Milly Ristvedt

Fabliau

1970

Curated vertical ribbons of light blue, maroon, lemon yellow, rust-brown and light brown drop down from the top of the square picture plane and finish in uneven ends. The rhythm of spacing between the lengths of color is reflected in the title, Fabliau, which is humorous, narrative poetry written in straightforward, simple verse. This is an early 1970 work by Ristvedt of whom Barry Lord wrote in "Three Young Canadians," in Art in America (1969): "...More insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari." A painting similar to this work also from 1970, Salome II, is in the collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

In the photos, we have included an image of the working drawing from the artist's sketchbook.

Milly Ristvedt, RCA, began her career in Toronto in 1964 after studies with Takao Tanabe at the Vancouver School of Art. In Toronto, during the 1960s and 1970s she was making and exhibiting large scale paintings alongside a small but defined group of non-figurative painters who, like Ristvedt, had planted roots in modernism. These roots continue to run deep for Ristvedt who completed her MA in Art History at Queen's University in 2011 with a thesis that explored color in the grid of contemporary painting. Ristvedt's paintings are part of private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. She has had over 50 solo exhibitions. In 2012, she received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for her service as an advocate for artists.