RESEARCH: Robert Ryman

Recent practice has directed my attention towards the artist Robert Ryman. His reductive methods resonate with me through his demonstration of processes in paint and pencil which allow the material to speak. He had no formal education, other than benefiting from a close proximity to current artworks exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art during his time working as a security guard. His work didn’t progress so much ‘as elaborate itself under the artists close watch’ (Storr, 1993:10) and suggests techniques of using medium instrumentally which includes his approach to the colour white itself. (17). He developed an amateur impulse to see ‘how paint worked’ (12) and to discover ‘how his tools and raw materials would behave’ (15).

Due to recent negative associations and its complex history, my work has, in the most part, evaded painting. It typically explores process through mediums such as drawing, installation, objecthood, film and animation. Ryman, instead, focuses almost solely on painting, and in particular, painting with the colour white. Recently though, it has come to my attention that he also had a drawing practice. His drawings shown at an exhibition, Robert Ryman: Line at David Zwirner, explore a delicate and thought provoking application of pencil and other drawing mediums on paper. ‘Ryman’s understanding of drawing reflects a singular investigation and deconstruction of the practice’s formal and material qualities’ (David Zwirner, 2024).

Robert Ryman: Line | David Zwirner, London, November 30th 2023 - January 13th 2024

Visiting Rymans exhibition on the 12th December, 2023, I was most struck by the apparent simplicity of his mark making. They appeared to be on the one hand irregular and incidental, but on the other carefully planned and placed. It did not seem important for me to guess whether there was meaning and intention behind every mark. Instead I was drawn to consider and enjoy the rhythmic and poetic nature of each drawing and how every mark made was essential in order to accomplish the individual works.

Grids provide the impression of anchoring and the objects depicted by squares and rectangles (sometimes dots and squiggles) are placed within or alongside them. Using both the grid and the edges of the paper Ryman has achieved a sensitivity towards scale and emotion. Neither over nor under doing it, the objects and marks present an ideal that is balanced but not regular, uncomplicated but not simple. For Ryman it is suggested that ‘drawing’ is the ‘outcome of a process during which he verifies the properties of the medium and the support of the drawing, connecting the two and creating a linear configuration that involves both components’ (David Zwirner, 2024). Response to surface and the outcomes of medium in relation to their particular qualities instil a sense of honesty and truth to the drawings shown at David Zwirner. The marks suggest lines on a surface that are both loaded with information but quietly of itself.

Bibliography

Storr, R. (1993) ‘Simple Gifts’ In: Robert Ryman. London: Tate Gallery Publications. pp. 9-45

David Zwirner (2024) Robert Ryman: Line, https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2023/robert-ryman-line/press-release (accesssed 4/10/2024)