Ram
Jack Youngerman
American, 1926–2020
1959
An oil painting that reduces its title, “Ram,” to a single flat, biomorphic orange silhouette hovering against broad, painterly fields of blue and areas of white.
You’re struck by the stubbornly simple orange form—like a cutout—set within large, gestural blue expanses whose roughly brushed edges and white gaps make the shape oscillate between figure and ground.
Dating from 1959, the work sits at the crossroads of postwar abstraction, using pared-down organic shapes and bold color contrasts to make silhouette and negative space the subject, linking European biomorphism to the Color Field and minimalist impulses that followed.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
90 3/4 x 64 1/8 x 2" (230.5 x 162.8 x 5.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Ellsworth Kelly
Accession
324.1999
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
