{"data":{"id":"1143","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1143,"topgoose_id":982,"tms_id":1143,"display_name":"Robert Ryman","sort_name":"Ryman Robert","display_date":"1930–2019","begin_date":"1930","end_date":"2019","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1953, while studying jazz in New York,\nRobert Ryman began a seven-year stint as a\nguard at the Museum of Modern Art, and\nsoon undertook an artistic self-education by\nexamining how the paintings on view there\nwere “put together.” Ryman’s subsequent\nsixty-year career could be characterized as\nan autodidactic study of the elements of\npainting: while sticking nearly exclusively to\na pared-down grammar of white paint,\nabstract forms, and square formats, he has\nexperimented extensively with hues of\nwhite; paint types (oil, enamel, latex); shape,\nsize, texture, and density of marks; support\ntypes (canvas, metal, paper, fiberglass,\nwood); and means of attaching support to\nwalls (stretchers, fasteners, tape).\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRyman’s stated concern with the\nquestion of how rather than what to paint is\nexemplified by his refusal to scrape\naway or overpaint, instead preserving each\nstroke exactly as it is applied. Eschewing\nimage, narrative, or symbolism, \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/17207\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\nmakes its subject the subtle behaviors, and\naesthetic pleasures, of the overlapping,\nnoodle-like white marks wriggling in\nmultiple directions; the glimpses of greens,\nblacks, oranges, and yellows that emerge\nfrom underneath; and even the exposed\nedges of the linen support and the lines of\nthe signature at lower right. Though\nRyman began painting during the heyday\nof “heroic” gestural Abstract Expressionism,\nthe sensuous marks of \u003cem\u003eUntitled\u003c/em\u003e do not\nfetishize the artist’s touch. Yet neither does\nthe painting operate purely conceptually.\nQuite the opposite: with each white painting,\nRyman encounters again the basic problem\nof how to paint, and demonstrates anew\nthe potentially inexhaustible possibilities of\napplying pigment to a flat surface.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500118752","wikidata_id":"Q640936","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:01:02.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-10T07:03:48.229-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1143/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1143/exhibitions"}}}}