Groveland Gallery announces A Life’s Work: The Jerry Rudquist Estate, an upcoming exhibition and sale of artwork by Jerry Rudquist (1934-2001). This collection of work, largely held back from public viewing and purchase opportunities, is a master class in painting, color theory, composition, and political statement in visual arts.

Groveland Gallery will present Rudquist’s paintings, drawings, and prints from the Rudquist estate, across a broad range of works from different times in his life. Rudquist was known for working in series: diverse motifs of war, mortality, and head studies, and abstract structures among them.

It’s tempting to say that Rudquist was best known for any one series, but perhaps his most viewed work was “Petunia” (1997), a larger-than-life depiction of a Chester White hog, which won the People’s Choice prize in the Fine Art Exhibition at the Minnesota State Fair that year. Loyal to his roots, Rudquist proudly exhibited his work year after year at the Minnesota State Fair, and in 2002, he was honored with a special retrospective. A Minnesota native, he earned his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art (MCAD) in 1956 and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy in Michigan in 1958. Rudquist’s impressive teaching career at Macalester College began in 1958, where he educated and influenced an uncountable number of talented and successful artists.

A Life’s Work will serve as an introduction of Rudquist’s work to a new generation of viewers. Rudquist’s work has a contemporary presence in theme and color that’s relevant to younger viewers and seasoned collectors alike. Rudquist was a supremely skillful colorist; with jarring shifts in value and hue, Rudquist created space, volume and definition. Seemingly contradictory, the surfaces are complex and intricate, yet their overall impression is nearly explosive.

During his career, Rudquist exhibited extensively locally and throughout the United States. His solo exhibitions included the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Rourke Gallery, Kilbride Bradley Gallery in Minneapolis and at dozens of colleges across the United States. Rudquist’s work is included in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, Minnesota Historical Society, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Portland Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, and numerous corporate and private collections.