Ronnie Landfield (artist)

So, I just did this on the facebook:

This is a game to keep art alive. “Like” this status, and I will assign you an artist. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know their work; just Google them and choose an image which you like most by the artist, and post it on your wall with this message.

I got Ronnie Landfield. I was not familiar with him, so I looked him up.

Ronnie Landfield (b.1947, the Bronx, NY) 

Here’s his website: ronnielandfield.com

It was sort of tricky, as I do not like much of anything by this painter.

He started out briefly in a Picasso-esque vein, then shifted into minimalism (lines and rectangles, very geometric). By the late 60s, he was pretty firmly into the style he’s been working for the past 40+ years. It’s a style I just do not care for: messy blocks or areas of moody colors; sometimes looking like strangely-colored landscapes with no details, sometimes more like a sort of thermal imaging of some geographical area; and sometimes it look more like someone spilled a couple of different colored waters onto a canvas.

I’m not trying to be mean, just trying to describe his work. Anyway, I don’t care for it. Obviously it’s a case of what I prefer more than the artistic merit of his work. I’m generally not all that into strictly non-representational work.

The picture I posted is one of a few early representational works that I thought were alright.

Here’s a sampler of Ronnie Landfield’s work:

Nude Woman in Park (1962)

(This is the one I picked for the facebook.)

Face of Man (1962)

Crayon on Paper (1964)

Bob's Gap (1966)

The Howl of Terror (1967)

Nashville (1969)

Magician's Breath (1971)

Wizard of August (1978)

Night of Tears (1985)

Going to Montana (1989)

At Daybreak (1992)

High Country (2000)

Angels in the Morning (2002)

Spirit Past Spirit Present (2009)