According to essayist Lilly Wei, “Light, created out of increasingly subtle modulations of color and contained within an imagined space…[is] Joan Watts’ primary subject… Although Watts’ work is reductive, part of the Modernist legacy and often considered Minimalist, she insists it is not. Premised as it is on the immaterial and transcendent, in intention, it has greater affinities to the paintings and statements of Agnes Martin, the installations of James Turrell and other artists of light and space, to Buddhist teachings and the spiritual.” This substantial new volume presents a comprehensive overview of Watts’ spare but deeply resonant paintings, made over the course of the last 60 years.

About the Artist

Joan Watts has been painting since the 1960s and has had numerous solo exhibitions around the country since her first show in 1968. She has lived in New York City and Hawaii, and has made her home in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area for over twenty years. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, among other institutions.

About the Authors

Louis Grachos is director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. He was previously director of SITE Santa Fe, which he led to national and international prominence during his tenure.

Lilly Wei is a New York-based independent curator, essayist and critic. A frequent contributor to Art in America, she is also a contributing editor to ARTnews and Art Asia Pacific.