Ronald Ahlström

Ronald Ahlström was born in Chicago, IL in 1922. During World War II, he fought in the Pacific Theater serving as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. After the war, he returned to Chicago to study painting at the School of the Art Institute. In the early 1960s, Ahlström worked as the curator at the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, WA. A talented painter and artist, Alhström also was a noted bass fiddler and guitarist. He often played professionally in night clubs during the late 1940s and ‘50s. Ahlström exhibited his artwork nationally, including shows at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. In 1958, he was awarded the William H. Bartels Prize of five hundred dollars at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ahlström became best recognized for his intricate and subtly rendered abstract compositions that often integrated painting, drawing and collage. He died at the age of 90 in Chicago in 2012.