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THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
Robert Ryman: Variations and Improvisations
Text by Vesela Sretenovic.
For over 50 years, Robert Ryman (born 1930) has explored the materiality of paint and the surfaces to which he applies it, in white-on-white paintings that subtly attain the status of painted objects rather than patterned gestures or depictions of further objects. Published on the occasion of the Phillips Collection's Ryman exhibition in Washington, D.C., Robert Ryman: Variations and Improvisations presents approximately 25 small-scale works, all of which are drawn from private collections, and some of which have only rarely been shown in the U.S. An interview with the artist is included.
"Predominantly white, square, imageless, nonnarrative, and condensed to sheer materiality, Ryman's paintings are most commonly described as abstract, monochromatic, reductivist, minimalist works of art. Ryman has a different take on his own work and considers himself a realist. This may sound paradoxical for two reasons. First, because his work does not permit any references to 'reality,' to what we actually see or know. And second, because of the historical polarity of realism and abstraction that reduces the former to figuration and storytelling and the latter to nonrepresentation and preoccupation with formal issues. But according to Ryman, 'Realism actually uses all the devices that are used by abstraction and representation such as composition and color complexity, and surface and light, and line and so on. The only element that is not used is the picture…and since there is no picture, there is no story. And there is no myth. And there is no illusion above all.'
FORMAT: Pbk, 7.5 x 7.5 in. / 32 pgs / 21 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $15.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $17.5 ISBN: 9780943044354 PUBLISHER: The Phillips Collection AVAILABLE: 8/30/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by The Phillips Collection. Text by Vesela Sretenovic.
For over 50 years, Robert Ryman (born 1930) has explored the materiality of paint and the surfaces to which he applies it, in white-on-white paintings that subtly attain the status of painted objects rather than patterned gestures or depictions of further objects. Published on the occasion of the Phillips Collection's Ryman exhibition in Washington, D.C., Robert Ryman: Variations and Improvisations presents approximately 25 small-scale works, all of which are drawn from private collections, and some of which have only rarely been shown in the U.S. An interview with the artist is included.
