Ursula von Rydingsvard
(Deensen, Germany, 1942 - )
Europe, German
Of Polish/Ukrainian heritage, Ursula von Rydingsvard moved
to seven refugee camps in Germany with her family before they were able to immigrate to Plainfield, Connecticut in 1950. The artist received her B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and Master of Arts degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. She later enrolled at Columbia University, where she studied with Ronald Bladen and Sol LeWitt and earned her MFA degree. While at Columbia, a friend gave von Rydingsvard some wood and, from that time, Western Red Cedar has become the artist’s signature material. More recently, von Rydingsvard has also made monumental sculptures in bronze, cast resin and copper, all preceded by life size cedar maquettes. Von Rydingsvard’s sculptures and works on paper have been featured in one-person and group exhibitions throughout the world. They include a survey organized by Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, England (1997), which traveled to the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Indianapolis Art Museum and Galerie Lelong in New York. A retrospective organized by the Sculpture Center in Queens, New York (2011) toured to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum in Miami. Von Rydingsvard’s work was also the subject of an exhibition presented as a collateral event at the 56th Venice Biennale. Among her many honors are a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center (2104), Joan Mitchell Award (1997) and Guggenheim Fellowship (1983). Among the collections in which her work is represented are Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Storm King Art Center, and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.