Graves has carefully studied the scientific data related to her subject matter and her knowledge in these areas is remarkably extensive.
The employment of the dot technique has little to do with Seurat and the Neo-Impressionists since those late 19th centure artists were involved in the science of optics. Unlike the Neo-Impressionists, Grave's dots are not uniform in size or shape, nor do they create traditional forms. Instead they define space and movement as well as abstracted topological forms.
The artist's subjects seem ever concerned with the mysterious and primordial, whether that be anthropology, shamanism, the ocean floor or the surface of the moon and the planets. The traditional way of looking at our immediate world has proved inadequate in completely understanding those elemental realms; Graves attempts to provide a new way of perceiving them.
Born in Pittsfield, Massachuetts, Nancy Graves received a B.A. at Vassar College and a B.F.A. and M.F.A. at the Yale University School of Art and Architcture. She studied painting in France on a Fulbright scholarship and lived and worked for a year in Florence.
Source: Bulletin, May-June 1973.
Exhibition History"Nancy Graves: A Survey 1969/1980" Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., May 3 - June 15, 1980, (circulated to: Akron Art Institute, Ohio, July 5 - Aug. 31, 1980; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Sept. 20 - Oct. 26, 1980; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, Nov. 15, 1980 - Jan. 6, 1981; Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase, Jan. 25 - Mar. 15, 1981; Des Moines Art Center, Mar. 30 - May 3, 1981; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, May 31 - July 12, 1981)
"Strata: Nancy Graves, Eva Hesse, Michelle Stuart, Jackie Windsor," The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Oct. 9 - Nov. 6, 1977
"Nancy Graves," La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, CA, Aug. 25 - Oct. 7, 1973, (Circulated to: Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Oct. 18 - Nov. 29, 1973)
"1973 Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, N. Y., Jan. 10 - Mar. 18, 1973
Published ReferencesDMAC BULLETIN, May/June 1973, cover ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.77 & 78, b/w ill. pl.55, p.77
Jay Belloli, "Introduction," in "Nancy Graves," La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, CA, 1973, exh. cat. no.7, color ill. p.6 (reproduction of work in unfinished state)
Lucy R. Lippard, "Nancy Graves," in "Strata: Graves, Hesse, Stuart, Winsor," Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada, 1977, exh. cat. color ill. p.5 (faded areas restored by artist)
"Nancy Graves," ART INTERNATIONAL, Nov. 15, 1974, ref. p.62, ill. p.32
Linda Cathcare, Intro., "Nancy Graves: A Survey 1969/1980," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 1980, exh. cat. no.18, ref. p.22, color ill. p.54
John I. H. Baur, "Foreward," in "1973 Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Art," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1973, exh. cat. ref. p.10, ill. n. p.
Lucy R. Lippard, "Four Contemporary Artists Go 'Back to Nature:" A New Landscape Art," MS, Apr. 1977, pp.68, 72 & 73, ill. p.72
"Exchanges I," Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY, 1979, exh. cat. n. p., ill.
Avis Berman, "Nancy Graves' New Age of Bronze," ARTNEWS, Feb. 1986, pp.85 & 63
Richard Channin, "Nancy Graves: Map Paintings," ART INTERNATIONAL: THE LUGANO REVIEW, Nov. 1974, ref. pp.18 & 62
