Anne Truitt

(American, 1921–2004)

Anne Truitt was an American artist and major figure of the Minimalist movement. A sculptor of large-scale, hand-painted wooden columns, Truitt differentiated herself from her peers in her use of bright color and in her dedication to the relationship between meaning and form. “Art comes into the highest part of the mind, with which we can know the presence of God,” the contemplative artist observed. “But we have to pay attention to that area in order to notice the grace, or even perhaps to attract it.” She was born on March 16, 1921 in Baltimore, MD and graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in psychology in 1943 and worked briefly as a nurse in a psychiatric ward before turning to sculpture. The first solo show of her work, which was influenced by notable contemporaries such as Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman, was held at André Emmerich Gallery in New York during February 1963. She was subsequently the subject of several solo museum exhibitions during her lifetime, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1974, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1975, and at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1992. Truitt was also the author of three books of journals which reflect on her life and studio practice, titled Daybook, Turn, and Prospect. She died on December 23, 2004 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 83.