Nancy Graves

(American, 1939–1995)

Nancy Graves was an American artist, best known for her abstract paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations. Her work focused on exploring natural systems and environments, veiled by an aesthetic layer of ambiguity and colorful composition. “She sensed she was making art in the ‘information age,’” the director of the present-day Nancy Graves foundation, Christina Hunter, has said of her work. “And people like Julie Mehretu have looked very closely at her work.” Born on December 23, 1939 in Pittsfield, MA, Graves graduated from Vassar College before earning her BFA and MFA at Yale University, where she befriended fellow prominent artists such as Brice Marden, Janet Fish, and Richard Serra, whom she would go on to marry in 1965. Graves was celebrated as an influential figure in Post-Minimalist art, and in 1969 was the youngest person to ever have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art at the age of 29. She was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, such as a 1964 Fulbright Scholarship and the Skowhegan Medal for Drawing/Graphics in 1980. The artist died following a diagnosis of ovarian cancer in New York, NY on October 21, 1995 at the age of 55.