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, Ristvedt 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, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Vancouver Art Gallery. She has had over 50 solo exhibitions. In 2012, Ristvedt received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for her service as an advocate for artists.
Find authentic Milly Ristvedt art on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by OENO Gallery)
Nuvu Blue - modern, contemporary, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This colourful abstract expressionist painting is by the award-winning artist Milly Ristvedt. For decades, Milly Ristvedt has explored the unlimited potential and power of colour to...
Canvas, Acrylic
Systems #4 - modern, contemporary, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This contemporary abstract painting by Milly Ristvedt is expressed in geometric form. The power of pure colour and minimal form is masterfully displayed in this abstract painting by...
Canvas, Acrylic
Life Itself #4 - modern, contemporary, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This is one of a series of colourful abstract expression paintings by Milly Ristvedt. For more than six decades, Milly Ristvedt has explored the power of colour as a visual language...
Canvas, Acrylic
$14,000
Landscape #3 (earth + cloud) - modern, contemporary, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This colourful contemporary abstract landscape painting is by Milly Ristvedt. In this dynamic new work by Milly Ritsvedt, several bold vertical bands of pure colour in various width...
Canvas, Acrylic
7 Pieces for Arvo Part - geometric abstract, grouping, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This grouping of seven geometric abstract paintings is by Canadian artist Milly Ristvedt. Milly Ristvedt named this lyrical abstract piece for Avro Part, the famous Estonian compose...
Acrylic, Canvas
From the Dark - modern, contemporary, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This contemporary abstract painting is by Milly Ristvedt, one of Canada’s most important artists. Highly praised and prized for her masterful and intuitive sense of colour, Milly Ri...
Canvas, Acrylic
Cool Down - contemporary, minimalist, abstract, acrylic on paper
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This abstract painting on paper by Milly Ritsvedt features a purple background. Milly Ristvedt says she dreams in colour. Her lifelong quest to unlock the potential of colour expres...
Acrylic, Archival Paper
$13,000
What You See - large, soft, blue, pink, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This large colourful acrylic abstract painting is by Milly Ristvedt. Early in her impressive decades-long career, Milly Ristvedt understood the transformational power of colour to ...
Canvas, Acrylic
$6,500
Georgia Suite: Symmetry - modern, contemporary, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
A ‘symphony’ of colour neatly framed in pale blue bordered quadrants plays against a wash of yellow in this vivid abstract by Milly Ristvedt. A master colourist, in the 1980s Ristved...
Canvas, Acrylic
$25,000
Blue Lagoon - large, colourful, modernist, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Milly Ristvedt has captured, in vivid colour, and expressive form the wonders of the ‘deep’ in this gorgeous abstract painting. Against a rich blue colour field, ethereal forms and g...
Canvas, Acrylic
$15,000
Indivisible - pink, purple, blue, abstract, contemporary, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Modern, grid, abstract. In the hands of master colourist Milly Ristvedt, the classic grid pattern becomes more than a ‘container’ for colour. Hailed by critics and collectors as one ...
Canvas, Acrylic
$55,000
Real and Imagined - large, orange, blue, gestural abstraction, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Across the panels of this large diptych by Milly Ristvedt, passages of crimson, indigo, orange and burnt umber move and vibrate in a contemplative narrative. The piece is made more p...
Canvas, Acrylic
$34,500
Procession - large, red, blue, pink, contemporary abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Swipes and shapes in rust orange, bubble gum pink, aqua, ultramarine and black move in an orchestrated procession across a soaked charcoal ground in this acrylic by Milly Ristvedt. This large, square acrylic canvas is a poetic narrative of space, light, texture and movement through the application of color. Milly Ristvedt (b. 1942, Kimberley, BC) RCA, began her career in Toronto in 1964 after studies with Takao Tanabe...
Canvas, Acrylic
$15,500
Extension - large, bright, colourful, geometric abstract acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
In this dynamic new work by Milly Ritsvedt, bold vertical bands of pure colour run the length of the painting. As always, Ristvedt’s choice of colours in this hard-edged piece is masterful—turquoise, deep pink, blue and bright yellow. Art Critic Barry Lord (Art in America) declared that Ristvedt’s paintings were ‘more insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari.’ “The paintings of the past two or three years explore questions of form, colour and process that arise out of earlier works.” Milly Ristvedt Born in British Columbia, Ristvedt studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University) and had her first solo exhibit 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 Olitiski...
Canvas, Acrylic
$25,000
Tia Maria - large, colourful, modernist, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Milly Ristvedt has captured, in vivid colour, and expressive form the wonders of the ‘deep’ in this gorgeous abstract painting. Against a rich blue colour field, ethereal forms and g...
Canvas, Acrylic
$30,000
Mandarin Jazz - large, orange, blue, teal, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Capturing the energy and innovation of a jazz tune, this vividly coloured abstract painting is by Milly Ristvedt. Swatches of orange, violet, turquoise and black appear in a rhythmic...
Canvas, Acrylic
$19,000
Crickets, Frogs and Mephistopheles - large, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Inspired by nature’s palette and form, Milly Ristvedt continued her exploration of colour. In this lyrical abstract piece, colour continues to dominate as a rich green covers the can...
Canvas, Acrylic
$24,000
Glide - large, purple, pink, hues, striped, abstract, acrylic on shaped canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Gradient bands of washed violet turn to dust rose in this shaped canvas from 1968 by Milly Ristvedt. From the first part of her career, this powerful painting is rooted in the tenets...
Canvas, Acrylic
Summering - Expressive strokes of red, blue, yellow and mauve
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Expressive strokes of red, blue, yellow, and mauve float on a soft pink colorfield. And dotted within the colorfield are subtle pea green stains that gently guide the eye through the...
Canvas, Acrylic
$36,000
Ambient - tall, narrow, dark, bold strokes of colour, abstract acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Brushed passages and swipes of sharp yellow, sunset orange, kelly green and sky blue, move in a ballet of color through the soaked charcoal ground of this towering acrylic painting b...
Canvas, Acrylic
$11,500
Breathing Space for Agnes - large, bright, yellow, stripes, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Vertical stripes of buttercup yellow and cloud blue are each separated from the other by a mere whisper of white canvas. The verticals appear to breathe rhythmically against the picture plane in this homage to American painter Agnes Martin. They evoke Martin's delicate, meticulously penciled grid works and her pursuit of inner peace. Milly Ristvedt, MA, RCA, began her career in Toronto in 1964 after studies with Takao Tanabe at the Vancouver School of Art. At 24, her work was included in the Centennial Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario...
Canvas, Acrylic
$25,000
Everything and Nothing - monochromatic, contemporary abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
Milly Ristvedt is regarded as one of Canada’s finest abstract artists. A masterful colourist, this piece is rendered in subtle monochromatic tones—vertical bars of gray--dove to lig...
Canvas, Acrylic
Melba - Abstract Painting, Acrylic on Canvas, 1970s, New, 42x60 in
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
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...
Canvas, Acrylic
$2,800
Untitled, Magenta, Sienna and Turquoise - expressive, abstract, pastel on paper
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This ethereal abstract pastel on paper is an early work by Milly Ritsvedt known as one of Canada’s foremost abstract artists. Soft clouds of magenta, sienna and turquoise float acros...
Paper, Pastel
$26,000
Head Spin - Dark shades with accents of bright blue, green, turquoise, and pink
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
A dark, ethereal, plum purple field hosts accents of bright blue, green, turquoise, and pink in this large-scale abstract painting by Milly Ristvedt. Thinly threaded above the field ...
Canvas, Acrylic
Evening Light - soft, colourful, minimalist, abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
The stunning subtlety of evening light is captured in the wash of colours that flow across the canvas in this contemporary abstract by Milly Ristvedt. The Canadian artist is renowned...
Canvas, Acrylic
$11,000
Winter Solstice - purple and green grid, geometric abstract, acrylic on canvas
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
A Canadian artist created this abstract painting, its geometric pattern in green and indigo blue. Milly Ristvedt’s masterful and intuitive use of color and geometric form are evide...
Canvas, Acrylic