THE PALETTE MAP
Every painting, placed by its own colour
Each painting in the archive is measured, then placed by two numbers taken off its own pixels: the colour it is mostly made of (left to right) and how much of the canvas has no hue at all (bottom to top). Every dot is filled in that work's own colour. Click or tap a dot to see the painting.
WHERE THE COLOUR SITS
HOW NEUTRAL THE CANVAS IS
WHAT THIS MAP DOES AND DOES NOT SAY
- Every number is measured from the image. Nothing is taken from a title, a date or a category. The hue is a circular mean, weighted by saturation and brightness, so a mostly-neutral canvas lands on the paint that is actually there rather than on a stray colour note.
- There is no axis for time here, and that is deliberate. Every file in this set carries the same file date (2026-02-05) — that is the day the files were copied, not the day the works were made. A drift-by-year chart would be a chart of that copy operation, so it is not built.
- What this is: a description of what the body of work is made of, countable and checkable. What it is not: a measure of quality, rarity or value.
- 6 pairs of files measure as the same image filed under two titles (Five Stages Of Grief - The 12 by Ryan Louder Main 30 x 30 x 2cm (unframed) / 5 Stages Of Grief by Ryan Louder - Sold Main 228.6 x 228.6 x 2.54cm (unframed) 228.6 x 228.6cm (actual image size); Bull by Ryan Louder - Sold Main 50.8 x 40.64 x 2.03cm (unframed) / Young Bull by Ryan Louder - Sold Main 50.8 x 40.64 x 2.03cm (unframed)). All 1372 files are plotted and none is hidden: whether a pair is one work listed twice or two works is a catalogue question, not a pixel one.
- Images shown here are low-resolution. Originals and availability: ryanmusic@mac.com.