
Robert Ryman Artworks
American Painter and Conceptual Artist
Movements and Styles: Conceptual Art, Minimalism
Born: May 30, 1930 - Nashville, Tennessee
Died: February 8, 2019 - New York City

Artworks by Robert RymanThe below artworks are the most important by Robert Ryman - that both overview the major creative periods, and highlight the greatest achievements by the artist. | |
![]() Artwork Images | Untitled (Orange Painting) (1955 and 1959)Artwork description & Analysis: Ryman considers this painting to be his first "professional" work. Though primarily orange, small points of green paint can be seen, mostly at the edges of the canvas. Inspired by Abstract Expressionist works at MoMA, Ryman bought some art supplies from a local store. He later recalled his thought process when approaching his early works: "I thought I would see what would happen. I wanted to see what the paint would do, how the brushes would work. That was the first step. I just played around. I had nothing really in mind to paint. I was just finding out how the paint worked, colors, thick and thin, the brushes, surfaces." Oil on canvas - Museum of Modern Art, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Untitled (1960)Artwork description & Analysis: This work from 1960 shows the development of Ryman's mature style and his habitual use of white on a square canvas, but it also suggests a lingering influence from his early experiments with color, as the edges of the canvas reveal layers of blue and green underpainting. It also points to Ryman's debt to the Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, characteristically termed "action painters" by critic Harold Rosenberg due to the way their painting revealed the process of creation. Ryman's work constitutes "action painting" in the sense that it indicates how the thick layers of white are built up with a knife or another tool, with more paint deposited towards the upper left corner, thus making the composition appear "off center." Even a neatly painted white rectangular form is visible along the bottom edge, along with the green and blue streaks, making evident each method that Ryman has used in compiling the final product. Also like the Abstract Expressionists, Ryman inserts his bright yellow signature at the bottom, signaling the work's completion. Oil and gesso on canvas - Dia, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Untitled (Background Music) (1962)Artwork description & Analysis: This painting emphasizes the importance of color in Ryman's work; even when the key color he uses is white, shade and tone are always carefully calculated. Here, the thickly laid white paint acts as a type of screen for the red, purple, and yellow hues behind it. The screen-like quality of the white painting dovetails with the title, possibly a reference to Ryman's attempt to become a professional saxophonist. By 1962, he had abandoned his musical career for one as an artist, thus relegating the former to the background with respect to his new profession. Oil on canvas - Dia, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Arista (1968)Artwork description & Analysis: Arista is a painting that provokes far more questions about the nature of art than it answers. The work includes a six-foot square section of linen that has not been stretched over a canvas frame. The painted fabric is stapled to the gallery wall and bordered by lines drawn on the wall in blue chalk. Peter Schjeldahl correctly comments that "the lines suggest a guide to placement", but also argues that they are in themselves "the most interesting feature of the work." The unstretched fabric and chalk lines give the piece an air of being incomplete, as one traditionally assumes that the chalk lines would be erased and the painted fabric itself placed within a frame. This raises a series of important questions: does the work only exist as a whole when it is fully installed? Is it destroyed if it is re-hung on a different wall or in a different gallery? And, as a result, how do we know when the painting is truly finished, and how should we even properly describe the painting's dimensions? How integral are the staples and the original chalk lines to the work (can we really treat the chalk lines as "guides"?), and, since the chalk lines can easily fade or be erased if touched, Ryman also introduces a temporal dimension to the work: can it be altered and still be considered whole? Oil on unstretched linen with staples and chalk lines - Dia, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Counsel (1982)Artwork description & Analysis: Unlike paintings such as Arista, which is stapled directly to the gallery wall, Counsel sits slightly away from the wall, raised from the surface by steel brackets. The brackets are visible at the top and bottom of the painting, drawing attention to the work's interaction with the space around it and the importance of its physical presence in the gallery. Most importantly, on this level Counsel plays with the traditional notion of framing even more than Arista, since a frame can both refer to the way the painting is encased in a type of boundary that often accentuates its presence and can refer to how the surface of a canvas or substrate is supported by a backing structure, in this case the durable and plainly visible (though not obtrusive) brackets protruding above and below the linen. Oil and enamelac on linen with steel fasteners and bolts - Dia, New York |
![]() Artwork Images | Accord (1985)Artwork description & Analysis: This is one of several works that Ryman made during the 1980s that he called "three-dimensional paintings," existing somewhere on the boundary between painting and sculpture. Critic Lidija Haas claims that Accord, and other Ryman works from this era, "feel like gentle jokes as well as experiments: is it a painting or a frame, or a podium on which an artwork will be presented to you?" Oil on aluminum with steel bolts - Dia, New York |
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Content compiled and written by Anna Souter
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Peter Clericuzio
" Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Anna Souter
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Peter Clericuzio
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First published on 20 Dec 2016. Updated and modified regularly.
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