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Number 319

Anne Ryan American
1949
Not on view
A self-taught writer, painter and printmaker, Ryan took up her preferred medium, collage, only at the age of 58. Though she died a mere six years later, she managed to create approximately 400 examples, mostly in a diminutive scale. Ryan’s conversion to collage was prompted by a visit in 1948 to an exhibition in New York of the recently deceased German poet, sculptor and collagist, Kurt Schwitters. Ryan collected a variety of fabrics, preferably worn, even tattered or frayed, and combined these fragments with other ephemeral materials, such as torn paper, foil or cellophane, into compact, subtly textured arrangements.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Number 319
  • Artist: Anne Ryan (American, Hoboken, New Jersey 1889–1954 Morristown, New Jersey)
  • Date: 1949
  • Medium: Collage of cut and torn colored and printed papers, fabrics, gold metal foil, and plant fiber on paper, mounted on black paper
  • Dimensions: 7 11/16 × 6 7/8 in. (19.5 × 17.4 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Elizabeth McFadden, 1986
  • Object Number: 1986.323.7
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Anne Ryan
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Dragon, Anne Ryan American, Etching
Dragon
Anne Ryan
20th century
Frightened Bird, Anne Ryan American, Woodcut
Frightened Bird
Anne Ryan
1946
Woman with a Jug
Anne Ryan
1944
Number 587, Anne Ryan American, Collage of cut and torn painted papers, dyed fabrics, and metallic foil on paper mounted on handmade paper (est. Howell)
Number 587
Anne Ryan
ca. 1952
Abstract XXXII, Anne Ryan American, Woodcut
Abstract XXXII
Anne Ryan
ca. 1949

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