Grace Knowlton (1932 – 4 December 2020) was an American sculptor and photographer who was known for her outdoor sculptures. Her work has been exhibited at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and other venues.

Early life

Knowlton was born Grace Daniels Farrar in 1932 in Buffalo, New York to Esther Norton Farrar, a homemaker and Frank Neff Farrar who owned a music store. Knowlton married Winthrop Knowlton. Their son Win Knowlton is a sculptor.

Education

Knowlton received a B.A. degree in art from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1954. She also studied privately with the artist

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...

. In 1981 she received a master's degree in art from the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Teacher's College.

Work

Knowlton was known for her spherical sculptures, sometimes exhibited in groupings. In general, these were made from steel-reinforced concrete, and fiberglass. She also produced prints, photographs and drawings. In the 1960s Knowlton was working in ceramics, and found that she had the urge to close up the openings in the tops of the vessel forms she was producing. This led her to the concept of creating entirely closed spherical sculptural forms. She began drawing on the spheres, and eventually began producing them in other materials such as copper, plaster, sheet metal and concrete. Later she learned welding to produce structural armatures for the interiors to support the weight of these materials. Later she began cutting or breaking the spheres apart then reattaching the fragments. This process was revealed through the sutures and pockmarks on the surface of the spheres. Knowlton's work has been exhibited widely at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Union Art Center,

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, Dallas Museum of Modern Art, among many other venues. Her work received reviews in the New York Times,

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes internati ...

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

, Sculpture Magazine, Arts Magazine and

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

. The art critic, Roberta Smith wrote that her work was " Cubist in effect" and that it brought a "new complexity to Minimalist art".

Collections

Her work is represented in the collections of the

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, Houston Museum of Fine Arts,

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, Storm King Art Center, Yale University Museum of Art, the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, the

Davis Museum at Wellesley College The Davis Museum in Wellesley, Massachusetts is located on the Wellesley College campus. The college art collection was first displayed in the Farnsworth Art Building, founded in 1889. The museum in its present form opened in 1993 in a building ...

, the

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. The permanent collection includes examples of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, Southern regional art, Ol ...

, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

References

External links

Photographs of the studio and home of Grace Knowlton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knowlton, Grace 1932 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American women sculptors Artists from Buffalo, New York Smith College alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Sculptors from New York (state) 20th-century American women sculptors