tuttle-simply the best

A local (NM) Artist at last comes into his own.......

Explore Richard Tuttle's expansive, forty-year career through video of the artist at work, critical responses, and artworks that defy conventional notions of material, form, process, and craft. Tuttle: The Presence of Simple Things is produced in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition The Art of Richard Tuttle, on view July 2 through October 16, 2005. This feature works best with high-bandwidth Web access. You can also view it at the Museum on our interactive kiosks, located in the galleries and the Koret Visitor Education Center.

One of the foremost artists of our time, Richard Tuttle is often described as a maverick. Tuttle uses a wide variety of materials — from paint to wire to plywood — to create delicate works that defy categorization. Above all else, Tuttle’s art is an exercise in creative independence. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, this exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Tuttle’s work ever assembled, with some 300 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper covering a 40-year career. It is also the first museum exhibition to fully embrace Tuttle’s radical and varied output in its entirety and to illustrate its unifying themes. This exhibition reveals a body of work that has grown organically, from Tuttle’s shaped plywood paintings of the 1960s to his Wire Pieces, assemblages, artist books, and his recent wall reliefs. It also shows us an unconstrained artistic vision that, though it may challenge us, is ultimately deeply rewarding, poetic, and joyful.