Author Description

The works in this exhibition catalogue record the time when Robert Ryman, then in his early twenties, was formulating his disciplined approach to painting. On off-white and translucent materials including wallpaper, a circular coffee filter, newsprint and mylar, Ryman drew, tooled, brushed and pressed his marks using a flat table to support the work. His decision to use the square as a consistent format for non-narrative work was set, and while he sporadically used color in these earliest works, he subsequently chose white almost exclusively in the process of eliminating all that was superfluous to a painting.