Ruvim Frumak was bornin Chashniki, Lepel district, Vitebsk province (now a city in the Vitebsk region) to a Jewish family. He studied at a labor school in Vitebsk in 1916 and then at the Vitebsk National Art School, founded by artist Marc Chagall in 1918. Frumak was influenced by Robert Falk, a founder of the artistic association of the early Russian avant-garde "Jack of Diamonds," and studied in his studio at Vkhutemasin Moscow until 1928.

In 1930, Frumak moved to Leningrad and joined the "Circle of Artists," an association of Leningrad artists that aimed to improve professional skills and experiment with formal techniques. After the dissolution of all existing literary and artistic organizations and groups in the spring of 1932, Frumak joined Saint Petersburg Union of Artists. He served in the Great Patriotic War, was awarded the Order of the Red Star and several medals. In the post-war period, Frumak continued to work actively, was the main artist of the Kalininsky and then Oktyabrsky districts of Leningrad and created some of his best works in the 1970s.