Page 42 - Studio International - March 1974

adhesion to the wall — and left on the wall
Installation 'Ace Wall Show — Part I'
Los Angeles, 1969
Enamel on wall, with masking tape frames
128
measured and measurable against the different
when the 'support' is removed. After Ryman visual appearance of the whole context as
spoke of the woven effect of the paint surface `regular'.
against the underlying material, in the But the presence of these frames makes the
Tuchman interview, he continued: 'Then, you Ace paint-on-wall paintings far less 'naked'
see the frame which is on the wall, which is a than the two totally frameless paintings of
fuzzy edge that goes alone; this is a kind of high-gloss 'Brilliant White' enamel on the
traditional frame which all paintings have, matte emulsioned walls of the Lisson Gallery
unless they're just put up naked like a Rothko. in the December of 1972. These paintings'
If you put a frame, like a gold stripping or a parameters were simply the unarticulated
wood stripping around the painting, then that difference between the presence of Ryman's
becomes part of the painting. As long as it's past activity which achieved those shining
there, you see it. When the strip or gold frame cold-coloured paint surfaces and its absence
or whatever is removed, then the painting is on walls and near windows which were existent
naked and that's the way we see it next time. before and after the exhibition. But the wall-
It's the same way with this. It has a fuzzy frame paintings were framed by the architecture, and
around it, which holds it to the wall; but, affected by the natural daylight of a window's
when it's removed from the wall, it will lose its proximity as much as by artificial lighting.
frame and it will be naked and it will be placed One painting approximately 39 inches square
on another wall. It will never have another was approximately centered between a corner
frame again, once it's removed.' and a window, the other (67 x 68½ inches) was
But if the paint-on-wall paintings are `centred' between another corner and a pillar
removed, it is not just the frame which is lost in a position to receive the grey (London)
but the whole painting. That is, unless the raking light from the same window. And I keep
techniques used to remove and remount saying 'approximately' in this description
frescoes were to be applied, in which case the because there were no consistent measurements
paintings would certainly be 'something else'. in these paintings and their contextual
For all these paintings are quite specifically relationships. Scale and position were judged
designed in terms of scale and position for their by eye, not by ruler. Nor were these paintings
particular exhibition context. This was made ruled by their concept. For their concept is not
explicit in a letter from Ryman to Paula Matisse unrelated to either the earlier beautiful studio
of 15 July, 1969 in which he described his prototype of enamel on icy Enamelac (`edge`)
proposal (and procedure) for the Ace Gallery's on emulsioned wall, or the later exhibited
`Wall Show — Part I' : 'The paintings will large painting of enamel on warmish Gripz
consist of a square tape frame on the walls (`frame') on emulsioned wall in the John
which will determine the area of the paint. The Weber Gallery; but the difference between all
intensity of the paintings and the walls can be these un-ruled concepts shows that they were
controlled by the consistency of the paint. no more fixed than the time and place of their
(They could all be of equal intensity, or of making. Again that structure finally based on
different intensity and that will be decided at immediate phenomenological experience
the time of installation.) related to 'preconceptions' in a thoughtfully
`The paintings will probably be non-passive personality. And making paintings
approximately 3o inches square but will not which are just paint painted, the materials and
visually seem square, as the paint will go off the procedures are apparently 'one' : the ultimate
3o inches space on to the tape frame. The scale primary in lowest common denominators.
of the paintings and the number of the That the frameworks of this 'one' are fuzzy
paintings and the distance between each will be when considered in the context of Ryman's and
determined after I see the over-all space of the others' other work is simply a function of the
gallery walls.' When he got into the almost totally fact that Ryman — and his artistic position — is
irregular space of that Los Angeles gallery, far from being finished. q
Ryman opted for the appearance of regularity
in his painting(s); to visually compensate for the [This is part II of a 3-part article on the work of
difference between the long walls, Ryman Robert Ryman. Part I (on 'materials') appeared in
ranged 13 22-inch squares on one, facing the February issue of Studio International and
I I 2o-inch squares on the other. The squares, of part III (on 'position') will appear in the spring
course, being the masking-tape 'frames' issue of Data (Milan).]