Page 40 - Studio International - February 1974

(Left above) Untitled 1960
Tracing paper collage with oil, gouache, pencil, tape
10 x 10 in.
(Left below) Untitled 1970 Adelphi 1967
(Below)
Oil on fibreglass with paper frame
Oil on linen with wax-paper frame
102x 102 5 5/8 x 5 5/8 in. in.

the five 1966 circular drawings titled in his work for thirteen years — accentuating Adelphi, of course, is one of six similar-sized
according to the pencils used on each: (by contrast) the opaque physicality of paint. In. paintings of white painted linen stapled
Koh-I-Noor 7H (No. 1), Eagle Turquoise 7H those lovely few collages of 1959 and 196o the directly to the wall of Heiner Friedrich's
(No. 4), and 6H (No. 2), Venus 7H (No. 1), and main field and surface is simply a single sheet Munich Gallery in 1967: a 'set' which explored
Castell 9H, (No. 1). The papers' tissue of fine of tracing paper — that thin, smooth-surfaced, six different 'frames' as relations between the
machine-made ribbing has subtle matte paper which browns and crispens so unstretched canvases and the supportive wall
irregularities (although Ryman told me he beautifully with age. In the collage reproduced while physically different from either. And
bought boxes and boxes of sheets to find even here, its enhanced translucency is not just due although the wax paper works similarly in
about twelve without 'imperfections') which to its contrast with the glossy impasto of the Adelphi and Untitled 197o as a 'frame' whose
counter the rigidly straight parallel lines or white (and sienna-orangish) paint and grainy transparency connects the painting with the
grids made by the pencils — an ironic inversion line of graphite on its surface or with its opaque surrounding wall in an embracing openness,
of the usual contrast between machine- paper backing : it is also due to the doubling of in Adelphi its material integrity is more
regularity and hand-made personality. These layers of tracing paper — both in the upper accentuated by its separateness from painted
textural irregularities are not just of the surface : right 'square' (counterpointed by the similar- linen, small dark tapes, and itself in
the whole diaphanous material is embossed hued rippled opacity of the 'natural' masking- overlapping strips. In Untitled 1970, the wax
into ridges and crevices whose chiaroscuro is tape square in the lower left corner) and in one paper reads more as an extension of (and
almost as pronounced as its contrast with the of the applied 'supports' for differently coloured tape-held support for) the central square of
pencil marks. For the pencils chosen have fine, signatures. The whole piece could be read as a more roughly textured and semi-opaque
hard graphite — leaving thin lines barely visible sort of obligato on relative transparencies of and fibreglass under and between the dominating
as a sharp shimmer against the paper's matte to the tracing-paper itself, for the repetition glossily impastoed strokes of white paint: a
translucency. Delicacy met by delicacy: an and balancing of everything else is scaled and role less conceptually related to the 'painting'
obvious particular example of what I meant by positioned as subordinate to its parameters and and more softly integrated with its more
Ryman's sense of compatibility of discrete surface. This kind of visual physical dominance visually seductive and dramatic personality on
materials. is not the case with the wax paper Ryman used the wall.
I spoke of 'translucency'. This is not the in the 1967 Adelphi or the 197o Untitled. In Transparent and translucent materials
most obvious quality for which paper is known. both these works, the paper — more shiny and `look light' (in weight) and usually are.
But it is a quality of material which obviously transparent than tracing paper — is present more Highly light-reflective surfaces and thin flat
interests Ryman very much, for translucent or as a frame for the central painting : a frame planes usually 'read' as light-weight, too: but if
almost transparent materials have cropped up punctuated and held by bits of masking-tape. they are solid metal they are not. This irony is
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