Awareness Post
- Lambrini Phillos
- Mar 2, 2024
- 2 min read
Robert Ryman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 30, 1930, and passed away in New York City on February 8, 2019. He lived and worked in New York City and is known for his minimalist paintings that feature mostly white paint. He attended George Peabody College and the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to New York in 1952. His work is displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including museums in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., London, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Paris. The awards Ryman has won include the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Skowhegan Medal for Painting, the Praemium Imperiale, and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
This exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris focuses closely on Robert Ryman's experimental techniques, featuring works that showcase the range of surfaces and methods that Ryman employed, from thick impasto to smooth brushed metal, linen, and fiberglass. Despite its simplicity, Ryman's work showcases a process of addition and subtraction to achieve compositions that draw the viewer's attention. As the exhibition demonstrates, Ryman constantly innovated new approaches over more than six decades yet always maintained the same emphasis on the color white and the presence of texture.
Although I initially was not the biggest fan of Ryman's work, it has grown on me substantially because of his unconventional methods of harnessing the power of color. Because the majority of his paintings are mainly made of white paint, the viewer's eye is drawn to seek out subtle patches of color within his works. This method emphasizes the texture created by his painting, creating a blend of color and texture that is more effective than one might expect. I think that this artist was recommended to me because of the emphasis I place on color, making this an interesting perspective for me to explore. In my current home project, I am exploring new textures with paint, making Ryman's work a great resource for me.
Points
Robert Ryman
1963
Untitled
Robert Ryman
1965
Comments