Robert Ryman

This comprehensive exhibition brings together six decades of Robert Ryman’s vital paintings, ranging in date from the 1950s through the 2000s. Since the 1950s, Ryman’s works have been both readily identified and identifiable by their achromatic surfaces. Viewers see and experience these painted frequencies of light as the color white, but Ryman’s radical exploration of the tonal values, light reflections, and spatial effects of white were never limited to paint. Very early on his experimentations with canvas, board, and paper expanded to include aluminum, fiberglass, and Plexiglas, before evolving into a material vocabulary that is as revolutionary as his use of various white hues. As such, Ryman’s works are often discussed in relation to Abstract Expressionism as well as Minimalism and Postminimalism.

Curated by Courtney J. Martin, Assistant Professor of History of Art & Architecture at Brown University, with Megan Witko, Assistant Curator at Dia, this exhibition builds on Dia’s deep relationship with the artist. Dia presented an exhibition of Ryman’s paintings at the former Dia Center for the Arts in New York City in 1988, and has maintained a long-term presentation of his work at Dia:Beacon since 2003.