Pastel Grid (Yellow, Blue)

About Pastel Grid (Yellow, Blue)

This contemporary pastel on paper of a grid in blue and yellow is by Milly Ristvedt.

The classic grid pattern becomes more than a ‘container’ for colour in the hands of master colourist Milly Ristvedt. Hailed by critics and collectors as one of Canada’s finest abstract artists, in the 1990s Ristvedt used the geometric form of the grid to express a dynamic visual narrative. The palette for the 12 squares in this piece is a striking deep blue and bright yellow. Each square in the grid is defined by a fine line of bright green and brown. The pastel is applied with visible strokes vertically in some squares, horizontally in others, adding to the energy of the piece.

“The grid is a commonplace and omnipresent structure. The intersection of vertical and horizontal represents many things in human history. It is as old as this planet’s gravity and our attempts to stand erect on it. Its mystical associations are numerous. Repeated, these directional forces become the web that holds everything together.” Milly Ristvedt

“She uses colour to effectuate spatial displacement. A displacement that confounds a simple, straightforward reading that is suggested by the grid. Her surfaces are strongly present while at the same time contemplative. Her colours are warm and rich, humanistic. Ristvedt’s paintings are pure abstraction, formal abstraction, without reference beyond the framing edge.”
Bill Kort, Artreview 1998

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.