Royden Rabinowitch, (born March 6, 1943) is a Canadian post-minimalist

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

who exhibits internationally. Some critics consider him one of the pioneers of modern sculpture. Rabinowitch was elected Visiting Associate 1983/84; Visiting Fellow 1984/85 and Life Member 1986 of Clare Hall,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. In 2002, he was appointed Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

(OC). He lives and works in Ghent, Cambridge, UK, and

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

Early years

Rabinowitch was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, and is the cerebral, reclusive twin brother of sculptor David Rabinowitch. He studied at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

, London, and briefly at the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within d ...

, Toronto. After beginning his career in Toronto in the early 1960s, he moved to London, Ontario. He moved to New York City in 1974.

Career

His first solo show in New York was in 1978 at the John Weber Gallery. In Europe, he was represented by Peter Pakesch in Vienna. His first European retrospective at the Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, in 1985, was curated by Johannes Cladders. He has shown widely in Europe including solo shows at Kunstmuseum, Bern;

Wiener Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

, Vienna; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag; Museum Sztuki, Lodz; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, among many others. Because he saw the art scene as mostly compromised by the ethos of advertising, he largely retreated to Cambridge, only occasionally showing with curators such as Wiesław Borowski, Rudi Fuchs, Jan Hoet, and

Harald Szeemann '' Harald Szeemann (11 June 1933 – 18 February 2005) was a Swiss curator, artist, and art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped redefine the ro ...

. In the 1980s Rabinowitch started to construct works that were seen, by chance, to relate to particular public places. These constructions, listed chronologically, are: ''Judgment on the Keplerian Revolution'' (Furkapasshöhe, Swiss Alps), ''Newton on Top of Aristotle'' (Sarabhai Retreat, Ahmedabad, India), ''Éloges de Fontenelle'' (Toronto Convention Centre), ''Leibniz and Newton'' (Neue Nationalgalerie Platz, Berlin), ''Tyco and Jepp'' (Kornwestheim Bahnhof), ''Judgment of Newton's Principle of Inertia'' (John's Castle, Limerick), ''Galileo's Judgment on Ptolemy and Copernicus'' (WATARI-UM, Tokyo), ''Judgment on the Copernican Revolution'' (chosen by Berlin Mitte for Leipziger Platz), and ''Bell for Kepler'' (Sesquicentennial Plaza, Waterloo, Ontario). Works by Royden Rabinowitch are in museum collections worldwide including the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, New York;

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris;

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo;

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its s ...

, Berlin;

Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is in terms of area the biggest art museum of Switzerland and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over the years by the local art association called '. The collection spans from the Midd ...

; MAMCO, Geneva; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Rupf Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern;

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, Cambridge; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In late 2014, the largest private collection of Rabinowitch's work, which is situated in the Hooft Collection in Ghent, Belgium, was opened to the public.

Awards and honours

Rabinowitch received the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council in 1985. In 2002, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC). That same year, he received Queen Elizabeth II's Gold Jubilee Medal. In 2012, he was honored in Canada with a

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

for excellence in visual and media arts, which recognized his nearly-50-year career as a sculptor. Also in 2012, he received Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabinowitch, Royden 1943 births Living people Artists from Toronto Canadian sculptors Jewish Canadian artists Officers of the Order of Canada Canadian twins Canadian contemporary artists Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Canadian abstract artists 20th-century Canadian sculptors 21st-century Canadian sculptors