Stur (Glass Series) 1983

Nancy Graves made 'Stur', from the Glass Series, sometime in the late 20th century. Graves began her career in painting, but quickly moved into sculpture, and is particularly well known for her use of polychrome surfaces. 'Stur' seems to engage with the feminist project of the time, which had a wide-ranging impact on artistic practice. We might think about how she is consciously rejecting a tradition of monumental, monochrome, masculine sculpture here. Instead, she embraces multiplicity, colour, and a degree of fragmentation, all of which might be linked to a conscious feminine aesthetic. Understanding the effect of feminism on the institutions of art requires considerable research. We might look at gallery owner Mary Boone's championing of female artists at that time, the institutional critiques of someone like Griselda Pollock, or the emergence of feminist art history as a field in its own right. All of these forces helped to create a context in which Graves' sculpture could be seen as an important contribution to contemporary culture.