ROBERT RYMAN
Robert Ryman (1930–2019) was born in Nashville, Tennessee; he studied at the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, Cookeville, and the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, between 1948 and 1950. After two years in the Army Reserve Corps, Ryman moved to New York in 1952 to pursue a career as a professional jazz musician. The following year, he took a job as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he worked for seven years. His time at the museum in part inspired Ryman to take up painting in 1953.
Ryman’s first solo exhibition was at Paul Bianchini Gallery, New York, in 1967, and his first museum solo exhibition was at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1972. In 1993 and 1994, a retrospective organized by Robert Storr traveled to Tate Gallery, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Long-term presentations selected and installed by the artist included those at the Hallen für neue Kunst, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1983–2014, and Dia:Beacon, 2003–ongoing.
Other museum presentations include solo exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1974; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1977; Halle für internationale neue Kunst, Zurich, 1980, traveled to Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1981, and Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, 1981–82; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2000–2001, traveled to Kunstmuseum Bonn, 2001; Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan, 2004; and Dia:Chelsea, New York, 2016, traveled to Museo Jumex, Mexico City, 2017.
Ryman’s work can be found in many museum collections, including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.