Melba

About Melba

This abstract contemporary painting by Milly Ristvedt is all about colour.

Early in her career, Milly Ristvedt had already been singled out as an exceptional artist by Canada’s Jack Bush. Famed art historian Barry Lord observed at the time that Ristvedt's paintings were "more insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari." During the 1970s, Ristvedt lived in Montreal, where her experimentation and exploration of colour continued. She already intuitively knew that colour had the power to evoke emotion and was on a path to create her own distinctive visual language. This is one of a series of colour field paintings she created that displayed her masterful use of colour and simple form. Against a tangerine background, strokes of colour drop down from the top of the canvas in a bold mix of cranberry, slate gray, hot pink, lilac and putty. Outlined in white, the colour's simple shape is clearly defined.

“Morris Louis’s Unfurled series had made a lasting impact on me when I first saw them at the Mirvish Gallery in Toronto (1970s)…other works in this period in which strong colour strokes descend from the top of the raw canvases, are the closest I came to acknowledging their influence.” Milly Ristvedt

“Miss Ristvedt’s colours are her own. They are applied layer on layer of varying colour to arrive at the final hue. They have a poetry of their own. They are rich rather than clear, earthy rather than light-filled. But always the composition tenses and dominates the colour.” Michael White, The Montreal Gazette

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.