Bleckner, Ross

1949. Born in New York

Lives in New York, New York

Education

1973. California Institute of the Arts, M.F.A.
1971. New York University, New York, B.A.

Ross Bleckner's paintings blend abstraction with recognizable symbols to create meditations on perception, transcendence and loss. In contrast to many prominent painters of the eighties who reasserted figuration, Bleckner persisted in his attempts to identify what meaning the abstract image could convincingly hold in our times. In Brothers' Swords the illusion of emanating light provides a mystical or religious connotation, and an eerie post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Contrasting with the vertical, softly glowing red stripes is a black band across the top of the painting, decorated with fleur de lis ornaments. The funereal black band interrupts the otherworldly optical experience of the stripes as if to call attention to a more concrete concern or memorial.

Bleckner's paintings, glowing and contemplative, resemble passageways to the beyond. As the eighties progressed, and the AIDS health crisis began to take its toll on society at large and particularly many of Bleckner's friends and colleagues, his paintings, including Brothers' Sword, became elegies to specific losses suffered, and reflections on bereavement.

Selected Biography

Solo Exhibitions

2003. Baldwin Gallery, Aspen; Lehmann Maupin, New York; Mary Boone Gallery, New York

2002. Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla; Galleria In Arco, Torino; Studio d'Arte Raffaelli, Trento; Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm; Alain Noir Homme, Brussels, Belgium

2001. Wilma Tloksdorf Gallery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Galleria in Arco, Torino, Italy and Galleria Raffaelli, Trento, ItalInarco Gallery, Italy; Mary Boone Gallery, New York

2000. Vaknin Schwartz Gallery, Atlanta; Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta; Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece; Interim Art, London; Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland; Lococo Mulder Fine Art, Berlin; Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Maureen Paley Interim Art, London; Wetterling Teo Gallery, Singapore

1999. "Ross Bleckner: New Color Etchings", Betsy Senior Gallery, NYC, NY; Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm; Richard Levy Gallery, Alberquerque; Martin Browne Fine Art, Melbourne; Emilio Mazzoli Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea, Modena

1998. Galeria Aglutinador, Havana, Cuba; "Ross Bleckner: The Last Decade", Patrick Painter Inc., Santa Monica, California; Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York; Lehmann Maupin Gallery, NYC, NY; Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado; Julie M. Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

1997. Turner & Runyon Gallery, Dallas, Texas; Galleri Larsen, Stockholm, Sweden; Robert Mc Clain & Company, Houston, Texas; Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France; Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris, France; Bawag Foundation, Vienna, Austria

1996. Mary Boone Gallery, NYC, NY; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado; Galerie Kyoko Chirathivat, Bangkok, Thailand; Larry Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, California; Galleria S.A.L.E.S., Rome, Italy

1995. Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas; Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, NY; Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway; I.V.A.M., Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, Spain; Off Shore Gallery, East Hampton, New York; Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece; University Art Gallery, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California

Group Exhibitions

2003. "Current," Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico; "Over the Top," Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, Scarsdale, New York; "Pictura Magistra Vitae," Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Bologna, Italy; "Braman Collection," Harn Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; "Genomic Issue(s): Art and Science," Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City, "Group Exhibitions," Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California; Scott White Contemporary Art, Telluride, Colorado; "Print Publishers Spotlight: Paulson Press," Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts; "25 Year Anniversary," Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm; "Zenroxy," Von Lintel Gallery, New York City; "Spot On," Victoria Miro Gallery, London

2002. "Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; "First Impressions: Paulson Press," Museum of Art, San Jose, California; "Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Works on Paper Part Two: Everywhere but California," California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California; "Il Grande Freddo," Galleria In Arco, Torino, Italy; "Art Downtown: New York Painting and Sculpture," 48 Wall Street, New York City; "Guild Hall Collects: Artists of Hamptons Bohemia," Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York; "Watercolor," New York Studio School, New York City; "Crisis Response," Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; "Skin to Bones: Painting Since 1970," Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

2001. "Mythic Proportions: Painting in the 1980s," Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida; "Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection," Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; "Eye Candy," Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California; "Roundup," El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; "Absolut Modern," Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

2000. "Art at Work: Forty Years of the Chase Manhattan Collection," Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York; "Drawings 2000," Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York City; "Metal," Steffany Martz Gallery, New York City; "In the Power of Painting, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Alesco, Zurich, Switzerland; "On Canvas: Contemporary Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
1999. "Post-Hypnotic", University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois; "Post-Hypnotic", The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; "Botanica: Contemporary art and the world of plants", Tweed Museum of Art, University of Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota; "Contemporary Art From the Permanent Collection," Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; "Collectors Collect Contemporary: 1990-1999", The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts; "A room with a view", Sixth @ Prince Fine Art, NYC, NY; "WILDflowers", Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; "New Releases", Paulson Press, Berkeley, California

1998. "Paper Thin", Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California; "Puntos Cardinales", Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela; "Cleveland Collects Contemporary Art", Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1997. "After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting since 1970", Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, New York; "Birth of the Cool: Amerikanische Malerei", Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; "Birth of the Cool: Amerikanische Malerei", Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; "Intimate Universe (Revisited)", Robert Steele Gallery, NYC, NY; "Table Tops: Morandi’s Still Lifes to Mapplethorpe’s Flower Studies", California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, California; "Identity Crisis: Self-Portraiture at the End of the Century", Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; "Identity Crisis: Self-Portraiture at the End of the Century", Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado; "Intimate Universe (Revisited)", James Howe Fine Arts Gallery, Kean University, Union, New Jersey; "Ross Bleckner, Mark Francis, Leigh Martin, Mervyn Williams", GOW Langsford, Auckland, New Zealand; "A Reversal of Scale", Turner & Runyon Gallery, Dallas, Texas

1996. "Painting - Singular Object", The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; "On Paper II", Schmidt Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri; "Nuevas Abstracciones", Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; "Nuevas Abstracciones", Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; "Nuevas Abstracciones", Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Barcelona, Spain, "The Modern Landscape", Queens Library Gallery, Jamaica, New York; "Blind Spot: The First Four Years", Paolo Baldacci Gallery, NYC, NY; 1995 "In a Different Light", University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, California; "Critiques of Pure Abstraction", Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, Texas; "Making a Mark: Drawings of the 1980s", The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut; "New York Abstract", Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana; "American Interiors", Knoedler & Company, NYC, NY; "Ross Bleckner, Peter Cain, Judith Eisler, Jack Pierson, Juan Usle, Christopher Wool", Galleri K, Oslo, Norway; "Passions Privees", Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; "Painting - Singular Object", The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan