Ursula von Rydingsvard died at her Manhattan home on 27 October after a career spanning more than five decades. Her large abstract sculptures drew on cedar, bronze and other materials. A tribute from Tippet Rise recalls the installation and fabrication of Bronze Bowl with Lace, while her works remain in major New York museum collections.
Ursula von Rydingsvard, the sculptor known for monumental abstract forms carved from cedar beams, died at her home in Manhattan, New York, on 27 October. She was 84. Her career extended over five decades and also included bronze, textiles and animal intestines. Studio manager Courtney Childress described her energy and the community around her in a telephone interview with Hyperallergic.[1], [2]
Born in Deensen, Germany, in 1942 to a Polish mother and Ukrainian father, von Rydingsvard spent childhood years in wartime and postwar camps before her family moved to the United States in 1950. Wooden barracks and older Polish homes influenced her choice of cedar, although she resisted reducing her work to autobiography. Her sculptures entered permanent collections at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum.[1]
Tippet Rise Art Center, the arts institution that hosted her in 2024 for the installation of Bronze Bowl with Lace, also announced her death. In their tribute, Peter and Cathy Halstead recall the sculpture’s fabrication in the Hudson Valley in the United States. The artist worked piece by piece with foundry collaborators Jack and Mike, then applied a special patina. The Halsteads describe a year of fabrication and a bronze surface that changes with light and the seasons.[2]
