Mary Ann Currier

Mary Ann Currier (1927-2017) was one of the most distinguished American still life artists of the late twentieth century, celebrated for her exceptionally refined oil pastel drawings of fruits, vegetables, and other everyday objects. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, she remained closely connected to her home city throughout her long life. She studied at the Louisville Art Center and later at the Louisville School of Art, where she trained under the German-American artist Ulfert Wilke, and she went on to develop a practice that would eventually earn her national recognition.

Currier came to her mature subject matter relatively late in her career, but once she had discovered her voice she pursued it with unwavering commitment. Working almost exclusively in oil pastel on paper, she produced meticulously observed still lifes of tomatoes, onions, peppers, cabbages, artichokes, pears, and other humble kitchen subjects. Her images combine the illusionistic precision of Old Master Dutch still life with a distinctly modern sensitivity to surface, texture, and light. Each work rewards patient looking: the papery skin of an onion, the waxy sheen of a pepper, the small blemishes and irregularities of ordinary produce all become the site of extraordinary artistic attention.

Currier's work drew increasing recognition throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She was included in the 1985 Whitney Biennial and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988, honors that helped establish her national reputation. She was represented for many years by the Tatistcheff Gallery in New York, and her pictures are held in major American museum collections. Working from her home in Louisville, Currier maintained a quietly independent practice that produced some of the most beautifully observed still lifes in recent American art.