Everyday: 2/4/16

(watercolor on paper)

Ryman Love

Robert Ryman - The Elliot Room (Charter [center], and two pieces from the Charter Series II-V [left and right]) (Charter: Oil paint on anodized aluminum with six hexagonal round-faced steel bolts; Charter II-V: Lascaux acrylic on epoxy-edged fiberglass with aluminum with four unpainted round steel bolts) 1985-87
[image via the Art Institute website]

Why I like the white Robert Ryman paintings [Charter II - V] at the Art Institute:

*they are poetic - they have most amount of effect by the lightest touch
*even monochrome paintings can still be art objects (a canvas)
*these are painted wall sections - some as though they may have come from an office where someone painted around the furniture - in any case they are things from the world
*this tension between painting and found object is productive one for me - the work has a hard time being "this or that"
*the fact that they escape mere monochrome painting by referencing (and looking like) found objects helps to make them have even more of a light touch
+ the room (installation) is very dependent on the natural light in the space - the work seems to glow, while at the same time makes them dispensary into the wall

for me these are solid real-world objects that, taken from their original context, have become fleeting and poetic objects that both reference the every day and seem to be imbued with some magic.