Always Reaching

An expansive collection of texts providing insight into the inner life, creativity, and practice of the innovative American artist Anne Truitt Spanning more than fifty years, this comprehensive volume collects the letters, journal entries, interviews, lectures, reviews, and remembrances of the groundbreaking twentieth-century artist Anne Truitt (19212004). Alexandra Truitt, the artists daughter and a leading expert on her work, has carefully selected these writings, most of which are previously unpublished, from the artists papers at Bryn Mawr College as well as private holdings. Revelations about the artists life abound. Among Truitts earliest writings are excerpts from journals written more than a decade before her first artistic breakthrough, in which she establishes themes that would occupy her for decades. In later texts she shares uncommon insights into the practices of other artists and writers, both predecessors and peers. Like Truitts published journals, these writings offer a compelling narrative of her development as an artist and efforts to find her voice as a writer. They show that Truitts creative impulse to translate the inner workings of her mind into a symbolic language, so important to understanding her sculpture, predates her art.