Page 36 - Studio International - March 1974

ROBERT RYMAN: UNFINISHED II (PROCEDURES)
BARBARA REISE

`Process' is not enough. To characterize Ryman's smooth regularity; so that the final painting
style of working activity, the word is too would manifest the personality and control of
general, too intuitive, too much a matter of Ryman's pulling that paint horizontally across
sheer gut action and reaction : not indicative that surface, not the vagaries of uncontrolled
enough of a considered, informed, self-critical material behind that surface. A lot of invisible
type of process between conception and its work, however beautiful the results. No wonder
realization. 'Procedure' is better. It embodies that Ryman, with that knowledge from 1966-67
a sense of measure, of rationality, of forethought and more available money, used a less personally
and economy, of craft. Which does not mean laborious technique in 1973 to achieve similar
the extremes of pseudo-scientific procedure control of the enamel on aluminum paintings
`proving' a hypothesis by a self-reflecting by having the metal factory-sealed by a baked
conclusion of an unquestioned 'given'. acrylic surface. But how can you control dust Detail (one panel) of Standard painting, 1967
Ryman does not 'execute' — in an inevitable and flies from sticking on drying enamel and Enamel on steel, 48 x 48 in.
step-by-step progression — paintings which are spoiling its smooth finish ? That was the cause Coll. Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, Varese
`preconceived'. 'I don't have a plan beforehand', of rejecting many of the half-finished
he told Phyllis Tuchman (Artforum, May 1971), General paintings in the sticky summer of 1970.
`I have a certain concept, a certain feeling Of course this is a matter of craft — in the
of what I want. There are certain aesthetic oldest and best sense of the word. It has to do
problems that I want to solve. Sure, that's a with that knowledgeable use of materials for
beginning. When I start doing it, I discover physical excellence and permanence which
things that I hadn't thought could be there; characterized the work (and aesthetic criteria) of
I change it later on, until I end up with the the Old Masters. Ryman's painting procedures
final result, the final painting which I consider are distinctly related to this 'craft' of the Old
to be finished. That's done.' Masters : even in his use of the latest available
Of course not all of Ryman's procedures are materials and technical processes which suit
evident in the work we see. Ryman rejects a lot. his purposes. And part of his 'purposes' is to
This is partly because he works with a full let the processes inherent in particular materials
direct immediacy: a spontaneity embodying and techniques of 'painting' function as
many factors of which the failure of any one independent actors effecting the conception and
could cause the failure of the whole. And realization of his own works. This is important.
although he does do some 'little sketches or For while it is obvious that Ryman's processes
little prototypes, as I call them, on any kind of of choosing, controlling, and using materials
size I pick up at the moment' (Tuchman are what determine the image of his work, the
interview, op. cit.), his more considered same could be said of almost anyone. Ryman's
approach to 'the finished thing' still has that uniqueness is related to his respect for the
risk of spontaneity. But there is also the physical processes of the craft of the Old
problem of materials : the untraditionally wide Masters — in painting, drawing, intaglio
range used by Ryman makes their action and printing — as of value in themselves independent
interaction unpredictable from textbooks on of supporting an image of anything else.
`Techniques and Materials of Oil Painting'. And this uniqueness is also related to his
Ryman must accrue his own information about respectful exploration of different stages of what
how materials run, stretch, fuse, oxidize, adhere, has always gone into the physical facture of a
or reject in combinations made (and often painting also as being of independent artistic
rejected) in the process of painting. And then, value: the stretching (or contraction) of a
Ryman is a perfectionist. All of which, given canvas or support; the application of paint; the
the personal physicality of his art, means a lot of decision of when something is `finished'; the
work. interrelationship between 'finished' works and
Take Standard, for instance : it is usually between works and their environment of
described as 'enamel on steel', and looks just exhibition. Thus Ryman, in disciplining his
that — enamel paint pulled across each of own processes in subordination to those inherent
thirteen panels with apparent ease. But to in the materials and traditions he uses, relates
obtain these thirteen panels Ryman worked his own work to all works of visual art of a
on more than fifty. And by 'worked', I mean that phenomenologically physical nature.
— for the final painting — Ryman rubbed each Expansion and contraction are substantive
panel with benzine, then seared it with a processes of materials related not only to changes
blow-torch, then applied acid, then a coat of in heat. Shrinkage and stretching are potential
clear lacquer, and then risked that 'easy' processes existent in the drying of liquids
regular pulling of enamel across the surface — (like paint) and actually woven into cloth (like
sealing the backs with a rustproof paint. Why ? canvas). 'Stretching the canvas' is traditional
So that the chemical impurities of cold-rolled preliminary hand-work of painters — and
steel (which is not 'stainless') would not disturb Ryman uses that process to individualize
and change the paint; so there would be a square or grid `non'-imagery drawn on
surface on which the paint could adhere with a the material surface. To make the early

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