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Anne Ryan , (July 20, 1889–April 17, 1954)

No. 1

1951
17 7/8 in. x 23 11/16 in. (45.4 cm x 60.17 cm)

Medium and Support: Paper and fabric collage on illustration board

Credit Line: Gift of Elizabeth McFadden

Accession Number: 1960.8

Commentary

Gallery label from Light/Dark, White/Black, January 17 - July 31, 2016

It was in the late 1940s that the poet-turned-artist Anne Ryan began to make her first collages, inspired by an exhibition by collagist Kurt Schwitters. Composed of different weights and textures of paper and fabric in slightly divergent shades of white, No. 1 exemplifies what has been identified as the type of collage for which the artist is best known and in which “color is handled with greater subtlety and nuance—some compositions approach invisibility as the lightest shades of, for example, white, grey and buff are juxtaposed….” Ryan, who often used master papermaker Douglass Howell’s exquisite handmade papers in her collages, here goes a step further, including in her piece a printed announcement of his 1951 exhibition at the University of Maine. Thus Ryan’s overt, yet visually concealed nod to Howell serves as further reminder of the endless subtle variations within the overarching whiteness typically associated with paper.

Kelley Tialiou
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Assistant | Librarian | Archivist

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Anne Ryan, Collages Stable Gallery , 4/24/1963 - 5/11/1963
Now and Then: The Collector's Changing Taste Governor Dummer Academy , 10/29/1964 - 12/15/1964
Selections from Collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art Northfield School , 12/28/1964 - 3/15/1965
On Paper: Masterworks from the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/1/2003 - 4/6/2003
The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives on the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/4/2007 - 12/30/2007
Light/Dark, White/Black Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/17/2015 - 7/31/2015
Currents/Crosscurrents: American Art, 1850–1950 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/16/2020 - 3/7/2021
Women and Abstraction: 1741- Now Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/28/2023 - 7/31/2023

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