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Ursula von Rydingsvard
Ursula von Rydingsvardlandm
von Rydingsvard in her Brooklyn studio, 1997
Born
Ursula Karoliszyn

1942
Deensen, Free State of Brunswick, Nazi Germany
Education Columbia University
Known for Sculpture
Spouse(s) Paul Greengard
Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters

Ursula von Rydingsvard (née Karoliszyn; born 1942) is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for creating large-scale works influenced by nature, primarily using cedar and other forms of timber.

Early life and education

Von Rydingsvard was born in Deensen, Germany in 1942 to a Polish mother and Ukrainian father. As a young child, the artist and her six siblings experienced the German occupation of Poland and the trauma of World War II, followed by five years in eight different German refugee camps for displaced Poles.

In 1959, through the U.S. Marshall Plan and with the assistance of Catholic agencies, her family of peasant farmers boarded a ship to the United States where they eventually settled in Plainville, Connecticut. She received a BA and MA from University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida in 1965 and an MFA from Columbia University in New York City in 1975. In the late 1970s, she was part of NYC's Cultural Council Foundation Artists' Project, which was funded under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).

Achievements

Damski Czepek by Ursula von Rydingsvard
Damski Czepek by Ursula von Rydingsvard in Madison Square Park

Major permanent commissions of her work are on view at the Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; Storm King Art Center, New York; the Bloomberg Building, New York; the Queens Family Courthouse, New York; the Nelson-Atkins, Kansas City, and the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York. Mad. Sq. Art: Ursula von Rydingsvard was the outdoor solo exhibition presented at Madison Square Park in 2006.

In 2008, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters along with being featured in Art:21 Art in the Twenty-First Century on PBS. A monograph on her work titled The Sculpture of Ursula von Rydingsvard was published by Hudson Hills Press in 1996 and in 2011 Prestel published Ursula von Rydingsvard: Working.

In 2014-2015 Ursula von Rydingsvard had her first British show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (West Yorkshire, UK), her most extensive exhibition to date. The exhibition was accompanied by the Ursula von Rydingsvard 2014 Catalogue, a major publication featuring text by Molly Donovan, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Museum collections

Ursula von Rydingsvard at the National Museum of Women in the Arts - 2
Ursula von Rydingsvard at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Tak by Ursula von Rydingsvard
Tak (2015), National Museum of Women in the Arts

Notable exhibitions

  • 2021 Ursula von Rydingsvard: Nothing But Art, National Museum, Kraków and simultaneously at the Center of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko and Łazienki Park, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2018 Now, She, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 2018 The Contour of Feeling, The Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 2015 Ursula von Rydingsvard, la Biennale di Venezia, Giardino della Marinaressa, Venice, Italy
  • 2014 Ursula von Rydingsvard, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, England
  • 2011-12 Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture 1991-2009, SculptureCenter, Queens, New York; traveled to deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio; and to Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida
  • 2006 Mad. Sq. Art: Ursula von Rydingsvard, Mad Sq Art at Madison Square Park, New York, NY
  • 1992-4 Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY (Ten-year retrospective)

Awards and grants

  • Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, Poland, 2021
  • Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work, CAA New York City, NY, 2019
  • Visionary Woman Honors Award, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA, 2017
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, NJ, 2014
  • Honoree, Storm King Art Center Annual Gala, New York, NY, 2012
  • Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, 2011
  • Best Show in a Non-Profit Gallery or Space, American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, 2011
  • Rappaport Prize, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, 2008
  • Order of the Cross, Polish Consulate, New York, 2008
  • Mary Miss Resident in Visual Arts, American Academy in Rome, Italy, 2007
  • 2nd prize, Best Show in a Commercial Gallery, American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, 2000
  • Academy Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, 1994
  • Best Small Museum Exhibition, American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, 1992
  • Honorary Doctorate, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, 1991
  • Individual Artists Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1986
  • Athena Foundation Grant, Long Island City, NY, 1983
  • Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY, 1983
  • Individual Artists Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1979
  • Individual Artists Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1978
  • Fulbright-Hayes Travel Grant, Washington, D.C., 1975
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