Dr. Frances Colpitt Audio Archive
Interview with the artist Anne Truitt for her dissertation Critical Issues of Minimal Art (University of Southern California, 1982), which later became the seminal publication: Minimal Art: The Critical Perspective (UMI Research Press, 1990). Courtesy Frances Colpitt papers, 1932-2022, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution and Mary Colpitt, Executor Frances Jean Colpitt Estate.
On catalysts, influences (Ad Rheinhart and Barnett Newman), the development of her process from handmade to fabrication, and the evolution of her work in color and form.
On her independent nature and her association and disassociation with Minimalism.
On Minimalist characteristics, theory and Colpitt’s thesis.
From Colpitt sharing her start as a painter wanting to make a perfect painting to Truitt discussing her distillation process and the importance of what an artist does.
On color (with reference to John McCracken)
Further discussion on color, absorption, and setting free the work and the color, and in relation to other minimalist’s use of color and aspects of gravity.
On floating sculptures and gravity in her show at the André Emmerich Gallery (1980), with references to her landmark 1963 gallery show.
Comments on the art world and art stars, quality and value, and formalist criticism, moving into intention and the mysterious nature of it.
Bits on the abstract expressionist Ilya Bolatofsky including the amusing ancedotal story about the artist’s encounter with wild pigs!
On Clement Greenberg and the bold gesture.