MERRILL WAGNER

"Untitled", 1975

Masking tape and pencil on paper

Unframed: 11 x 14 inches (27.9 x 35.6 cm)

Framed: 13 ¼ x 16 x 1 ¼ x 1 ½ inches (33.7 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm)

Courtesy of the Artist and David Zwirner

Photo credit: Stephen Arnold

Selected by Rebecca DiGiovanna

Since the 1960s, American artist Merrill Wagner (b. 1935) has developed a unique body of work that spans painting, relief, sculpture, and installation. Originally from Washington state, she studied at the Art Students League in New York under Edwin Dickinson, Julien Levi, and George Grosz. By 1963, when minimalism and post-minimalism emerged, Wagner was creating precise abstract compositions that subtly referenced landscapes.

In the mid-1970s, Wagner shifted from canvas to unconventional materials like slate, steel, and stone, drawn by their texture and natural associations. She integrated these materials into her work, combining them with painted elements in both geometric and colorful compositions, blending the natural with the constructed.

Curator Robert Storr describes Wagner as "an all-American artist to the core" for her materialist and poetic approach. A notable shift in her practice came in the 1970s with her use of tape in her work. Moving away from traditional media, she employed tape on Plexiglas or paper, sometimes with pencil, oil paint, or pastel, focusing on process and chance. As curator Tiffany Bell notes, Wagner’s use of tape evolved from a tool to a central element, revealing the transient nature of her materials and her creative process.