A canvas painted completely white by modern art maestro Robert Ryman is to go under the hammer valued at over GBP 1.2 million.
The 1970 minimal masterpiece is titled ‘General 52″ x 52″‘ for its precise dimensions, features and all-white canvas in a slightly darker white frame.
It goes up for sale at the Ketterer auction house in Berlin, Germany, at a special sale of modern art this weekend, on 6th and 7th December.
Ryman painted the stretched cotton canvas with white enamel and enamelac paints, mainly used in industry for painting metal.
The experimental technique has left the surface of the canvas so frail that curators have not allowed it to travel for a pre-sale viewing.

The Ketterer Kunst Auction House explained in a statement: “The work from 1970 is in very good condition.
“The material is very sensitive and the smallest traces in the flawless surface would immediately reduce the value of the work significantly.
“That’s why we are not sending it on a journey.”
American Ryman, who died aged 88 in 2019, was a jazz pianist who had no formal training in art.
He only took up painting after getting a job as a security guard at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
His mainly white-themed paintings are usually hung in all-white galleries under white lights.
But his challenging, largely featureless works have baffled many art lovers for decades.
Auction house expert Simone Wichmann explained: “White is not always white.
“The white colour makes light, movement and the structure of the material visible.

“The viewer is challenged and becomes the creator of the art.`’
The estimated price of between EUR 1 million and EUR 1.5 million (GBP 829,145 and GBP 1.2 million) was based on the market. In fact, some of Ryman’s works have even fetched up to USD 20 million at auction.
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