Michael Ryan (*1953) has been alternating between his home country of America and the Netherlands since 1981. Initially led towards impressionism by his classical training in New York, he expresses a particular interest in color and composition. As a lover of poetry and music, he infuses these influences into his work, leading him to the city, concert hall, and theater, but also to cafes and streets where, in the evening light, images of people and buildings fade into contours and abstractions.
Returning briefly to the endless silence of “upstate New York,” Ryan rediscovers the landscape. In the paintings that result, he eliminates details and compresses trees, earth, and sky into almost geometric abstractions. These become poignant images, captivating compositions that seem to contrast with his city paintings.
For artist Michael Ryan, the difference between the city and the countryside is not significant. He observes and studies the world around him to solve a painting problem on the canvas. It is not a depiction of reality that is important, but the representation of his reality.
The painting does not prove, it shows. There is no story, no lesson or message; there is only a painting that pretends to be nothing more than convincingly itself.
