RITCHIE, Jim (1929)

Jim Ritchie (James Edward Ritchie) is a sculptor born in Montreal, but he lived most of his life in Provence, more specifically in Vence, where he installed his studio in 1967. The proximity to Pietrasanta, the Italian village known for its marble workshops and the works of Michelangelo, was a determining factor in his work. Created in a modernist style, between cubism and figurative abstraction, the main subject of his marble or bronze works is the human being. Several of his sculptures and drawings have been exhibited in Montreal, London, New York, Los Angeles and Boston. His sculpture, La Vençoise, an homage to Vence, was erected in the town’s downtown where it has been for more than fifty years. His public works are part of the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montéal, the Musée d’art de Saint-Laurent, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Jim Ritchie is the author of a biography, A Sculptural Life, published in 2012.