Ross Bleckner United States, b. 1949

Ross Bleckner, born in 1949 in New York and raised in the affluent town of Hewlett Harbor on Long Island, is a prominent artist whose work has explored the fragility of life, particularly in the context of the AIDS crisis that gripped New York in the 1980s. His paintings are meditations on change, loss, and memory, with recurring themes of the body, health, and disease. As Bleckner himself put it, “The idea that the body is so perfect, until it’s not perfect. It’s a fragile membrane that separates us from disaster.” This contemplation on life’s impermanence has made his art resonate deeply, whether through abstract stripes and dots or representational imagery of birds, flowers, and brains. His iconic multicolored circles, or "cells," smoothly layered on dark gray backgrounds, evoke the appearance of blood droplets or microscopic molecules, creating a hypnotic and disorienting effect.

Bleckner studied under Sol LeWitt and Chuck Close at New York University, earning a BA in 1971, followed by an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973, where he met David Salle. Upon returning to New York in 1974, Bleckner moved into a Tribeca loft that became a creative hub, shared with fellow artist Julian Schnabel and housing the Mudd Club, a popular gathering spot for musicians and artists. His early Stripe paintings of the 1980s, an homage to Bridget Riley, were not well-received by critics. However, he found his voice in works that addressed the AIDS crisis, producing memorial-like paintings with imagery such as candelabras, chandeliers, and rococo motifs against dark backgrounds. His use of dots in some pieces suggested the lesions caused by AIDS-related sarcomas, underscoring his response to the devastation of the epidemic.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bleckner’s work expanded to include the Constellation and Architecture of the Sky series, invoking celestial imagery and domed interiors. Around this time, he also began his Cell paintings, focusing on diseased human cells, a motif that became personal when his father lost his battle with cancer. His continued interest in the microscopic aspects of the body is evident in his representations of DNA and cancer cells. Bleckner also explored other motifs, including a series of bird paintings between 1995 and 2003, and experimented with different surfaces and techniques, such as the airbrush.

At the age of 45, Bleckner became the youngest artist to receive a midcareer retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1995. His work is held in numerous prestigious collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His exhibitions have spanned globally, with shows at institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, Reina Sofia in Madrid, L.A. County Museum in Los Angeles, Kunstmuseum Luzern in Switzerland, and the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. Bleckner continues to live and work in New York, where his art remains a powerful exploration of life, disease, and memory.

In the past decades Bleckner has become well known his support of humanitarian causes, including the fight against AIDS. He is also the first artist to have been appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations, in 2009.