Nancy Graves Abstract Paintings
American, 1939-1995
A sculptor of animals and American Indian shamanistic objects, filmmaker, and painter, Nancy Graves had a highly successful and varied career, primarily in New York City. In her abstract work, she united her interest in anthropology, totemic objects, cartography, and biomorphic shapes. She was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and became a graduate of Vassar College in 1961 and then Yale University's School of Art and Architecture. Graves won a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship for painting, allowing her to spend a year in Paris in 1964-65. In the next few years, she traveled in North Africa and the Near East and lived and worked in Florence, Italy where she did her first signature work, which was sculptures of life-size Bactrian camels.
In 1966, she moved to New York City and further experimented with ways to produced these sculptures by building wood and steel armatures, covering them with skins of animal embryos, stuffing the skins with polyurethane to form humps, and tinting the skins with oil paints.
In 1968, she had her first New York one-woman show at the Graham Gallery followed by her second one-woman show at the Whitney Museum in 1969. Both exhibitions featured her camels.
In 1972 at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, she made sculpture suggestive of Indian objects such as bones, skins, and feathers and added also steel rods to this motif for other exhibitions.
As a filmmaker, she has had showings in film festivals in London, New York, and Boston.
Source: Charlotte Rubinstein, "American Women Artists"to
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Artist: Nancy Graves
Fracture V
By Nancy Graves
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This vibrant painting exemplifies Nancy Graves' innovative early-1980s abstract style, characterized by dynamic layering, energetic forms, and vivid Fauvist-inspired colors. Graves m...
Category
1980s Abstract Nancy Graves Abstract Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$35,000
NANCY GRAVES “RBY” 1980 Large Colorful Abstract oil/canvas yellow red blue green
By Nancy Graves
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Signed, titled and dated verso 1980 (11–’80)
Provenance: Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida 1985;
Private Collection, Palm Springs, CA
Exhibitions: M. Kno...
Category
1980s Abstract Nancy Graves Abstract Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"RBY" 1980 oil/canvas - Large Very colorful abstract yellow red blue green white
By Nancy Graves
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Signed, titled and dated verso 1980 (11–’80) "RBY"
oil on canvas
Provenance: Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida 1985;
Private Collection, Palm Springs, CA
...
Category
1980s Abstract Nancy Graves Abstract Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
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Nancy Graves abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Nancy Graves abstract paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Nancy Graves in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1980s and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Nancy Graves abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 76 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Larry Poons, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Jack Roth. Nancy Graves abstract paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $120,000 and tops out at $120,000, while the average work can sell for $120,000.