Below: an excerpt of the opening of the Ryman Box (see full article on the opening of all the Time Boxes on the Time Box Index Page).The first box to be taken off the wall was Robert Rymans. His box was different from the other three. The others were all painted with a wash of white paint while Rymans was wrapped in masking tape, which had changed to a yellowish color over time. "I wanted something on the outside as well as inside" Ryman said softly.
As the box screws are undone, Ryman comments that "at first I thought I wouldn't do it". Antonakos unscrews the last screw and cuts the last of the tape binding the box closed, the lid is opened and pulled away. Ryman looking inside the box exclaims, "I haven't seen that in a long time!" The crowd roars with laughter.
Inside the box is another package, carefully taped to the lower left hand side of the box. There's a note attached. Antonakos snips and cuts away the masking tape holding the envelope "I don't remember the note" Ryman quietly explains. On the outside of an envelope is written: "Do not open before 1995" the note inside is actually the legal agreement between Ryman and Antonakos - from the expression on Rymans face we see he has no memory of putting it there.
The package inside the metal box is wrapped in an expensive artist linen - the type Ryman uses to paint on, says Antonakos. It is unwrapped carefully and inside is a framed glass artist palette about 8 inches by 10 inches, full of thick, dried white paint with a small amount of beige and green paint - beautifully arranged and very reminiscent of Rymans early 1960's paintings. It's signed by Ryman with the year 1961 in orange paint. Note: 1961 was the year that Robert Ryman left his day job to pursue a full time career in Art and it's also the year he married the writer Lucy Lippard in Maine. He had kept this palette for fourteen years before letting it go into the his Time Box.
© by Fred Lewis
(see complete essay of the four Time Box openings on the main Time Box page link below)
Note: images below show a blue cast light from the neon lighting of the Millennium Room designed by Antonakos.
the image below is the Artist's palette (dated 1961) that was inside the Time Box, carefully folded in linen (shown above) and then taped and packed in the four foam corner sections
