Ronald Bloore

Ronald Bloore

 Ronald Bloore, painter (b at Brampton, Ont 29 May 1925; d at Toronto 4 Sept 2009). Bloore studied at University of Toronto (BA 1949) and in the US and England. Appointed director of the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery Regina in 1958, he brought in important, progressive exhibitions, and he introduced his students at the School of Art (Regina College: later University of Saskatchewan) to the work of the American abstract expressionists.

Bloore was instrumental in inviting Barnett Newman to lead the summer workshop at EMMA LAKE, Saskatchewan, in 1959, an event of lasting influence on the Regina art scene. In 1960 he organized an exhibition of a group, including himself, that became known as the REGINA FIVE. The exhibition went on a national tour and was presented to the National Gallery of Canada in 1961. The work of the Regina Five, still influential, was seen as the expression of the new painting emerging in the Canadian West.

Bloore achieved a remarkable control and resolve in his painting early in his career, confining himself to the limited subject matter of "symbol-like elements" and a severely restricted palette. The paintings come alive by the play of light and shadows on the raised textured surfaces. Bloore retired in 1990 from York University where he had been a professor since 1966. In 1991 the Mackenzie Art Gallery mounted the touring exhibition, Not Without Design, Homage to Ronald Bloore. He became a member of the ORDER OF CANADA in 1993.