Anne Truitt: Pioneer of Minimal Art

The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen presents the first European retrospective of the US artist and writer Anne Truitt (1921–2004). Bringing together around 120 works spanning more than four decades, the exhibition delivers long-overdue European recognition to Truitt, who for decades has been acknowledged in the United States as a leading figure of what would come to be known as Minimal Art. Featuring Truitt’s landmark sculptures of the early 1960s, her luminous works on paper, the radical white-on-white Arundel paintings, and the deep black Piths—among the final works she produced—the exhibition traces the full breadth of her practice. Seen through Truitt’s work, Minimal Art is recalibrated—no longer purely rigorous or detached, but revealed as poetic, intimate, and profoundly sensuous. At its core is her deeply embodied use of paint, through which form and color fuse into memory, meaning, and affect.

The reappraisal of a pioneer
The exhibition at K20 in Düsseldorf brings together works from all phases of Truitt’s career, situating her art and life within a broader reflection on how artistic canons are formed. As Susanne Gaensheimer, Director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, notes: “Following our successful exhibitions of Carmen Herrera in 2018, Charlotte Posenenske in 2020, and Lygia Pape in 2022, the exhibition continues the institution’s effort to expand the history of postwar art by foregrounding influential woman artists whose contributions deserve renewed attention.” 

Structured chronologically, the exhibition traces Truitt’s practice from 1961 to 2004 across seven chapters, illuminating her sustained engagement with sculpture, painting, and works on paper. Highlights include her early, vividly colored sculptures—Hardcastle (1962), Remembered Sea (1971), and Quipe (1984)—installed with generous spatial clarity in K20’s white galleries. Shown publicly for the first time since the 1960s is Summer Run (1964), a rare metal sculpture produced during Truitt’s time in Japan. Large-scale, elongated paintings such as Echo (1973) and Ojibwa (1993) underscore her lifelong exploration of color as both structure and sensation. A dedicated section revisits the Arundel paintings, whose radical white-on-white surfaces provoked controversy at their debut at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1975. Also on view are the Piths, a series of deep black canvases Truitt worked on in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Completing the exhibition, a short film by Jem Cohen (b. 1962), filmed in 1999, offers an intimate glimpse of Truitt at work in her studio. 

The exhibition is made possible through major loans from leading US American institutions, including the Dia Art Foundation and Glenstone, as well as from private collections in Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain.

Curator: Vivien Trommer

Publication
Anne Truitt. Pioneer of Minimal Art, edited by Susanne Gaensheimer, Vivien Trommer, and Manuel Segade; Hatje Cantz Verlag; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; 2026. Contributions by Miguel de Baca, Suzanne Hudson, Anne Truitt, and Vivien Trommer. 256 pages, 135 illustrations. English, German, Spanish. Museum edition: 35 EUR, Retail edition: 40 EUR

The exhibition is organized by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Musée de Grenoble, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.

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