Since the late 1960s, the late American artist Ron Gorchov (b. 1930 – d. 2020, United States) has explored the possibilities of painting as an object rather than a two-dimensional representation. Like the artists Frank Stella, Robert Mangold and Richard Tuttle, he experimented with the shape of the canvas early on, and in 1967 he made his first saddle-shaped curved canvases, which would become his trademark. By rejecting the rectangular format of the conventional canvas to explore different surfaces, Gorchov gave a sculptural dimension to his work. Gorchov advocates biomorphic forms, combining linear shapes with volumetric shapes of different colors on convex or concave surfaces. He used paint intuitively, without a particular subject in mind. It is only in retrospect through evocative titles that offer hints of content referring to mythological and biblical stories, that the artist ascribes them a significance. He erased the boundaries between paintings and objects by having his works project into space, whereby painting can always be seen as the starting point of his work. Gorchov’s intention was to create a new visual space, investigating the relationship of form, composition and color.

Gorchov’s paintings are included in renowned collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Everson Museum of Art, New York.