This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Ronald Langley Bloore is a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, muralist
and educator who was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. He’s
lived in St.Louis, Missouri (1953-55); London, England (1956-57);
Toronto, Ontario (1957-58); and Regina, Saskatchewan (1958-66).
In 1966, he returned to Toronto where he lives and works today.
His
medium is primarily oil or stovepipe enamel on masonite applied with
palette knife; however, there is a large body of important ink drawings
done in the 1960’s and ink paintings done in the 1980’s. He has
also worked in gouache, collage and mixed mediums.
His
sculptures are created from found items especially wooden spoons and
are referred to as “Sploores”. They depart from his usual
subject matter because many of them have eyes or other features that
give them a whimsical appearance, and, though quite different, remind
the author of some of Picasso’s work.
Other than the
“Sploores” his subjects are pure abstraction, focusing on colour
(mostly white), pattern, line and texture. His style is abstract
expressionism, geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction. It
is usually recognized by monochromatic shades of white on white with
highly textured impasto, patterned surfaces and large simple
shapes. They also seem to exude a sort of elegance. Artist
Quote: “I am not aware of any intention while painting with the
exception of making a preconceived image function formally as a
painting.” He is a very intellectual artist.
Bloore
has a B.A. degree in Art and Archaeology from the University of Toronto
(1946 – 1949) and an M.A. in the same subjects from Washington
University, St. Louis (1951 – 1953). He has also studied at the
Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, the Belgium – American
Education Foundation in Brussels and Antwerp (1955), and at the
Courtauld Institute at the University of London, England (1955 – 1957).
He has taught at Washington University (while studying)
(1951-1954); the Brixton Day College, London, England (1956-1957); the
University of Toronto (1957-1958); the University of Saskatchewan,
Regina (1958-1966) and was a Professor in the faculty of Arts at York
University, Toronto from 1966 until his retirement in 1990. He
has traveled extensively including to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Spain, and
France from 1962 to 1963 and in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and
Denmark in 1966. He has also travelled to Germany, Holland,
Portugal, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Alaska and the Arctic.
During
his time in Regina, he served as the director of the Norman Mackenzie
Art Gallery (1958 –1960), and worked with Kenneth Campbell Lochhead
(see AskART) and Arthur McKay (see AskART) in developing the Emma Lake
Professional Artists’ Workshops into one of the driving forces of
Canadian Modernism. Interestingly, this was accomplished by
inviting members of the New York School such as Barnett Newman, Kenneth
Noland and Jules Olitski as well as the critic Clement Greenberg to
speak and teach. He was also a member of a short lived but,
influential group of painters known as the Regina Five (1959 - 1964)
which along with Lochhead and Mckay included Ted Godwin (see AskART)
and Douglas Morton (see AskART). They had a show at the National
Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) in 1961. He has also been a member of
the Federation of Canadian artists. During World War II, he
served in the Canadian Army and RCAF.
His work has been
exhibited continuously for over 50 years in solo and group shows in
commercial and public galleryies. Some of the museum venues are
Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba) (1958, 63, 65, 75, 83, 92); Art Gallery
of Ontario (Toronto) (1959, 74); National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa)
(1961, 63, 68, 69, 93); Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina) (1962,
65, 71, 75); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1962); Art Gallery of
Hamilton (Ontario) (1962, 94); Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston,
Ontario) (1963, 75, 85); Vancouver Art Gallery (B.C.) (1963, 75);
Edmonton Art Gallery (Alberta) (1978, 92, 94); Glenbow Art Gallery
(Calgary) (1993, 99); the Robert Mclaughlin Gallery (Oshawa) (2001);
Art Gallery of Peterborough (Ontario) (2005) and many more.
Bloore’s
works are in many private, corporate and public collections. Some
of the public collections are the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria,
Victoria, British Columbia; Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British
Columbia; the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia; the
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta;the Mendel Art Gallery,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina,
Saskatchewan; the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Art
Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario; Museum London, London, Ontario;
the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario; McMaster University Art
Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto,
Ontario; York University, Toronto, Ontario; Hart House, University of
Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa,
Ontario; the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario; the
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario; the National Gallery
of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; the Montreal Museum of Modern Art; the
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New
Brunswick; the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick; and
the Nova Scotia Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
His murals
can be seen at the International Airport, Dorval, Quebec and the
Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum, Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island.
Among his many honours and awards are the
Order of Canada (CM) in 1993, one of the country’s highest
honours. He was also awarded the Centennial Medal in 1967. In
1993 he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from York
University. In 2001, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws
degree from the University of Regina.
As a very prominent
artist his work is discussed in many books about Canadian art history
and modern art, there are also numerous magazine and newspaper articles
dated as early as March 1951 (Canadian Art magazine). He is
listed in A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald; in The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar; in The Canadian Encyclopedia (1985), Hurtig Publishers; in the 1999 and 2006 versions of E. Benezit, published by Grund; and, prematurely, in Falks Who Was Who in American Art.
His work is also illustrated and discussed in Art Gallery of Ontario – The Canadian Collection (1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield; in Contemporary Canadian Art (1983), by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff; in Visions – Contemporary Art in Canada (1983), various authors and editors; in The History of Painting in Canada - Toward A Peoples Art (1974) by Barry Lord; in A Concise History of Canadian Painting (1973), by Dennis Reid; in Great Canadian Painting – A Century of Art (1966), by Elizabeth Kilbourn; in Four Decades (1972) by Paul Duval; in Painting in Canada: A History (1966) by J. Russell Harper; in Landmarks of Canadian Art (1978), by Peter Mellen; in Documents in Canadian Art(1987), edited by Douglas Fetherling; in Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art (1967), by R.H.Hubbard and J.R. Ostiguay; in Enjoying Canadian Painting (1976), by Patricia Godsell; in Contemporary Canadian Painting (1972), by William Withrow; in The Best Contemporary Canadian Art (1987), by Joan Murray; in Canadian Art Today (1970), by William Townsend; in Ciniplex Odeon(1989), by David Burnett; in Modern Painting in Canada (1978), by Terry Fenton and Karen Wilkin; in Agnes Etherington Art Centre (1968), by Frances K. Smith; in Canadian Art: From its Beginnings to 2000 (2000), by Anne Newlands; and in Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century (1999), by Joan Murray.
Prepared and contributed by M.D. Silverbrooke | |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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