Anne Truitt, First Spring, 1981, acrylic on wood, 72 x 8 x 8 inches

First introduced to Truitt’s work when I was helping organize a show of Minimalist work at Vivian Horan Fine Art, I immediately fell in love with the simplicity of the line, form and color in her work. It is amazing to me how such seemingly banal works trigger emotion in me. Unable to see the retrospective of her work at the Hirshhorn last year, I was thrilled to see the current show at Matthew Marks. As the press release states, “Thirteen of Truitt’s sculptures, made between 1962 and 2004, will be on view, making this the most comprehensive exhibition of Truitt’s work in New York in almost 20 years. Sculptures could be triggered by colors she associated with friends or nature or memories of her childhood. She infused her art with these experiences through a labor intensive process—applying many layers of paint by hand to each piece and sanding the surfaces to a fine finish—and the bands of rich color that cover her sculptures, liberated from the traditional two-dimensional plane of painting, prompt viewers to make their own associations with her work. Although critics have attempted to group Truitt with the Minimalist sculptors or the Color Field painters, her marriage of painting and sculpture resulted in an oeuvre that eludes simple categorization.” If you have a chance, you should go to this show.