Ron Gorchov, painter of curved canvases, dies at 90

Ron Gorchov, the American painter known for his curved wooden supports that blurred the line between painting and sculpture, died on August 18, 2020, at age 90. His death was announced by Cheim & Read gallery in New York, which represented him alongside Maurani Mercier Gallery in Brussels, Modern Art in London, and Thomas Brambilla in Bergamo. Born in Chicago in 1930, Gorchov studied at the University of Mississippi, Roosevelt College & Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Urbana. He moved to New York in 1953, where he encountered Abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Two key 1960 New York shows launched his career: the Whitney Museum's 'Young America 1960: Thirty American Painters Under Thirty-Six' and his first solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, with subsequent solos in 1963 and 1966. In the early 1970s, Gorchov developed his signature saddle-shaped, stacked canvases that created three-dimensional 'pictorial monuments.' His 1972 exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse featured stacked works. He participated in the 1976 inaugural exhibition 'Rooms' at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, showing the stacked piece 'Set.' In 2006, P.S.1 mounted a solo show 'Ron Gorchov: Double Trouble.' In Italy, he was represented by Galleria Thomas Brambilla in Bergamo, which held his first Italian solo 'Ron Gorchov – Recent Works' in 2015.