Untitled, 1962, 2

Robert Ryman built almost his entire career around a single color: white. This painting from 1962 shows his approach in action, with thick dabs and strokes of white paint laid down across a warm tan canvas. Look closely and you will spot little flashes of orange, green, and yellow peeking out from underneath, like clues to what happened before the white took over. Ryman was less interested in painting a picture of something and more curious about paint itself, how it sits on a surface, how light hits it, and how each brushstroke leaves its own mark.

Ryman started out as a jazz saxophonist before working as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Surrounded by art every day, he taught himself to paint and slowly developed his fascination with white, which he once described as a way to clear everything else out of the way. He is usually grouped with the Minimalists, though he never loved that label. What you see here is honest and direct: just paint, canvas, and texture. Some people find that endlessly absorbing, while others might walk right past it, and Ryman would probably have been fine with either reaction.