Ross Bleckner

Ross Bleckner
Bleckner in May 2009
Born	(1949-05-12) May 12, 1949 (age 67) New York City
Nationality	American
Education	New York University California Institute of the Arts
Known for	Painting

Ross Bleckner (born May 12, 1949) is an American artist. He currently lives and works in New York City.

In 1965 a viewing of The Responsive Eye, the first exhibit he ever saw, made a huge impact on him. He decided to become an artist and went on to study with Sol LeWitt and Chuck Close during his time at New York University where, in 1971, he graduated with a BA. He then went on to earn an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973.

"'I always absolutely thought there was a difference between being a young artist and an important young artist,'"

He was born in New York City and grew up in Hewlett, L.I. In 1974, when Bleckner moved back to New York, he moved into a Tribeca loft building. Three of the floors were rented to the painter Julian Schnabel and from 1977 to 1983 the Mudd Club, a nightclub frequented by musicians and artists, was in the same building. In 2004 Bleckner sold the building. He held his first solo exhibition in 1975 at Cunningham Ward Gallery in New York. Then In 1979 he began what was to become a long association with Mary Boone Gallery in New York. In 1981 Bleckner met Thomas Ammann, who was an influential Swiss art dealer who went on to collect Bleckner's work.

Since either the 1980s or 1990s as an openly gay artist, his art has been largely an investigation of change, loss, and memory, often addressing the subject of AIDS. Mr. Bleckner uses symbolic imagery rather than direct representation, and his work is visually elusive, with forms that constantly change focus. While much of Bleckner's work can be divided into distinct groups or series with motifs repeated from painting to painting, he is also in the habit of redeploying and combining old motifs.