In this episode from Nordic Art Partners, discover the work and career of Ron Gorchov, an enigmatic figure who pioneered major innovations in painterly abstraction in the late 1960s. We recount his early biography, beginning in the 1950s; a classic rites of passage story of a bohemian artist in post-war New York, a city teeming with life and a magnet for artists who flocked in droves to the tenement apartments of downtown looking to make their mark on the most fertile time and place of the mid-twentieth century. Following a conventional artistic education in Chicago, mentored by John Graham, Mark Rothko and other luminaries of the downtown scene, Gorchov quickly made his mark in his adopted city, garnering early success and some measure of acclaim with his early works, related to both Surrealism and Abstraction and aesthetically linked to many of the Abstract Expressionists of the New York School. Balancing roles as a lifeguard and swimming instructor, his relentless dedication helped him overcome financial struggles and carve out the beginnings of a promising career as a professional artist.
After a decade of development and consistent exposure, the late 1960s bore witness to his greatest achievement, the development of a uniquely shaped canvas. Both convex and concave at the same time, and resembling a shield or saddle, this revolution of the painted object/surface was to innovate a unique painting/sculptural hybrid and forever became his defining legacy. His career would attain new heights and his achievements would be widely celebrated, before the despondency of dwindling interest and relative obscurity, a difficult time which would endure for the best part of two decades.
The early years of the C21st would bring a renaissance. Learn how in later life his singular achievements were again celebrated and finding new audiences. Through the advocacy and support of Vito Schnabel, as well as from several other key prestigious international galleries in important global markets, Gorchov’s work would find its way back to public consciousness and provide a heartening vindication for the now elderly painter.
Now deceased, Gorchov’s work is beginning to find its place as a seminal achievement of experimental painting. His work is known far and wide, celebrated by collectors and institutions alike and supported by an ever-deepening market, these special paintings are instantly recognisable by their unique forms.