Anne Appleby — Biography



1954 Born in Harrisburg, PA
1977 B.F.A. University of Montana, Missoula, MT
1989 M.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1991 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY
1999 Biennial Award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY

 

 When Anne Appleby begins a painting, she does not think about beauty.  Instead, the relationship of one color to the other and the evolution of those relationships are most important.  However, when she thinks about the world, its vast beauty is the first thing that comes to mind.  For Appleby, the world is a feast for the senses, and it is difficult to imagine anything more perfect in its creation, how the renewal of light from day to day is so constant, yet always shifting, how one moment is never the same as the next.  The darkness of winter moving into the lightness of spring, each day a bit longer, causing the sap to rise in the trees fills the artist with a sense of awe.

Appleby is humbled by the complexity of the world, the knowledge that no plant or animal is identical, that each carries a seed to try to replicate itself, the potential for all things to carry a universe within and what may become of it, how it will be fulfilled, the realization that all life is finite and that the physical body will become the earth, only to propagate new life. Appleby sees life as continuous and always changing.  Long after we have fulfilled our seed and joined the earth, it will continue in this timeless fashion, and all things will remain interwoven, connected.  For her, this is beauty.

Adapted from Beauty Without Regret, curated by Robert Kushner, June 28-August 4, 2001, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Appleby has exhibited in major galleries and museums internationally. Her paintings have been collected by many of our foremost collectors and museums including the Giuseppe Panza Di Biumo collection and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.