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Fragment

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Fragment

1977
64 x 76 in. (162.6 x 193 cm)

Nancy S. Graves
United States (Pittsfield, MA, 1940 - 1995)

Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil and crayon on canvas
Credit Line: Gift of Sharon and Neil Norry; and Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number: 1985.27
Location: Currently on view
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Nancy Graves worked in many media, including sculpture, printmaking, film, and painting. This fact may be one reason why this important and influential artist is not as well known today as she might otherwise be. Graves’ work is so varied in subject and material that it can be difficult to grasp the totality of her accomplishment. For paintings like this from the late 1970s, the artist found inspiration in topographical maps, including of the ocean floor, lunar photographs, fossil records, and other records of the natural world to create ebullient, whimsical, and layered abstract paintings.

[Summer 2015]

By incorporating scientific research and popular imagery into her practice, Nancy Graves sought to emphasize the amorphous relationship between reality and representation. In Fragment, Graves distorts recognizable patterns one might come to expect from a map—constructing a painting as much about visual expectations as it is about vibrant abstraction. From a distance, Fragment can be viewed as a jumbled topography, with distinct regions of colorful mark-making clashing or blending together. Upon closer inspection, the abstraction of the work takes over, denying a tangible reference to a specific place.

[Summer 2023, Adam Ranz]

Marks
Artist's signature, lower left center: N. S. Graves '77

Inscription, verso: Fragment/N. S. Graves '77

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