Throbbing Hearts, 2018. Oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches.
Ross Bleckner emerged as a leading artist in New York during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, creating paintings that explore change, loss, memory, and the human body. A central figure in the decade’s revival of painting, he developed a practice that merges psychological, social, and political themes within a strong conceptual framework. In 1995, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented a mid-career retrospective of his work, underscoring his importance in contemporary art.
Ross Bleckner: Building Up Courage (working title) highlights a lesser-known part of the artist’s process, offering new insight into one of the most prolific painters of our time. Bleckner begins by making his own paint and testing it on black paper, where the experimental brushwork often produces striking results. From there, he creates a series of small canvases that gradually increase in scale, leading to the large paintings for which he is best known.
Over decades, this approach has yielded hundreds—if not thousands—of works. Guild Hall presents a selection of these rarely seen studies alongside major large-scale paintings. While rooted in process, the smaller works stand powerfully on their own. Together, they reveal the breadth of Bleckner’s artistic vision, offering an expansive view of his practice across time—an illustrated timeline through painting.
This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with support from Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
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Ross Bleckner
Ross Bleckner was born in New York City and raised in Hewlett, on Long Island. He received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1971, and a Master of Fine Arts from Cal Arts in 1973.Bleckner has exhibited throughout the United States and Internationally at venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; ICA, Philadelphia; Kunsthalle, Zurich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; Reina Sofia, Madrid; L.A. County Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern; and his work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, among others.For seventeen years, Bleckner served as the president of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, a non-profit, community based, AIDS research and treatment center. And in 2009 he was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations for his work helping to rehabilitate child soldiers in northern Uganda.Ross Bleckner lives and works in East Hampton, NY, and New York City.
Sponsors
Visual Arts programs are supported by funding from Barbara and Richard S. Lane, Lucio and Joan Noto, The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and additional support provided by The Giuppy Nantista Fund and The Hoie Fund.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Museum: Shari and Jeff Aronson, The Artist Profile Archive, William L. Bernhard, Elizabeth Gordon and Woody Heller, The Hayden Family Foundation, Robert Longo and Sophie Chahinian, Elin and Michael Nierenberg, Onna House, Lori and John Reinsberg, Jeff and Audrey Spiegel, Hillary and Jeff Suchman, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, and Yurman Family Foundation.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.