Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

Untitled, (geometric abstraction) by Charles Bryan Ryan

  • Title: Untitled, (geometric abstraction)
  • Artist: Charles Bryan Ryan
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Size: 21.5"h x 29.5"w
  • Creation date: 2005
  • Added to collection: 2018
  • Donor: The Bill Rhoades Collection, a gift in memory of Murna and Vay Rhoades
  • Campus: Rock Creek
  • Location: B7/1 Main Hallway gallery

The composition is built around two complex overlapping radiating spirals, reflecting the artist's interest in mathematical and architectural theory, from the Fibonacci Golden Mean to the triangular truss systems of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome (with whom Ryan had a friendship). The mixtures of adjacent colors to produce the illusion of overlapping and transparency, is a central concept of color theory, as are the mixtures of the more saturated colors of the painting to create the series of luminous neutrals and grays.  But despite the effect of transparency, the deft paint application with a palette knife is surprisingly thick and textured, emphasizing the materiality of paint while evoking the weightless effects of colored glass.