• Ronald Bloore was a Canadian artist and founder of the painters group The Regina Five. His work as an artist...

    Ronald Bloore working in his studio. During his time teaching at York University (1966 - 86) Bloore took over the disused Stong Farm House at the North Ends of the Grounds and used it as a painting studio that he shared with Doug Morton.

    Ronald Bloore was a Canadian artist and founder of the painters group The Regina Five. His work as an artist and educator made a unique contribution to the history of Canadian art. According to art historian, Roald Nasgaard, "Bloore developed one of the most distinctly articulated voices of his generation." 
     
    The artist's academic background and wider interests in cultural history were a significant factor in the development of this voice. Born in Brampton, Ontario, Bloore studied art and archaeology at the University of Toronto and the Institute of Fine Arts in New York City. He also completed his MA at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London before teaching in the art and archaeology departments of Washington University and the University of Toronto. 
     
    Kenneth Lochhead once said of Bloore, "The man's range of knowledge about art is just incredible; he not only knows his history, but he knows about surface nuances and subtleties. And that's why he's unique...He's also the most elegant contemporary artist I know. His abstracts are the most elegant pieces I've ever seen and that includes looking at art abroad..." 
  • In 1958, Bloore was appointed director of the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. He served as director until...
    The Regina Five posing in front of a classic Lincoln Continental behind the former Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, 1964. Left to right: Ronald Bloore, Arthur McKay, Douglas Morton, Kenneth Lochhead, Ted Godwin. Photo courtesy of the University of Regina Archives and Special Collections.
    In 1958, Bloore was appointed director of the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. He served as director until 1966 while teaching Art History and Archaeology at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina College (now the University of Regina). During this time, he connected the city's artists to the international art scene through exhibitions and the Emma Lake workshops. His exhibition of works by Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Ted Godwin, Douglas Morton, and himself, was circulated by the National Gallery of Canada as "Five Painters from Regina," drawing attention to the city's contributions to the advancement of modernist abstraction in Canada. 
  • Bloore is best known for his bare palette, his symbol-like forms, and his use of light, texture, and space to...
    Ronald Bloore, Untitled, Sumi ink on paper, 18 x 24" in, 1981, © The Estate of Ronald Bloore.
    Bloore is best known for his bare palette, his symbol-like forms, and his use of light, texture, and space to invite viewers into a contemplative relationship with his works. According to Terrence Heath, "For Bloore, painting is primarily about image making, it is iconography. And, although the image may or may not be representational in the sense of signifying a perceived reality, it is nevertheless a meaningful sign in a visual language. The image is about content, not form for its own sake."
     
    This approach was largely informed by Bloore's interests in archaeology and the idea of visual laguage, as well as his travels abroad. The artist's all-white paintings in raised relief followed his trips to Greece, Egypt, and Turkey in the summer of 1963. Michael Brodzky describes Bloore's Sumi ink drawings as "a kind of Rosetta Stone, or more appropriately, like the Disk of Phaistos, a codex pregnant with visual significance but without any known verbal equivalent." 
     
    Roald Nasgaard makes a similar observation of Bloore's work, writing that "His floating images, exploding stars, broken lines, textured spaces, circles, nets, lines, and arches, his discontinuities, polishings, and scratchings, his monochrome paints and inks of many colours...all aspire to the iconic significance of the great images of other civilizations."