Rectansphere, 1986

In the 1970s, Nancy Graves began to experiment with the classical sculpture technique of bronze casting, replicating found objects and assembling them into gravity-defying spatial collages patinated with bright color. As seen in Rectansphere, Graves incorporated items associated with both contemporary and premodern life and urban and agricultural realms—bronze casts of a plastic milk crate, broken lumber plank, metal grate, and architectural ornament, juxtaposed with a found hayfork and a wheel reminiscent of farm equipment. Similarly, the rich colors and jazzy patterns decorating the bronze surfaces coexist with rusted metal and other aged surfaces. The logic of combining diverse, seemingly incongruous materials–mixing across media and cultural spheres without regard for traditional hierarchies–is a hallmark of 1980s postmodernism. However, the improbable balance and illusion of lightness of Graves’s sculpture suggest lyricism and playfulness rather than irony and cynicism, with which postmodernist art of the period is typically associated.