Robert Ryman

Robert Ryman was an American painter known for his square white paintings, which explored how paint, brushstroke, support, fixings and wall work together. Born in Nashville, he moved to New York to be a jazz saxophonist and took up painting while working as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art. Over six decades he painted in white on canvas, paper, steel, aluminium and fibreglass, letting the varied surfaces and edges do the work. He is linked with Minimalism and Conceptual Art, and Tate holds several of his paintings.