BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

(Charles) Ronald Wells Bladen

July 13 1918 - February 3 1988

Island Arts and Crafts Society



1968 portrait of Bladen from Internet


Ronald Bladen was born in Vancouver in 1918. His family moved to Washington State in 1922, and then to Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1932, where he studied with Max Maynard. He began drawing at the age of ten, and a few years later exhibited work at the Vancouver Exhibition in 1932 representing the Island Arts and Crafts Society, according to a card file in the Vancouver Art Gallery Library. He exhibited with the IACS between 1932 and 1940, according to a list of exhibitors of that group also on file at the Vancouver Art Gallery Library.

He attended the Vancouver School of Art from 1937 to 1939, and had private studies under Allan Edwards. In 1939 he moved to San Francisco, and lived in California until moving to New York in 1956, where he died of cancer in 1988 at the age of sixty-nine.

Bladen exhibited in the 1939, 1941, and 1943 B.C. Artists exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and in 1946 had a solo exhibition at the gallery.

Over the years Bladen's artwork changed from painting to monumental sculpture. His paintings had evolved into semi-sculptures on their own, often built up in deep relief off the support, which he changed from canvas to board or masonite to support the weight.

Apparently, some time after he died a false wall was discovered in his apartment, behind which a collection of his work had been sealed off.


SOLO EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION LOCATION
1946 Jan. 22 - Feb. 10 Solo Exhibition Vancouver Art Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1939 Mar. 14 - 26 VAG   IACS Vancouver Island Exhibition Devotion-Derision-Destruction
Lionel Backler
1939 Sept. 15 - Oct. 8 VAG   B.C. Artists 8th Annual Anticipation
Uptown Conversation
1941 Sept. 26 - Oct. 19 VAG   B.C. Artists 10th Annual Seated Woman
Figure Study (Impression of Ravel's "Bolero")
1943 Sept. 25 - Oct. 20 VAG   B.C. Artists 12th Annual A Toast
Composition

References - BIBLIOGRAPHY

Refer to BIBLIO.

References - GROUP EXHIBITIONS

RONALD BLADEN / ROBERT MURRAY (1970) (refer to VAG70)

References - GENERAL

ISLAND ARTS AND CRAFTS SOCIETY - LIST OF EXHIBITORS

FROM DESOLATION TO SPLENDOUR (refer to FDTS77)

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

VANCOUVER CENTENNIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY by Vancouver Historical Society
      1986, Compiled by Linda L. Hale; cartobibliography by Frances M. Woodward.
      "A comprehensive, thematic bibliography on Vancouver", focussing on "Vancouver proper".
      Four Volumes (Set ISBN 0-9692378-0-4)
      Includes reference to Bladen.

VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY - B.C. ARTISTS FILES (refer to VPL)

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
      (6 references listed for Baden)

https://www.wikiart.org/en/ronald-bladen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Bladen

http://ronaldbladenestate.com/about-2/

Clippings

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