Ronnie Landfield is an American modern artist. The main subjects of his abstract acrylic-on-canvases inspired by landscapes are spirituality and feelings as a response to the nature.
Background
Ethnicity:
Ronnie Landfield’s paternal grandfather emigrated from Russia and his paternal grandmother – from Sweden. The painter’s maternal grandparents came from the Austrian Empire site that is currently Krakow, Poland.
Ronnie Landfield was born on January 9, 1947, in New York City, New York, United States. He is the second son of Nathan and Hilda Landfield nee Berkowitz.
Ronnie spent his happy childhood in New York City where he had a lot of friends and relatives.
A young boy, he revealed his passion and abilities for drawing. The first serious paintings he made dated to the age of fourteen. Influenced by the art of expressionists, Landfield made a firm decision to become a painter.
Education
Ronnie Landfield began his education at the age of four when in September he entered the kindergarten. While in the public school, he developed his drawing skills.
In 1960, Landfield became a student of the High School of Industrial Arts (currently the High School of Art and Design) in New York City. From July 1962 till August 1962 Ronnie had studied art on summer classes at the Art Students League in Woodstock as well. While in the High School of Art and Design, Ronnie visited regularly various art galleries and museums to develop his skills. He graduated from the School in 1963.
The same year, Landfield attended some classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and later at the University of California in Berkeley.
Then, he became a student of the San Francisco Art Institute from which he graduated in 1965.
Ronnie Landfield started his professional career in 1963 in New York City where he rented his first art studio with his friend, a sculptor Michael Steiner. After three years of experiments with styles and technics, Landfield received his first acclaim as a painter. His ‘Tan Painting’ from the series ‘The Border Painting’ was purchased by an architect Philip Johnson to enlarge the permanent collection of Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska. The well-known art collector Robert Scull bought some canvases as well.
To earn his living during this period, Ronnie Landfield worked as a commercial artist in an advertising agency, in a delivery service and for the Art-Cart trucking firm as an assistant during the exhibitions at such galleries like Kornblee and Pace Gallery. From 1967 he had worked for one year at the Something Else Press established by Dick Higgins. Besides, a year later, Landfield gave some art lessons at the Bennington College in Vermont as a guest instructor. While on these posts, he increased the circle of his art colleagues and friends.
The debut solo exhibition of the painter’s pieces of art was held at the David Whitney Gallery in October 1969 and followed by the second presentation in a couple of years. One of his paintings was admitted to the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich. By the time, Ronnie Landfield was regarded as the artist who brought softness and romantic colours to the geometric abstraction style.
From the end of this decade till the early 1970s, Ronnie Landfield took part in many group and solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (1967, 1969), the Whitney Biennial of 1973, three solo at the André Emmerich Gallery (1973, 1974 and 1975) and others. The artist received the international popularity due to multiple publications on his art, including an article in the Newsweek magazine featuring his painting ‘Cheat River’.
To find inspiration for his new canvases, Landfield did some trips to the Caribbean, Utah, Arizona, and California.
In 1975 he occupied the professor’s post at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he had taught painting and fine arts for fifteen years.
The number of solo exhibitions continued to grow – the artist collaborated with such galleries like Sarah Rentschler Gallery in New York City (1978 and 1979), the Barbara Kornblatt Gallery in Baltimore and Washington DC. (1976 and 1978), the Linda Farris Gallery (1978 and 1979). Besides, Landfield became a member of the Charles Cowles Gallery which had presented his pieces of art till 1985.
During the 1980s, the painter had twenty-five solo shows.
In the middle of the following decade, Ronnie Landfield came back to the teaching and became an art professor at the Art Students League. A year later, he curated the exhibition of abstract artists at the Nicholas/Alexander Gallery. He also had several solo exhibitions during this period, including the presentation at Sapporo, Japan where the artist read lectures on European Modernist and American Abstract Expressionist, Colorfield and Lyrical Abstractionist Painting.
The huge retrospective of Landfield’s art titled ‘Ronnie Landfield: Paintings From Five Decades’ was held at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2007. Since the year until 2016, the painter has been represented by the Stephen Haller Gallery in New York City and by the LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2013, the artist participated at the exhibition 'Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year One' organized a year after the Hurricane Sandy.
Ronnie Landfield is currently represented by the Wally Findlay Galleries based in New York City and Palm Beach where the two artist’s recent solo shows dubbed ‘Dual Exhibition’ took place in 2018.
Quotations:
"My work is intuitive, colour is the language I use to express my feelings."
"It's important for maximum freedom for an artist, to stay under the radar for as long as possible."
"My inspiration has been my conviction that modern painting is fueled by the combination of tradition and the realities of modern life."
Personality
Ronnie Landfield is a left-handed person.
Quotes from others about the person
"To stand in front of a Landfield painting is to be transported into a world where color feeds upon color and every inch of the canvas is considered ... Ronnie Landfield is, pure and simple, one of the best painters in America." Louis Zona, executive director & chief curator at the Butler Institute of American Art
Interests
Chinese Landscape painting, chess, baseball, writing poetry
Artists
Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso
Connections
Ronnie Landfield is married and has two sons. Their names are Matthew Hart and Noah. Both of them chose artistic field – the first one is an actor, writer and director, the latter works as a painter and musician.
Ronnie Landfield: A Conversation with the Artist
Lyrical Abstraction painter Ronnie Landfield shares his recollections of the 1960s: of early days exploring the galleries of 57th street, of dining at Max's Kansas City, and of his first major collector, architect Philip Johnson. The interview is moderated by Art Students League Executive Director Michael Rips, and hosted by Findlay Galleries