William Ronald was one of Canada’s most critically acclaimed and internationally successful artists emerging in the 1950s. Graduating with an Honour Diploma First Class from the Ontario College of Art in 1951, Ronald disrupted the sedate Toronto art establishment with his aggressive style of abstract painting.

Although its youngest member, he was the instigator in the formation of the Toronto abstract art group Painters Eleven. After moving to New York in 1955, Ronald arranged for the Painters Eleven’s successful New York show at the Riverside Museum in April 1956. A favorable review of the exhibit in Art News described Ronald’s work as “the most sensational of the group”. In late 1956, William Ronald was awarded the first Guggenheim Prize for its Canadian section over more established painters such as Riopelle and Borduas.

Ronald made a significant mark upon the New York art scene in little more than a year. The Kootz Gallery, one of New York’s major galleries who represented Picasso, contracted the thirty year old artist. Ronald would have seven solo exhibitions at the Kootz Gallery in New York from 1957 to 1963. Never resting on laurels, he carefully crafted each show to be a unique, artistic evolution.

By 1957, William Ronald had works in major public galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Gallery of Toronto (now AGO) and the National Gallery of Canada. By 1983, his work was in every major Canadian public art gallery and over 45 important American art museums.

After returning to Toronto with a show at the David Mirvish Gallery in May 1965, living in the beautiful location of the Rectory on Toronto Island, his first goal was not personal gain but to save the island community from demolition. Painting a large mural in the Rectory to bring the issue to public attention, Toronto Star critic Gail Dexter Lord wrote that “The mural is breath-taking. The whole thing has a cosmic quality.”

The bulldozers never destroyed the community. But, the City of Toronto would ultimately get its brutal revenge by painting over the mural. The building survives. Under countless layers of house paint, there is one of the great masterpieces of Canadian art. Appropriately, Canadian Art magazine featured a stunning John Reeves cover photograph of William Ronald standing in front of the mural in April 1966.

When the cover story hit the stands, William Ronald was one of the most talked about television personalities in Canada. He received an offer from the CBC to host The Umbrella, a Sunday afternoon arts program. Due to Ronald’s charisma, the show attracted a large audience of up to one million two hundred thousand viewers.

For the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, he created the most ambitious painting in his career. It was 44 feet high and 60 feet wide on 98 panels and weighed 5 tons. In Globe and Mail critic Kay Kritzwiser’s 1969 description, “William Ronald’s big beautiful mural lilts across three walls of hexagon like bars of music.” Still in place today, it is unquestionably his most seen painting.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau opened William Ronald’s exhibition The Prime Ministers at the Art Gallery of Ontario on April 30, 1984. The next morning, the Toronto Star had a front page photo of the artist and the politician. With its unusual concept, the Prime Ministers crossed over into mainstream media and garnished a large amount of publicity.

William Ronald’s last major show opened on February 10, 1996 at Toronto’s Christopher Cutts Gallery. In late January 1998, while putting the finishing touches on his final 72” x 72” inch masterpiece, William Ronald began to feel unwell. Taken to the hospital, he’d suffered a heart attack. His heart gave way on the morning of February 9, 1998 at age 71.

William Ronald made a major contribution to Canadian art. A seminal figure in the Toronto art scene of the 20th century, his greatest legacy is that his role was a cornerstone of its growth and evolution.

Source: Lawrence Brissenden, reviewed by The Estate of William Ronald

Photo: © 2021 The Estate of William Ronald / Helen Ronald, Toronto
Photo restoration by Lawrence Brissenden