Untitled

1961

Oil on unstretched linen canvas

45.7 x 45.1 cm

Thick paint strokes are applied on a light blue backdrop. Some bright blue spots stand out here and there, and the gray-brown canvas appears sometimes between the layers. Rober Ryman's Untitled is a mille-feuille of textures and variations that blends with its surroundings and changes according to the ambient light.

In the 1960s, Robert Ryman seeks to reduce painting to its essential elements. The medium and the painting become full-fledged subjects rather than means of representation (or abstraction). Indeed, the American artist says his work is “realistic”. “The lines are real and the space is real, the surface is real and there is an interaction between the painting and the wall plane, unlike with abstraction and representation... I think it's more a pure experience.”

Held in the Pinault Collection, the painting Untitled was first shown in 2006 at the Where Are We Going? exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice.
Exhibitions