ANNE TRUITT

In the 1950s Truitt abandoned psychology and nursing to dedicate herself to art. Truitt’s early practice found resonance with the American Abstract Expressionists, formulating itself around a core interest in colour - albeit from a sculptural standpoint. From hesitant experiments with clay, wire and cement, to elegant wooden, totem-like sculptures and monochromatic paintings, Truitt’s work successfully re-defined the boundaries of American Abstraction. She is now recognised as one of the movement’s leading proponents. While she is perhaps now best known for her sculptures, Truitt was committed to a daily ritual of drawing and painting.

Writing in April, 1965, Truitt stated: “What is important to me in not geometrical shape per se, or color per se, but to make a relationship between shape and color which feels to me like my experience. To make what feels to me like reality.” (Private papers.)

Anne Truitt was born in 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland and died in 2004.

Text courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery.