Barbican Explores Robert Ryman's“Complex” White Paintings

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Barbican Art Gallery in London is currently hosting a retrospective of Robert Ryman, an American artist who passed away in 2019. Titled Robert Ryman: The Real Thing, the exhibition is the first major UK presentation of his work in over 30 years and aims to introduce his practice to a new generation of British audiences.

Ryman, born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1930, was widely known for his austere white canvases. He spent his career challenging the conventional understanding of painting. The Barbican exhibition seeks to move beyond the common perception of his work as merely“white paintings,” presenting pieces created from the mid- 1950s to the early 2010s. Wells Fray-Smith, the exhibition's curator, stated that painting has been a significant focus of the Barbican's program for the past decade. She added that Ryman is“one of the most beloved painters of the 20th and 21st centuries,” despite limited opportunities to see his art in Britain.

Ryman initially moved to New York in the early 1950s to pursue a career as a jazz saxophonist. During his time in the city, he worked as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and taught himself to paint. His artistic approach diverged from traditional painting, focusing on the inherent conditions of the work itself: pigment, surface, scale, light, and space, rather than depicting images or narratives.

White became his dominant color, enabling the other elements of his work to become more pronounced due to its relative neutrality. Susan Dunne, a senior director at David Zwirner, which represents the Ryman estate, commented on the perceived simplicity of his art.“The 'seeming simplicity' of a Ryman painting belies a vast complexity of expression, emotion, rhythm and possibility, for creating a work that appears simple is one of the most difficult artistic feats,” Dunne said. She emphasized that for Ryman, a painting's presentation, including its relationship to the wall and the space it occupies, was fundamental to the artwork.“Anything but simple, Ryman's art asks us to slow down and look carefully,” Dunne noted.

Among the exhibition's key pieces is Untitled (Orange Painting), created in 1955 and 1959, which Ryman began while employed at MoMA. Fray-Smith described it as Ryman's first“professional” painting, featuring a“flaming orange with an acid-green underpainting and very surprising.” Ryman frequently omitted this work from his own exhibitions due to finding its color“shocking.” However, the piece held significant meaning for the artist. Ryman once remarked,“I've always thought that if I ever wanted to paint a white painting it would be in the order of the way this painting was done, because this is an orange painting but there are many nuances and many oranges (and black and green).”

Another notable work on display is Surface Veil II, from around 1970. This piece measures 12 feet by 12 feet and rarely travels due to its substantial size. Ryman reportedly laid the unstretched canvas on the floor, using blue chalk to delineate the area for painting. When the canvas was later stretched, the stretcher bars extended beyond the chalk line, leaving a small margin of unpainted material.

Fray-Smith curated the exhibition with the intention of challenging the perception of Ryman as merely an austere or monochromatic artist. The show includes works on diverse materials and supports, such as canvas, wallpaper, aluminum, Plexiglas, and copper. It also features paintings from a more experimental period in the 1960s, where color played a more prominent role.

The installation emphasizes Ryman's focus on direct experience and sustained observation. One section of the exhibition displays works without wall texts or interpretive labels; instead, contextual information is provided in a handout. Fray-Smith explained that Ryman's work“asks for us to pay attention.” While text and interpretation are valuable for introducing audiences and providing context, she believes they engage a“cognitive 'thinky' brain that Ryman did not think was wholly necessary to have a meaningful experience with painting.” By minimizing didactic elements, the museum hopes to encourage visitors to engage more deeply with the artworks and their surroundings, fostering a focus on direct perception rather than predetermined meaning.

Fray-Smith expressed her hope that visitors will leave with“a fresh sense of Ryman and his work,” along with increased confidence in their own interpretation of art. She believes Ryman's artistic accomplishment was not just about creating paintings with fewer elements, but about making the act of looking an integral part of the subject itself.

The exhibition, Robert Ryman: The Real Thing, is on view at the Barbican Art Gallery in London until February 28, 2027.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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