Robert Ryman’s Course forms part of a life-long exploration into the qualities and possibilities embedded in the use of white. His stringent approach eliminated imagery, color and even emotive brushwork in an effort to reflect his conviction that every visible detail of a work contributed to the viewer’s experience of it, including and importantly the white wall supporting it. Ryman endeavoured to create enlightenment and a reverent experience of painting through “…whiteness [that] refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own.” ¹ Whites that spread outward and become part of their surroundings.

¹ David Batchelor, “Whitescapes” in Chromophobia (London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2000), 15.