Ursula von Rydingsvard

Ursula von Rydingsvard
Name	Ursula von Rydingsvard
Birth date	12 June 1942
Birth place	Deensen, Nazi Germany
Nationality	American
Field	Sculpture
Training	University of Miami, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University
Movement	Contemporary art
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Award, Lifetime Achievement Award

Ursula von Rydingsvard is a contemporary American sculptor renowned for her monumental, often organic abstract works primarily carved from cedar. Her powerful sculptures, which frequently reference tools, vessels, and the landscape, are informed by her childhood experiences in World War II displaced persons camps and her family's subsequent immigration to the United States. Von Rydingsvard's work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has received numerous accolades, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship and the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early life and education

Ursula von Rydingsvard was born in 1942 in Deensen, Nazi Germany, to a Polish Ukrainian family. Her early years were spent in a series of displaced persons camps across Germany after World War II, an experience of transience and hardship that profoundly shapes her artistic sensibility. The family immigrated to the United States in 1950, settling in Plainville, Connecticut. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Miami in 1965, followed by a Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968. She later completed her Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University in 1975, where she studied under notable artists like George Sugarman.

Artistic career

Von Rydingsvard began her career in New York City in the mid-1970s, quickly gaining attention for her labor-intensive, physically demanding approach to sculpture. She became associated with a wave of artists re-engaging with materiality and process. Her early exhibitions at spaces like the 57th Street gallery SculptureCenter established her signature style of building forms from accumulations of hand-milled cedar. Over decades, her practice has evolved to include monumental public commissions and explorations in materials like bronze, cow intestine, and resin, while maintaining a core focus on tactile, emotionally resonant form.

Major works and commissions

Notable large-scale public installations include *Scientia* (2012) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, *URODA* (2013) at the Battery Park City in Manhattan, and *Convergence* (2017) for the University of Kentucky. Her sculpture *Luba* (2009-2012) is a centerpiece at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana. Other significant works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center, the Storm King Art Center, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C..

Materials and techniques

Von Rydingsvard is best known for her transformative use of aromatic cedar, which she hand-saws, layers, and laminates into massive blocks before carving with chisels and grinders. This arduous process leaves visible the marks of her tools and the inherent grain of the wood, creating surfaces that are both rugged and intimate. She often rubs graphite into the finished cedar, giving the sculptures a soft, metallic sheen. For her cast works, she creates complex molds from stitched cow intestine or carved polyurethane foam, which are then cast into bronze or copper.

Exhibitions and recognition

Von Rydingsvard has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum (1992), the Storm King Art Center (1992), the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2011), and a critically acclaimed retrospective at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia (2014). Her work has been featured in prestigious group shows like the Whitney Biennial (1979, 1987). Among her many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship (1983), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (1997), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (1994), and the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement Award (2014).

Personal life

Ursula von Rydingsvard lives and works in Brooklyn, New York City. She was married to the late Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Paul Greengard. Her daughter, Anna Greengard, is a professional ballet dancer. Von Rydingsvard maintains a strong connection to her heritage and the immigrant experience, themes that continuously resonate in her artistic practice. A documentary film about her life and work, *Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own*, was released in 2020.

Category:American sculptors Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:Artists from New York City Category:Guggenheim Fellows