Tag Archive "robert-ryman"

Letter from Paris: White On White

The white monochrome painting, once a joke –”cow in a snowstorm” – at other times a beacon heralding modernism (Malevich’s White on White, 1918) has carved out a serious place in the canon of aesthetics. Nearly every art movement over the last 150 years, if only a shake or a jitter, has paused long enough to produce an all-over, single-color performance. There are thousands of monochrome works dotting the history of art, pointing to a kind of serial of reduction-minded dramas. Stripped down, these works, bold in their simplicity, end up being complex philosophical constructions gesturing to a manifest aesthetic destiny.

Weekly Update – Ryman’s paint feast at PAFA

This week’s Weekly has my review of the Robert Ryman exhibit at PAFA’s Morris Gallery and of the artist’s permanent commission in PAFA’s Hamilton Building. Below is the copy and here’s the link to the art page. The Agent Provocateur of PaintRobert Ryman’s works show a master experimenting. Robert Ryman—the New York artist known for large, blindingly white, highly textured abstract paintings that often feature his signature—came to Philadelphia last June to make a permanent mark on the city. And while Ryman’s piece Philadelphia Prototype, 2002 doesn’t feature the artist’s signature as a compositional element, the work is unmistakably a ... More » »