Nancy Graves
1939–1995 · USA
About Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves (1939–1995) worked across sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, film, and stage design. Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, she graduated from Vassar College in 1961 and received an M.F.A. in painting from Yale University in 1964. Her early sculptures reconstructed camels, fossils, and bones with close attention to anatomical form, while her films examined animal movement and landscape.
During the 1970s Graves drew upon topographical, astronomical, and scientific imagery, including lunar and satellite maps, translating information into densely marked paintings and prints. She returned to sculpture near the end of that decade, assembling cast botanical, animal, mechanical, and everyday forms in bronze and other materials. Later work incorporated glass, resin, aluminum, paper, and moving elements. Her 1969 exhibition Nancy Graves: Camels at the Whitney Museum made her the youngest artist—and the fifth woman—to receive a solo exhibition there.
Information
Nancy Graves (1939–1995) worked across sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, film, and stage design. Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, she graduated from Vassar College in 1961 and received an M.F.A. in painting from Yale University in 1964. Her early sculptures reconstructed camels, fossils, and bones with close attention to anatomical form, while her films examined animal movement and landscape.
During the 1970s Graves drew upon topographical, astronomical, and scientific imagery, including lunar and satellite maps, translating information into densely marked paintings and prints. She returned to sculpture near the end of that decade, assembling cast botanical, animal, mechanical, and everyday forms in bronze and other materials. Later work incorporated glass, resin, aluminum, paper, and moving elements. Her 1969 exhibition Nancy Graves: Camels at the Whitney Museum made her the youngest artist—and the fifth woman—to receive a solo exhibition there.