Galerie Lelong announces the passing of legendary sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard at 84
Ursula von Rydingsvard. Photo by Joshua Simpson.
NEW YORK, NY.—
Galerie Lelong announced the death of our beloved artist Ursula von Rydingsvard (b. 1942, Deensen, Germany – d. 2026, New York, New York).
Ursula von Rydingsvard was an artist of inimitable strength with an enduring drive to create. At a time when few women artists were recognized as important sculptors, she worked beyond what seemed possible, expanding in scale and innovating her forms. For fifty years, she sculpted in her signature medium, cedar, sometimes translating the resulting sculptures to resin and bronze for outdoor installation. Using an intuitive approach, von Rydingsvard turned industrial four-by-four wooden beams into organic forms, using a circular saw and hand applying graphite patinas to form textured orifices that invigorate the utilitarian material with emotional charge. Describing her process that was dependent on repetitive and laborious effort she said, “the labor of my body is what keeps me awake and alive…and offers a kind of veneer between me and the things in life that are painful to face.” Her monumental sculptures pushed the boundaries of physics. Her many outdoor and public sculptures, collected by numerous museums including MoMA, New York; SFMoMA, San Francisco; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and installed at venues like the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and on the campuses of Princeton and Stanford Universities and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have introduced her work to an expanded audience over the past decades.
“Because I don't want to be doing anything else with my life—that the building of my art work feels like the most consequential thing I could be doing with my time." —Ursula von Rydingsvard, “Why Do I Make Art?”
Galerie Lelong began representing von Rydingsvard in 1992 and presented thirteen solo shows across locations in New York, Paris and Zurich; her most recent exhibition at the gallery was in New York in February 2026. Of their relationship, Mary Sabbatino, Vice President and Partner at Galerie Lelong, says: “For over thirty years we were honored to represent the work of Ursula von Rydingsvard and to know her not only as an extraordinary artist, but as a friend. Despite enormous obstacles, Ursula had the tenacity to wrest nearly unimaginable images into a monumental scale. Her sculptures stand as sentinels to inspire new generations—especially women sculptors. She also had an astonishing gift for friendship and leaves a legacy as teacher and mentor to her fellow artists.”
Von Rydingsvard was born of Polish Ukrainian descent, an identity she prized, often demonstrated by the Polish titles of her pieces. Her most recent museum exhibition, States of Becoming, was presented at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut in 2026. Earlier, in 2020-21, Ursula von Rydingsvard: Nothing but Art, a touring retrospective in Poland was held at the Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko; Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw, and National Museum in Krakow. For this exhibition, she received the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture, Gloria Artis, from the Polish Ministry of Culture, National Heritage, and Sport. Earlier museum exhibitions include Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; Now, She at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Ursula von Rydingsvard at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, UK and a solo presentation at the 56th Venice Biennale, Italy. Ursula von Rydingsvard at Storm King Art Center in 1991 was the first exhibition to combine her indoor and outdoor sculpture. A documentary feature about the artist’s practice Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own was released in 2019.
Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris, will miss von Rydingsvard greatly and take comfort in the enduring legacy of her remarkable work and genuine friendship, and share special sympathy for the artist’s family, friends, and studio family.
