Press room

Robert Ryman: The Real Thing is a new publication celebrating the late American artist Robert Ryman (1930–2019), whose rigorous and playful paintings pushed the boundaries of the medium for nearly 60 years. The book’s publication coincides with the landmark exhibition Robert Ryman: The Real Thing, on display at the Barbican from 8 October 2026 to 28 February 2027.

Published with Pre-Echo Press and edited by Wells Fray-Smith, curator of the exhibition at the Barbican, and Matt Connors, painter and founder of Pre-Echo Press, the book documents the full range of Ryman’s paintings, revealing the variety of work he produced as he experimented with the limits and possibilities of painting. Alongside new scholarship from influential writers, artists and musicians including Darby English, Roni Horn, Howardena Pindell and Richard Tuttle, this book includes previously unseen archival material and pays special attention to Ryman’s studio and previous installations of his work. A vital resource for understanding the depth and significance of Ryman’s practice, this beautiful volume reveals his steadfast belief that painting, when really seen, is for pleasure.

Ryman believed that seeing his work in person was essential to understanding it – that seeing ‘the real thing was the only way to do it.’ Predominantly painted in white and often characterised by remarkably subtle variations, his paintings are notoriously difficult to photograph and appreciate in reproduction. This bold publication aims to give readers a fuller experience of Ryman’s work. Divided into two sections – first, texts, followed by 105 full-page colour plates that present Ryman’s paintings with exceptional clarity – the book balances new scholarship and insight with an unusually direct encounter with Ryman’s work from the 1950s to the 2010s.

American artist Robert Ryman believed that the poetry of painting was in feeling. For almost 60 years, he devoted himself to making paintings without pictorial or symbolic content, instead focusing his attention on the physical properties of materials and their effects. In works that range from intimate to monumental, and flat to three-dimensional, Ryman explored the basic assumptions of painting – that it involves paint, on a surface, hung on a wall. His body of work is marked equally by surprise and subtlety, sameness and difference, and by shifting uses of paint, gesture, support, size, line, fastenings to the wall and space.

The first substantial English-language publication on Ryman’s work since the artist’s death in 2019, the book acknowledges the profound influence his work has had on other artists, architects, musicians and writers. Personal texts by Ryman’s artist peers, including Roni Horn, Howardena Pindell and Richard Tuttle, are interspersed throughout the pages, along with contributions from younger generations of creatives: Caleb Azumah Nelson, Adam Caruso, Matt Connors, Fergus Feehily, Soweto Kinch, and Adam Pendleton. The full book also includes a foreword by Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican; and essays by Erica Cooke, Darby English, Wells Fray-Smith and Peter Osborne, bringing new perspectives on Ryman’s work. Also included is a transcript of Ryman’s lecture on painting given at the Dannheisser Foundation, New York, 1991, in which he explains his ‘realism’, and Ryman’s artist statement for Series (White), 2004, a series of paintings from 2004-05 that, despite having used white for decades, he considered to be his first ‘white’ paintings. Packed with new research, a new, comprehensive fully-illustrated chronology by Amber Li charts Ryman’s life, developments in his work, his critical reception and Ryman’s own thoughts to making. It is the most substantial chronology on Ryman to-date.

Designed by London-based designer Studio Mathias Clottu, this softcover, 432-page book has been conceived as a material and tactile object in its own right. The bespoke white double jacket, with an underlayer of card and top layer of folded glassine, subtly nods to Ryman’s own careful attention to materials.

Conceived in conjunction with the major exhibition Robert Ryman: The Real Thing at Barbican Art Gallery, London, 8 October 2026–28 February 2027, the book stands alone as a key piece of literature examining Ryman’s life and work.

Distributed by DAP worldwide, the book will be available in the UK through the Barbican’s shop (in-store or online), or in the US via Pre-Echo’s website (RRP £45.00/$75.00). Launch events to celebrate its publication will be held in London, New York, and Los Angeles, with further details to be announced this autumn.