Grzbyk V
March 5, 2018
Ursula von Rydingvard, Grzbyk V, 1993
As the fifth addition to a family of seven children, Ursula von Rydingsvard spent the first eight years of her life moving from refugee camp to refugee camp with her family in post- World War II Europe. Her parents’ ultimate goal was to reach the United States, and they finally did so in 1950, making Connecticut their new home. These were formative years for von Rydingvard. Since the beginning of her artistic career, she has dipped into her collective childhood memories to create an art that is personal, dignified, and humble. The scarred and topographical texture of her sculptures recall the wooden structured barracks that became temporary homes for her family while in Germany. The texture also derives from specific moments in her past. Of an old nightgown she wore as a child, von Rydingvard once said in an interview, “this nightgown was made of raw linen that was quite stiff, and it folded in ways that had almost a mountainous landscape to it.” Her chosen medium for the sculpture, Gryzbyk V, is cedar wood, a material that produces an effect similar to the nightgown. It is hard and solid with a slight softness to it, allowing for experimentation and an ability to express something other materials cannot. Although seemingly mundane, von Rydingvard has claimed her work to be highly personal, and so one can consider this piece to be just as significant as others in her life’s narrative.
Von Rydingvard received her MFA from Columbia University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore in 1991. She continues today to transcend boundaries of sculpture to form an art that echoes her experience and consciousness
Written by Danielle Cervera Bidigare