National Gallery Of Canada Acquiring Works By Milly Ristvedt
Oeno Gallery is very pleased to announce that the National Gallery of Canada is acquiring three significant works by Milly Ristvedt.
After viewing her Highway Paintings Exhibition (September 2021 at Oeno Gallery), curator Adam Welsh decided to recommend the works to the NGC, writing, "Spanning twenty years of Milly Ristvedt's five-decade-long painting practice, the proposed purchase of three works represents a long-overdue recognition by the National Gallery of Canada. Unrepresented in the national collection, this omission is especially surprising given Ristvedt's singular practice and extensive exhibition history. From her earliest works in the mid-1960s through present, she has shown an abiding engagement with the signal debates of—and a major contribution to—postwar abstract painting in Canada. Charting a decisive trajectory through Ristvedt's practice, Joyride (1968), Highway No. 4 (1969), and April Sunny Day (1988) represent a unique opportunity to redress an obvious lack in the national collection."
Milly Ristvedt (b. 1942, Kimberley, BC) MA, RCA, began her career in Toronto in 1964 after studies with Takao Tanabe and Roy Kiyooka at the Vancouver School of Art. Ristvedt credits Tanabe with helping her refine her ability to see in first year composition, and Roy Kiyooka as her most important educational influence.
At 24, her work was included in the Centennial Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario and featured at the National Gallery of Canada. She was chosen for prestigious exhibitions in Winnipeg, Paris and Lausanne. By 1969, Ristvedt was painting large canvases, sharing a studio with Jack Bush and showing with the Carmen Lamanna Gallery. That same year, Barry Lord observed in Art in America that Ristvedt’s paintings were “…more insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari.”
Over her long career, Ristvedt has had over 50 solo exhibitions. An advocate for artist's rights, Ristvedt was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She completed an MA in Art History at Queen's University in 2011.
Ristvedt's abstract, acrylic canvases are held in private, corporate and public collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Harvard University, and now, the National Gallery of Canada.
Ristvedt is represented exclusively by Oeno Gallery. "We are honoured that Milly chose us to represent her and her work several years ago. We have long believed that her particular genius, as an inventive and original artistic talent, has been undervalued in comparison to her peers," says curator and gallery owner, Carlyn Moulton. "It is wonderful to see her get this richly deserved recognition from the National Gallery of Canada." Ristvedt's next solo exhibition is scheduled for the spring of 2023. The video of her Highway Painting Exhibition can be viewed HERE.