Robert Ryman — Monochrome Painting
“Robert Ryman (May 30, 1930 — February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings.He lived and worked in New York City. Ryman was often classified as a minimalist; but, he preferred to be known as a “realist”, because, he was not interested in creating illusions, but, only in presenting the materials he used in compositions at their face value. As he wrote in a statement for a 2010 exhibition at Pace Wildenstein, “I am not a picture painter. I work with real light and space, and since real light is an important aspect of the paintings, it always presents some problems.”The majority of his works feature abstract expressionist-influenced brushwork in white or off-white paint on square canvas or metal surfaces. A lifelong experimenter with media, Ryman painted and/or drew on canvas, linen, steel, aluminum, plexiglas, lumasite, vinyl, fiberglass, corrugated paper, burlap, newsprint, wallpaper, jute sacking, fiberplate, a composite material called gator board, feather board, handmade paper, and acrilivin.”
