William Ronald

William Ronald (1926-1998), Canadian-born American painter, known for abstract works characterized by strong colors and bold, expressive brushstrokes. A founding member in 1953 of the Painters Eleven group of Canadian abstract painters, Ronald played an important part in winning acceptance for abstract art in Canada. His canvases from the 1950s, such as J’Accuse (1957, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario), are in a style associated with abstract expressionism, a painting movement then dominant in the United States. The energetic, slashing brushstrokes of his paintings from the 1950s have been compared to those of American artist Franz Kline. Ronald’s paintings typically feature a central abstract form framed by a checkered pattern of alternating colors at the edges of the canvas.

Born William Ronald Smith in Stratford, Ontario, he trained at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto from 1947 to 1951, studying with Canadian painter Jock Macdonald. In the late 1940s he became familiar with the work of abstract expressionist painters in New York City. In 1952 he went to New York City to study briefly with American artist Hans Hofmann, and in 1955 he returned there to live. He painted and exhibited extensively in New York City, soon gaining recognition as a member of the second generation of abstract expressionist painters. Although he took American citizenship in 1963, Ronald returned to Canada in 1964.

Later in the 1960s Ronald became a public figure in Canada, painting works on stage in front of an audience and hosting several Canadian radio and television programs. In 1984 he launched a new series of abstract portraits, which represent the first sixteen Canadian prime ministers, and published a book on the same subject (The Prime Ministers, 1984). An exhibition of these works circulated across Canada, and the series is now in the collection of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Canada.