Robert Ryman was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Between 1948 and 1950, he studied at the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, Cookeville, and the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville. After two years in the Army Reserve Corps, Ryman moved to New York in 1952 to pursue a career as a professional jazz musician. The following year, he took a job as a security guard at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he would work for seven years. His time working at the museum in part inspired Ryman to devote his life toward painting.
Ryman had his first solo exhibition at Bianchini Gallery, New York, in 1967, followed by several solo shows at influential galleries in Europe and the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich, and Cologne (1968, 1969, 1971, 1972); Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf (1968, 1969, 1973); Fischbach Gallery, New York (1969, 1970, 1971); Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris (1969); Dwan Gallery, New York (1971); and Lisson Gallery, London (1972-73). He had a solo exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in 1977 and Tate in 1993.
