Reducing painting to the bare minimum (white paint, a square, and metal fastenings) Ryman pursues infinite subtle variations. Here he has applied oil pastel to the textured and slightly translucent surface of sandblasted plexiglass. The visible fastenings together with the ruled pencil lines expose the typically hidden apparatus that holds paintings to the wall. In making this work and the others on view here, Ryman was much more interested in what he calls the “how” of painting—the physical object itself—than the “what”—the image, the story, the symbolism” that convey meaning outside the work.

Gallery label from

2008.

Medium Pastel and graphite on plexiglass with square black oxide steel fasteners and hex bolts
Dimensions 49 5/8 x 49 5/8" (126.1 x 126.1 cm)
Credit Gift of UBS
Object number 311.1992
Department Painting & Sculpture

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