Ronald Bladen Sculpture: To Conquer Space

Ronald Bladen (1918-1988) is best known for his monumental sculptures. He was regarded as an artistic forerunner by Minimalist artists such as Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, and Carl Andre. His large objects fill entire rooms, and his themes include the force of gravity, the dynamism of planar surfaces, the impact of scale, and the emotional power of confrontation with the viewer.Bladen’s early career took place in San Francisco where he created Earth Drawings made from soil and water, as well as powerful, densely textured paintings that suggest topographical forces. He moved to New York City in 1956, where he became a founding member of the cooperative Brata Gallery and produced collages of folder paper followed by plywood reliefs that were exhibited at Green Gallery. He then devoted his attention to grand, freestanding sculptures. He exhibited Three Elements in the breakthrough exhibition Primary Structures at The Jewish Museum in 1966, and presented his enormous sculpture X in the courtyard of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.During the later 1960s and 1970s, Bladen received important public commissions for towering steel works in New York City, Seattle, Albany, Buffalo, Baltimore, Dusseldorf, Germany, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.This first monographic study of Bladen’s art connects him to the artistic, intellectual, and social forces of his age. Copiously illustrated, it presents a comprehensive record of his oeuvre and documentary photographs of his working process, in addition to a complete chronology, bibliography, and exhibitions list.