Versions IV (Robert Ryman, 1992)

Ceaseless investigation underpins Ryman’s approach to painting. Any one work by the artist represents the culmination of "trials" conducted previously. Since the 1960s, Ryman has restricted himself to a limited array of formal and material options. Paradoxically, this is precisely what allows him to experiment as widely as he does, creating endless optical and compositional variations by means of adjustments to primer, medium, scale, material, support, and structure. Versions IV is one of sixteen paintings composed of short delicate brushstrokes that seem to swarm and disperse. The paint is applied to a slender fiberglass panel; at its upper edge the artist attached a fragile sheet of wax paper. Every element conspires to create an impression of weightlessness and extension beyond the painting’s external limits.