Bruce Ricker
River of Mystery
2001

About the Item

River of Mystery is a serigraph on paper with an image size 8 x 15 inches, signed 'Ricker' lower right and annotated lower left. Framed in a contemporary gold-tone frame. Numbered XVII/L, from the edition of 500 (there were also 200 Arabic on paper, 200 Arabic on canvas and 50 AP on canvas). Framed in a contemporary silver-tone moulding. Ricker created four stunning images for a suite titled ‘Sacred Places’ – all powerful images of earthly splendor. The vistas he paints, almost desolate in a primeval way, are a chorus of voices that sing of the glory of nature. In a style which he calls ‘Epic Visionary,’ he presents a view that is at once new and fresh and yet as deep-rooted and enduring as the pristine landscapes themselves. In the images of ‘Sacred Places,’ Ricker’s harmonious layering and blending of colors, muted blues and greens, contrast with the jutting precipices and craggy outcrops of rock that punctuate each portrait. The effects of the elements are visible and beautiful, creating carved layers in the rock and earth, and weaving a ribbon of shimmering water as a central feature in each work. “…these places…are sacred places – they are sacred because their beauty is so deep and mysterious that we are stopped in our tracks…for the moment, we can’t imagine anything better on earth or in heaven.” – Bruce Ricker Martin Lawrence Galleries is an affiliate of Chalk & Vermilion Fine Arts, the original publisher of this print. This print is as new, with no prior ownership.

Creator:

Bruce Ricker (1945, American)

Creation Year:

2001

Dimensions:

Height: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)Width: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)

Medium:

Paper,Screen

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Excellent condition, no prior ownership.

Gallery Location:

Greenwich, CT

Reference Number:

Seller: 3921stDibs: LU2664213659582

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Bruce Ricker redefines landscape art. Using an epic visionary approach, he combines an educated understanding with a lucid imagination. The results are delightful, unexpected, satisfying, and unique. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1945, he grew up in Carmel Valley, California in the 1950s, with almost no exposure to television or city life, instead, he spent his leisure time roaming the hills and redwood canyons of rural California. In the early 1960s, he joined the Navy and became a hospital corpsman in Vietnam at the age of 17. When he returned from his service, he studied art at San Francisco State University, however, he left after two years, dissatisfied with a program that seemed to be only an indoctrination in the “proper” ideas about art. Ricker later enrolled in the U.C. Berkeley School of Architecture. Although he benefited from this discipline, he thought he had “too many curves” in him to stick to the straight path of architecture as a career. In the mid-1970s, he began painting seriously and selling his artwork to an increasingly wide audience. “I’m trying,” says Bruce Ricker, “to do the same thing George Lucas does in his movies.” That would be to create a new universe, or at least a new way of seeing what is already here. In doing so, the artist, film director, writer and actor must chart new territory which, when you think about it, is what creative life is all about. “Someone like Lucas,” continues Ricker, “must ask himself, ‘How can I present a city unlike any ever seen before?’ I ask myself this same question before I paint. I am very aware of the standard way of looking at things – the cliché – any my work is all about not falling into that trap.” Over his thirty years as a professional artist, and even longer as a lover of the land, Bruce Ricker’s motifs have become notable for their sharp detail and articulate precision. He prefers to find uncharted territory that’s rich and beautiful… and unexpected, to “give people a view they haven’t seen before. In dreams and in life, nothing is impossible.” (Victor Forbes, Fine Art, 2002)