When Nancy Graves isn’t working in the medium of camels or bones, she is doing things in the abstract.

When I say “things” I mean that in the broadest way possible. Nancy does abstract paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and, interestingly, maps. Like many abstract artists of the late 20th century, the titles of her work are either very specific or impossibly vague, so for this work to be titled Hindsight is unique, because, while still mysterious, it is just clear enough to invite some investigation.

Nancy made this piece near the end of her career, just a few short years before she would settle down with a nice veterinarian. Considering the old adage “hindsight is 20/20,” we might want to look at some of the mistakes of her life, likely the biggest one being her brief marriage to Richard Serra. The famed minimalist artist was married to Graves between 1965 and 1970 before they got a divorce, and while there is not much written on their relationship, its pretty clear they weren’t going to work out from the start; the majority of Graves' works are all about color, while Serra's work consists almost exclusively of canvases painted entirely black, and sculptures of plain bent steel.

Of course, the idea that Graves' history should be defined by a single poor romance is foolish. The woman was far more than that, and so were her sculptures. In the later years of her career, when Nancy brought her abstract art into the third dimension, she did so using objects she collected through a lifetime of traveling the world. So, while this work could be about the failed relationship between the two artists, there are a number of far more exciting things in her life to look back on.