Anne Truitt
at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Anne Truitt, ’62–’63 (Installation View). Photo courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery.

It takes a few minutes to adjust to the hi-key natural light in the Matthew Marks space on Orange Grove.  This adjustment is necessary to fully comprehend the subtlety of Anne Truitt’s sculptures on view, dated 1962 and 1963. Truitt, who passed in 2004 at the age of 83, was best known for creating work that relates historically to minimalism, but is, in fact, imbued with a human, domestic quality. The finishes of her sculptures show natural flaws and are coated by hand, not machine; they resemble the picket fences and wainscoting of the artist’s Delaware childhood. They read notably different than the cold industrial nature of artwork by Judd or Andre.

In the early 1960s, Judd compared Truitt’s works to tombstones. Though not pejorative, Judd discounts the warmth of her sculpture and the loving quality with which it is fabricated.  North (1963) is the centerpiece of the show.  Its point of attention is a hardly visible differentiation in color applied to the bottom of sculpture.  It is both a sculpture and a painting in not so equal parts.  In this much, Truitt knew an indelible truth: paintings are flat, yet you can always paint a sculpture.  This logic makes sculpture the more whole medium, for in the case of North, you picture the surface with your eyes and feel volume with your body.

Anne Truitt, ’62–’63, runs from April 18–July 2, 2015 at Matthew Marks Gallery (1062 North Orange Grove, Los Angeles, CA 90046)