then went back to Paris in the spring of 1961 managed to get a job as a bank doorman/interpreter at 22 Place Vendome. Rudie found out about the Beat Hotel from the photographer Steve Lovi and was eventually able to secure a room, where he stayed for six months and immersed himself in his drawings and writing. After the Beat Hotel closed, he settled in Scotland and worked for 30 years as an art teacher. Rudie’s drawings and paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Scotland and England. Stylistically, he sees himself rooted in the ironic humor of Expressionism, but is heavily influenced by the apocalyptic vision of the American Beats, particularly William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.