Ursula von Rydingsvard
Encyclopedia
Ursula von Rydingsvard born in Deensen, Germany (1942 -) is a sculptor who has been working in Brooklyn, New York for the past 30 years. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 1975 after which time she started to work with cedar, a material through which she has explored a wide range of images.
Von Rydingsvard is best known for creating large-scale, often monumental sculpture from the cedar beams which she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and laminates, finally rubbing powdered graphite into the work's textured, faceted surfaces. She deliberately uses cedar boards milled into 4" by 4" widths with varied lengths which create a neutrality or "blank canvas" which enables her to dip into many different possibilities often within the arena of the psychological and emotional. As von Rydingsvard explains this approach: "If I were to say how it is that I break the convention of sculpture (and I'm not sure that's what I do or even if that's what I want to do), it would be by climbing into the work in a way that’s highly personal, that I can claim as being mine. The more mine it is, the more I’m able to break the convention." Her signature abstract shapes refer to things in the real world, each revealing the mark of the human hand while also summoning natural forms and forces. These forms typically include simple vessels and bowls; many suggest tools or other artifacts such as shovels, spoons and fences, or allude to primitive dwellings, geological formations, the landscape, or the body. She now features permanent dents in her cheeks from wearing masks while working for so many years.
Her early years were directly affected by the upheaval of World War II. Born in Germany in 1942, von Rydingsvard and her family were among the dispossessed that, after the war, were forced to move from one refugee camp for displaced Poles to another, eventually settling in the United States in 1950. The artist's respect for organic materials and the dignity of labor, and the sense of loss and pain, and the persistent memories that inform her work may be traced back to these formative experiences.
Her sculpture is included in numerous permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and Detroit Institute of Arts. Major permanent commissions of her work are on view at the Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; Storm King Art Center, New York; the Bloomberg Building, New York; the Queens Family Courthouse, New York and the Nelson Atkins, Kansas City. Mad. Sq. Art: Ursula von Rydingsvard was the outdoor solo exhibition presented at Madison Square Park in 2006. She is the recipient of two individual grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim, two awards from the American International Critics Association (one for the second best exhibition in a commercial gallery in 2000 and the other for the best small museum show in 1992). In 2007, she was the recipient of the Mary Miss Resident in Visual Arts Award from the American Academy in Rome. In 2008, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters along with being featured in Art:21 Art in the Twenty-First Century on PBS. A monograph on her work titled The Sculpture of Ursula von Rydingsvard was published by Hudson Hills Press. The artist is represented by Galerie Lelong, New York.
Von Rydingsvard is best known for creating large-scale, often monumental sculpture from the cedar beams which she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and laminates, finally rubbing powdered graphite into the work's textured, faceted surfaces. She deliberately uses cedar boards milled into 4" by 4" widths with varied lengths which create a neutrality or "blank canvas" which enables her to dip into many different possibilities often within the arena of the psychological and emotional. As von Rydingsvard explains this approach: "If I were to say how it is that I break the convention of sculpture (and I'm not sure that's what I do or even if that's what I want to do), it would be by climbing into the work in a way that’s highly personal, that I can claim as being mine. The more mine it is, the more I’m able to break the convention." Her signature abstract shapes refer to things in the real world, each revealing the mark of the human hand while also summoning natural forms and forces. These forms typically include simple vessels and bowls; many suggest tools or other artifacts such as shovels, spoons and fences, or allude to primitive dwellings, geological formations, the landscape, or the body. She now features permanent dents in her cheeks from wearing masks while working for so many years.
Her early years were directly affected by the upheaval of World War II. Born in Germany in 1942, von Rydingsvard and her family were among the dispossessed that, after the war, were forced to move from one refugee camp for displaced Poles to another, eventually settling in the United States in 1950. The artist's respect for organic materials and the dignity of labor, and the sense of loss and pain, and the persistent memories that inform her work may be traced back to these formative experiences.
Her sculpture is included in numerous permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and Detroit Institute of Arts. Major permanent commissions of her work are on view at the Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; Storm King Art Center, New York; the Bloomberg Building, New York; the Queens Family Courthouse, New York and the Nelson Atkins, Kansas City. Mad. Sq. Art: Ursula von Rydingsvard was the outdoor solo exhibition presented at Madison Square Park in 2006. She is the recipient of two individual grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim, two awards from the American International Critics Association (one for the second best exhibition in a commercial gallery in 2000 and the other for the best small museum show in 1992). In 2007, she was the recipient of the Mary Miss Resident in Visual Arts Award from the American Academy in Rome. In 2008, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters along with being featured in Art:21 Art in the Twenty-First Century on PBS. A monograph on her work titled The Sculpture of Ursula von Rydingsvard was published by Hudson Hills Press. The artist is represented by Galerie Lelong, New York.
External links
- Galerie Lelong site - for images and artist's CV
- Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 4 (2007). - Ursula von Rydingsvard at Madison Square Park, New York
- Ursula von Rydingsvard in Sculpture Magazine: A Conversation with Steven Oliver
- Ursula von Rydingsvard in Works & Conversations
- Ursula von Rydingsvard at Storm King Art Center
- Ursula von Rydingsvard's project for Public Art Fund, New York