On the occasion of Ron Gorchov's ninetieth birthday, we are presenting a selection of the artist's most recent work. Cheim & Read has represented the artist since his first exhibition with the gallery in 2012, and is planning an exhibition of new works in 2021.
Ron Gorchov
NOËMON 2019
Oil on linen
17 x 14 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches
43.2 x 36.8 x 11.4 centimeters
Ron Gorchov
OGYGIA 2019
Oil on linen
34 x 44 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches
86.4 x 113.7 x 24.8 centimeters
Ron Gorchov
IDOMENE 2018
Oil on linen
56 5/8 x 45 x 9 1/2 inches
143.8 x 114.3 x 24.1 centimeters
Portraits of Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ron Gorchov: Left: Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2017 via Post Magazine; Right: Ron Gorchov, 2012. Photo: Alex Majoli and Daria Birang. © Alex Majoli/Magnum Photos. Reproduced with permission.
Read this previously unpublished interview of Ron Gorchov by Hans Ulrich Obrist, which was conducted in 2017 at the artist's studio. The interview is reproduced in full on the artist's new website.
Installation view: “Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman / The Shape of Shape,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 21, 2019–April 20, 2020. Photo: Heidi Bohnenkamp / Museum of Modern Art
Ron Gorchov
COMET 1974
Oil on canvas
62 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 17 inches
158.2 x 191.8 x 43.1 cm
Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Ron Gorchov's 1974 painting, COMET, was selected by the artist Amy Sillman for her curatorial project, The Shape of Shape, on view through June 7, 2020, which reimagines the presentation of art objects from the museum's permanent collection from a wide variety of art historical time periods in exciting new juxtapositions.
Installation view: Ron Gorchov in the Sculpture Court of the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.
Ron Gorchov
STRAND 1972
360 x 24 1/2 x 12 inches
914.4 x 62.23 x 30.48 cm
Acrylic on linen with wooden support
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Photograph by Jerid Gooding
In 1972, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY, exhibited three of Ron Gorchov's monumental stack paintings, including SET, 1971, ENTRANCE, 1972, and this work, STRAND, 1972, which the museum purchased with a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and remains on permanent display in the Sculpture Court.
In a 2006 conversation with Rob Storr and Phong Bui, the artist remarked, "I taught myself to work with wood as I began 'Entrance,' 'Set' and 'Strand' as exercises that had to be large so I could see small errors of form easily."
Born in 1930 in Chicago, Ron Gorchov studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago before earning his BFA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1951. Tibor de Nagy Gallery gave the artist his first solo exhibition in 1960, and after a brief hiaitus from the art world, Gorchov completed his first “saddle” paintings in 1967, the artist's signature curved canvases that he would pursue in countless variations for the next fifty years. His work was selected for the 1975 and 1977 Whitney Biennials, and went on to be included in multiple exhibitions at the the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum.
Ron Gorchov’s work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Cheim & Read, New York (2019); Modern Art, London (2019); Maruani Mercier, Brussels (2019); Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2018); Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz (2016); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2014); Centro Atlántico de Arte Modern, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2011); and MoMA PS1, New York (2006). Gorchov’s paintings are held by major museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; Milwaukee Art Museum; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Ron Gorchov, 2013. Photo: Michael Avedon. © Michael Avedon / AUGUST. Reproduced with permission.
Ron Gorchov Studio has launched a new website dedicated to the artist's work, and is now available to the public at rongorchov.org, designed by Artist Estate Studio, LLC, in collaboration with the artist. The website includes resources and materials related to the artist’s biography, extensive exhibition history, bibliography, archival and press materials. Viewers will also be able to view an overview of Gorchov’s works from every decade from the 1950s to the present.
