Bridge

About Bridge

This large contemporary abstract painting by Milly Ristvedt is one of her colourful ribbons series.

In the late 1960s, Canadian artist Milly Ristvedt had fallen in love with using raw canvas. Her abstract form and colourful palette were inspired by the famed Washington Colour School. Bridge is one of a series of stunning large compositions she created in 1969—the ‘ribbon’ paintings—broad vertical ‘ribbons’ of colour that fan out across the canvas. The vivid palette is inspired--bright red, green, yellow, deep blue and burgundy. Ristvedt painted these when she was just 27 and shared a studio with the famed abstract artist Jack Bush. Renowned art historian Barry Lord observed at the time that Ristvedt's paintings were "more insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari." A masterful colour field painter, Ristvedt’s work now hangs in the National Gallery of Canada.

“In the Ribbon paintings…the mostly raw canvas surface is animated by gestural ribbons of colour reminiscent of pick-up sticks.” Milly Ristvedt

“Ristvedt’s paintings are uncompromising in their formalism, their preoccupation with the primary elements of colour and space in art. They are cellular examinations of the visual experience of paintings, beyond image, beyond the pleasing shape.” Jeff Mahoney, The Hamilton Spectator, 1994.

Milly Ristvedt was born in British Columbia and studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University). Her first solo exhibit was at the Carmen Lamanna Gallery in Toronto.
In the late 1960s, Ristvedt shared a studio with famed Canadian painter Jack Bush, met art critic Clement Greenberg and was inspired by American painters Jules Olitiski and Frank Stella. Her work has been included in many publications, She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2004 and honoured with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She has won seven Canada Council awards and two Ontario Arts Council awards and had over 50 solo exhibitions and been part of countless group shows. Ristvedt's work can be found in major public collections throughout North America. Milly Ristvedt is represented exclusively by the Oeno Gallery.