Nancy Graves

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1977

“I think that science is the most significant aspect of our time, and far more so than art. Art, if it will endure on some level – does inspire wonder. The scientific discoveries with which we are bombarded surely do that too, and I think that art in some way has to acknowledge this.” - Nancy Graves. 

Working across an extraordinary number of mediums, spanning from sculpture to paintings to avant-garde films, Nancy Graves drew inspiration from a variety of scientific disciplines. Unlike her predecessors, exploring abstract movement and expressionism exclusively, Graves interpreted the visual messages of the data of scientific discoveries. The artist focused entirely on sculpture early in her career; however, in the early 1970s she returned to painting, attempting to make sense of astronomical and topographic maps. Graves did not seek to replicate an accurate representation of specific data, but rather develop a composition reflecting how she personally saw the information. By the later end of the decade into the early 1980s, Graves referenced her previous work for inspiration in this period of her oeuvre. Evolving away from including any direct representation of the data in her compositions, the artist implored further creative license in these more expressive works as is seen in the present piece, Quasi Quasi. The quick gestural marks on this two part canvas, in conjunction with the circles and sharp lines, demonstrate the creative extension of her earlier work.