« What mattered to Ryman,, and what matters when we show him today, is to show that it's not just about creating a painting in response to an idea, a concept, or a protocol, finishing only, when it meets protocol. His approach is completely different, totally opposite. It'a about painting, experimenting, testing. Ploughing further down a furrow, and, as he said himself, to show the how of painting and not the why.Ryman didn't really consider himself as a craftsman, but as a painter going further with what had already been done, putting the « doing » and above all, the gaze, back at the heart of the practice. It's the painter view on what painting is, and his tools. But mostly, it's the visitor's gaze, those who contemplate it, who are actively looking. It' about the effect that it brings to the viewer. After all, leading to a sensitive painting. »
Claire Bernardi
With Claire Bernardi, Director of the Musée de l’Orangerie, and Guillaume Fabius, Assistant Curator.
