William Ronald

William Ronald

William Ronald (1926-1998) – Biography

One of Canada’s most significant international artists of the 1950s, William Ronald Smith was born in Stratford, Ontario. He was a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and studied with Hans Hofmann in New York in 1952. Inspired by the abstract expressionist movement in that city, he returned to Toronto working at Simpson’s Company as a display artist. He, along with fellow Simpson’s employee Carry Cardell, organized the Abstracts at Home display in the Toronto store that would initiate Painters Eleven, Toronto's answer to the New York school of abstract expressionism at the time.

Ronald decided to move to New York in 1955 securing a spot in the stable of the prestigious Kootz Gallery and was known, after early overall lyrical abstract paintings, for his central image paintings—expressionist paintings that had an immediate impact on the viewer. He returned to Canada in the mid-1960s and continued with his career that included work for CBC, CTV and CityTV as the host of a variety show. In the 1980s, he painted a series of abstracted portraits of 16 of Canada’s prime ministers. Each of the portraits differs in size and technique, to suit the personality and reputation of the subject. The portraits were first shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1984, officially opened by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The exhibition then went on tour across Canada. Ronald continued to paint through the 1970s, '80s and '90s, moving to Montreal and then to Barrie, Ontario where he maintained an active studio until his death in 1998.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
1957-1960, 1962-1963: Kootz Gallery, NYC
1960: Laing Galleries, Toronto
1963: Isaacs Gallery, Toronto
1963: Princeton University Art Gallery
1965: David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto
1971: Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario
1975: Ronald, 25 Years, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
1975, 1977-1980: Morris Gallery, Toronto
1984: The Prime Minister Series, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Major Collections:
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Art Institute of Chicago
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa]
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Whitney Museum of Art, New York

Awards:
William Ronald won the International Guggenheim Awards, Canadian Section in 1956, and was part of the National Gallery of Canada’s Second Biennial of Canadian Painting in 1957. In 1977, he was awarded a Canada Councils senior arts award to pursue his Prime Ministers project.

Artist Specialization - Abstract Expressionism: With his innovation of the central image in abstract expressionism, Ronald's artistic signature was established in his first exhibit at the Kootz Gallery in New York in 1957. From here, Ronald took on a psychedelic colour palette, applied to large scale and oddly shaped canvases with representative images that shocked even the abstract expressionist establishment. Upon his return to Toronto, Ronald exhibited paintings on moving panels that could be rearranged in many combinations. In The Toronto Telegram review, critic Barrie Hale wrote that Ronald used “an awesomely adventurous range of colors” and that “there is an inexhaustible supply of painting ideas in each work.” -With text courtesy of Lawrence Brissenden