18 Facts About Anne Truitt

Anne Truitt, born Anne Dean, was an American sculptor of the mid-20th century.

Anne Truitt became well known in the late 1960s for her large-scale minimalist sculptures, especially after influential solo shows at Andre Emmerich Gallery in 1963 and the Jewish Museum in 1966.

Anne Truitt graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in psychology in 1943.

Anne Truitt left the field of psychology in the mid-1940s, first writing fiction and then enrolling in courses offered by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC Anne Truitt married the journalist James Truitt in 1947, though they divorced in 1971.

The singularity of the Abstract Expressionists that she observed in work by Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt struck Anne Truitt and sparked a turning point in her work.

Anne Truitt produces in scale drawings of her structures that are then produced by a cabinetmaker.

Anne Truitt applies gesso to prime the wood and then up to 40 coats of acrylic paint, alternating brushstrokes between horizontal and vertical directions and sanding between layers.

At her first show at Andre Emmerich's gallery, Anne Truitt exhibited six works of hand-painted poplar structures, including Ship-Lap, Catawba, Tribute, Platte, and Hardcastle.

Anne Truitt was introduced to Emmerich through Kenneth Noland, who Emmerich represented.

Anne Truitt's drawings are not often remembered when considering her body of work.

For much of the 1950s, Anne Truitt worked in pencil, acrylic, and ink to create not only studies for later sculptures, but drawings that existed independently as works of art.

Anne Truitt is known for three books she wrote, Daybook, Turn, and Prospect, all journals.

Anne Truitt died on December 23,2004 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, of complications following abdominal surgery.

Anne Truitt was survived by three children and eight grandchildren, among them writer Charles Finch.

Anne Truitt's works accomplish this task by revealing the interactive motion of our embodied relations and how material objects can actually help to ground our reality and hence human potentiality.

Anne Truitt's work was included in the 1964 exhibition, "Black, White, and Gray," at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Ct, arguably the first exhibition of Minimal work.

Anne Truitt was one of only three women included in the influential 1966 exhibition, Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York.

Anne Truitt's work has since been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York ; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC ; and the Baltimore Museum of Art.