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Lot Essay
“There is an image, the image is the paint, the procedure, the brush, the way the painting is done—this is actually the image. The size of it, the thickness, the type of paint, all these things become image as soon as it is put on the wall: then it becomes an object, an image.” (R. Ryman, “Interview, New York 1972,” in A. B. Oliva, Encyclopaedia of the Word: Artist Conversations, 1968-2008, Milan, 2010, p. 110)
Robert Ryman’s Untitled, Bruxelles is a testament to the artist’s inherent ability to reveal the language of his artistic process through his work. Art historian Robert Storr has said of Ryman’s works: “How many ways, Ryman has repeatedly and pragmatically asked, can one take the most reductive kind of painting—the apparently one-color-one-format work—and generate from it a complete, indeed protean world. Each painting the artist makes is a partial response to that question” (R. Storr, “Simple Gifts,” Robert Ryman, exh. cat., p. 10). Untitled, Bruxelles is one of several of the artist’s ‘reductive’ paintings which explores the use of line in a much more holistic manner than most artists would consider. Ryman’s application of white acrylic to the black vinyl surface of the work nearly blankets the inky black of the background entirely, with the exception of four squares left near the corners of the panel. These four distinct points of departure from Ryman’s signature modulation of white present the artist’s idiosyncratic approach to line and form. The simultaneous tension and harmony between the opaque acrylic and the exposed vinyl is communicated via the sparse lines which delineate the boundary between the two. The contrast between the white and black draws the viewer’s attention to the fact that to Ryman, they are homogenous in the context of the work as a whole. Untitled, Bruxelles is analogous to a later grouping of Ryman’s work during which the artist frequently used fasteners, or brackets as minimal allusions to line and form. Just as Ryman’s exclusively white paintings, Untitled (Bruxelles) is no exception in its representation of Ryman’s meditation on the work as an experience, in its own right, as well as in relation to the space that it occupies. In a 1979 interview with Barbaralee Diamonstein, Ryman elucidated: “My paintings don’t really exist unless they’re on the wall as part of the wall, as part of the room” (R. Ryman to B. Diamonstein, “Robert Ryman interviewed by Barbaralee Diamonstein,” Inside New York’s Art World, New York, 1979, p. 334).
While Ryman’s mindful inclusion of line and form make Untitled, Bruxelles unique within his oeuvre, the work’s continuation of the artist’s devotion to the limitless possibilities presented by the primary use of white cannot be neglected. The four black points of exclusion on the vinyl panel seemingly act as anchors to the painted, white plane and its surrounding space. Robert Storr affirms Ryman’s acute mastery of white by stating: “Like a Bedouin who can make out the subtlest shades of sand or an Inuit who can read with precision a comparably narrow spectrum of snow and ice, Ryman has catalogued white’s actual variety, thus ironically demonstrating its latent non-neutrality when seen in relation to itself” (R. Storr, “Simple Gifts,” Robert Ryman, exh. cat., 16). As both an autonomous work, and a part to the whole that is Ryman’s body of work, Untitled, Bruxelles is an iconic representation of the artist’s inimitable artistic vision.
Robert Ryman’s Untitled, Bruxelles is a testament to the artist’s inherent ability to reveal the language of his artistic process through his work. Art historian Robert Storr has said of Ryman’s works: “How many ways, Ryman has repeatedly and pragmatically asked, can one take the most reductive kind of painting—the apparently one-color-one-format work—and generate from it a complete, indeed protean world. Each painting the artist makes is a partial response to that question” (R. Storr, “Simple Gifts,” Robert Ryman, exh. cat., p. 10). Untitled, Bruxelles is one of several of the artist’s ‘reductive’ paintings which explores the use of line in a much more holistic manner than most artists would consider. Ryman’s application of white acrylic to the black vinyl surface of the work nearly blankets the inky black of the background entirely, with the exception of four squares left near the corners of the panel. These four distinct points of departure from Ryman’s signature modulation of white present the artist’s idiosyncratic approach to line and form. The simultaneous tension and harmony between the opaque acrylic and the exposed vinyl is communicated via the sparse lines which delineate the boundary between the two. The contrast between the white and black draws the viewer’s attention to the fact that to Ryman, they are homogenous in the context of the work as a whole. Untitled, Bruxelles is analogous to a later grouping of Ryman’s work during which the artist frequently used fasteners, or brackets as minimal allusions to line and form. Just as Ryman’s exclusively white paintings, Untitled (Bruxelles) is no exception in its representation of Ryman’s meditation on the work as an experience, in its own right, as well as in relation to the space that it occupies. In a 1979 interview with Barbaralee Diamonstein, Ryman elucidated: “My paintings don’t really exist unless they’re on the wall as part of the wall, as part of the room” (R. Ryman to B. Diamonstein, “Robert Ryman interviewed by Barbaralee Diamonstein,” Inside New York’s Art World, New York, 1979, p. 334).
While Ryman’s mindful inclusion of line and form make Untitled, Bruxelles unique within his oeuvre, the work’s continuation of the artist’s devotion to the limitless possibilities presented by the primary use of white cannot be neglected. The four black points of exclusion on the vinyl panel seemingly act as anchors to the painted, white plane and its surrounding space. Robert Storr affirms Ryman’s acute mastery of white by stating: “Like a Bedouin who can make out the subtlest shades of sand or an Inuit who can read with precision a comparably narrow spectrum of snow and ice, Ryman has catalogued white’s actual variety, thus ironically demonstrating its latent non-neutrality when seen in relation to itself” (R. Storr, “Simple Gifts,” Robert Ryman, exh. cat., 16). As both an autonomous work, and a part to the whole that is Ryman’s body of work, Untitled, Bruxelles is an iconic representation of the artist’s inimitable artistic vision.