Accession Number
193355
Medium
Charter: Oil paint on anodized aluminum with six hexagonal round-faced steel bolts; Charter II-V: Lascaux acrylic on epoxy-edged fiberglass with aluminum with four unpainted round steel bolts
Dimensions
914.4 × 762 cm (360 × 300 in.); Installed: 910 × 710 cm (358 5/16 × 279 9/16 in.); Charter I: 208.3 × 78.7 × 6.4 cm (82 × 31 × 2 1/2 in.); Charter II: 238.1 × 237.8 cm (93 3/4 × 93 5/8 in.); Charter III: 214 × 213.4 cm (84 1/4 × 84 in.); Charter IV: 183.8 × 182.9 cm (72 3/8 × 72 in.); Charter V: 242.6 × 242.6 cm (95 1/2 × 95 1/2 in.)
Classification
installation
Credit Line
Gerald S. Elliott Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
Robert Rymans The Elliott Room (Charter Series) from 1985-87 is an installation of multiple paintings on anodized aluminum and fiberglass panels with steel and aluminum bolts that exemplifies the Minimalist painters radical approach to the relationship between painting and its support, a relationship that he spent his entire career investigating through the material conditions of the painted object. The Charter Series, which consists of multiple panels each titled with the word Charter followed by a Roman numeral, represents Rymans most sustained investigation of the relationship between the painted surface and the physical support that carries it, including the bolts, brackets, and other hardware by which paintings are attached to the wall. The Elliott Room, named for the gallery where the series was first exhibited, presents the Charter panels in a specific spatial arrangement that makes the physical relationship between the paintings and the wall into the primary content of the work, in which the visible hardware of attachment is not concealed but emphasized as an integral element of the composition. The oil paint on anodized aluminum and the Lascaux acrylic on fiberglass represent two different approaches to the painted surface: the oil paint applied in Ryman's characteristic white palette, and the acrylic applied in a more translucent manner that reveals the fiberglass support beneath. The years 1985-87 bracket the period when Ryman was expanding his practice from single panels to multi-panel installations that treated the gallery space as an integral part of the work.
Cultural Impact
Rymans Charter Series is a significant contribution to the history of Minimalist painting, and The Elliott Room demonstrates his radical approach to the relationship between painting and its support. The series influenced the development of installation-based painting and the broader tradition of art that investigates the material conditions of the painted object.
Why It Matters
A 1985-87 multi-panel installation by Ryman from the Charter Series on anodized aluminum and fiberglass with visible steel and aluminum bolts, making the physical relationship between painting, support, and wall the primary content in a radical investigation of painting's material conditions.
