Ralph Greenhill

Ralph Greenhill (1924-1996) was predominantly influenced by the 1950s growing up. In the Post-War period the lens of modernism was focused, in terms of internationally, on developments in New York City. The Second World War had brought many prominent artists to the city in exile from Europe, leading to a noteworthy pooling of talent and ideas. Important Europeans that came to New York and provided inspiration for American artists included Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann, who between them set the foundations for much of the United States’ significant cultural growth in the decades thereafter. Key artists of the Abstract Expressionist Generation included Jackson Pollock, Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, and Adolph Gottlieb. 

As well as an artist, Greenhill was a noted scholar on the history of photography in Canada, co-authoring with Andrew Birrell the seminal book Canadian Photography: 1839-1920, published in 1979 by Coach House Press.