Robert Ryman, 1976
dal 7/11/2007 al 16/2/2008
Segnalato da
7/11/2007
Robert Ryman, 1976
Menil Collection, Houston
Contemporary Conversations. The exhibition is focused exclusively on a pivotal and often overlooked year in his career. During this time, he continued his formal explorations by looking carefully at the way a painting exists in space. He started to examine the work of art's relationship to the wall, and how it can only exist in space. As a result of this inquiry, he began to do the famous white paint with a square support.
Contemporary Conversations
Robert Ryman (b. 1930) is well known for his remarkable ability to demonstrate myriad variations within
what have become the two defining characteristics of his work: white paint and a square support. Since
1958, when he gave up using colored paint, to the present day, he has vigorously experimented within
these limitations to celebrate the nuance and possibility of the expressive potential of paint. With such a
reduced and minimal language, he is able to highlight qualities of a painting that he feels are often
overlooked, such as the different types of brushstrokes, the methods of applying paint to the surface of a
support, the variations within the color white, and the way the placement of an artist’s signature affects a
painting’s composition. Deeply influenced by his experience as a museum guard at the Museum of
Modern Art during its historical abstract painting exhibitions of the New York School in the late 1950s,
Ryman is among a generation of artists who are continuing the legacy and belief in the purity of modern
painting after abstract expressionism.
This exhibition is the second in the Menil’s new series, “Contemporary Conversations,” which highlights
work by living artists in the collection. It will focus exclusively on a pivotal and often overlooked year in
Ryman’s career. During this time, he continued his formal explorations by looking carefully at the way a
painting exists in space. He started to examine the work of art’s relationship to the wall, and how it can
only exist in space. As a result of this inquiry, he began to accentuate how a work of art is placed on the
wall by making its hanging hardware—from steel mounts and Plexiglas fasteners to socket bolts—
important compositional devices in his work. Works on loan from the Addison Gallery of American Art,
and the artist’s own collection of rarely exhibited works, will accompany Midland II, a painting purchased
by Dominique de Menil in 1980.
Exclusive U.S. venue.
Image: Robert Ryman, Midland II, 1976. The Menil Collection
Media contact: Tara Alcancia t 713 525 9469 press@menil.org
Exhibition Preview: Thursday, November 8, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
The Menil Collection
1515 Sul Ross Street Houston, TX 77006
open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Admission and parking are free.