Line Breed

About Line Breed

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

In the late 1960s, abstract artist Milly Ristvedt had fallen in love with using raw canvas and her abstract form and colourful palette were inspired by the famed Washington Colour School. Line Breed is one of a series of stunning large compositions she created in 1969—the ‘ribbon’ paintings—broad vertical ‘ribbons’ of colour fanning out across the canvas in vivid red, green, black, blue and orange. 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."

“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 Olitski 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 has 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, including the National Gallery of Canada.

Milly Ristvedt is represented exclusively by the Oeno Gallery.