The Art of Richard Tuttle

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.

The Art of Richard Tuttle is organized by SFMOMA.

This exhibition is generously supported by The Henry Luce Foundation, Mimi and Peter Haas, the Edward E. Hills Fund, Helen and Charles Schwab, and Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro.

Additional support has been provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Shirley Ross Sullivan and Charles Sullivan, the Irving Stenn Family, the Kadima Foundation, the Frances R. Dittmer Family Foundation, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Tim Nye and the MAT Charitable Foundation, Craig Robins, Louisa Stude Sarofim, Sperone Westwater, Joseph Holtzman, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, and Carolyn and Preston Butcher.

Support for the catalogue has been provided by Anthony and Celeste Meier, the Neisser Family Fund, and Marion Boulton Stroud.