A field of blue-green drops down from rounds of gold, sienna, lime and crimson in this elegant canvas by Milly Ristvedt. Painted in 1971, the title may refer to the modernist concept of the picture plane and its quality of flatness. According to influential critic Clement Greenberg, flatness was a central feature of post-painterly abstraction and color field painting. Ristvedt, however, points outward and beyond the self-referencing canvas to the world outside and to art history.

This painting is one of the very few that have remained in the collection of the artist for almost 50 years. It is an outstanding example of her work, and from a very important period in her career.

Milly Ristvedt (b. 1942, Kimberley, BC) MA, RCA, began her career in Toronto in 1964 after studies with Takao Tanabe at the Vancouver School of Art. 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 and Harvard University.

A 168 page catalog from the artist's 2017 solo exhibition "Time Lapse" is available.

Complimentary shipping in Canada and continental USA (restrictions based on size/weight)