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Nancy GRAVES (1940-1995)

Nancy Graves took art classes at Vassar College, but majored in English Literature (B.A. 1961). She was awarded a scholarship to the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, Connecticut (1959), which led to her enrollment at the Yale School of Art and Architecture (B.F.A., 1962; M.F.A 1964). There she studied painting with Jack Tworkov, Alex Katz, and Al Held, among others. In 1964 she was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship to study painting in Paris.

In 1966, Graves moved to New York City, where began working. Her first solo exhibition was in 1968 at the Graham Gallery, and later she became the first woman artist to have a solo retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Graves' work is largely conceptual, with influences drawn from her curiosity in many of the sciences, including anatomy, paleontology, anthropology, computer mapping, psychology and perception. Always versatile, Graves created works in several media including drawings, paintings, installations, sculptures and film. Her work, whether figurative or non-figurative, displayed her willingness to explore the artistic process.

During the early 1970s Graves also explored filmmaking, producing five films between 1970 and 1974. Graves has executed prints since the 1970's exploring lithography, screenprint, monotype and the intaglio processes, including aquatint and drypoint. In addition to Graphic studio, she has worked with Landfall Press in Chicago, Simca Print Artists, and Tyler Graphics, Ltd., in New York, and with 2 RC in Rome.

Other important solo exhibitions include those at The National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa (1971, 1973), Neue Galerie der Stadt Aachen (1971), Museum of Modern Art, New York (1971), Institute of Contemporary Art of the University of Pennsylvania (1972), La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art (1973), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1980), and Vassar College Art Gallery (1986). In 1987 The Fort Worth Art Museum organized a sculpture retrospective, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné. She died in New York City on October 23, 1995.

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