AMY GRANTHAM
AMY GRANTHAM
AN EYE MADE QUIET
This body of work represents years of Grantham’s creative engagement with The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, famously interpreted by pianist Glenn Gould in his first studio album. The variations—renowned for their technical and emotional complexity—serve as the conceptual foundation for Grantham’s visual interpretation.
In these works, Grantham translates Bach’s contrapuntal structures into layered forms and harmonies of color. While not strictly synesthetic, her compositions evoke a vivid intersection of sound and image, where music transforms into line, shape, and hue.
Executed entirely in pastel on paper, the works in An Eye Made Quiet achieve a depth and saturation that defy the expectations of the medium. From a distance, it’s difficult to believe such intensity of color and form could come from pastel alone—yet it is precisely this choice that gives the works their resonance.
The influence of Orphism and Synchromism—movements adjacent to Cubism— is evident throughout, with Synchromism playing a particularly prominent role. Grantham’s work also echoes the pioneering abstraction of artists like Wassily Kandinsky, adding a historical dimension to her contemporary practice.
Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Grantham is now based in New York City. She has worked across diverse mediums, including acrylic, gouache, watercolor, collage and photography. Her photographic self-portrait is a part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery of London.
Untitled | pastel on paper | 80 x 42 in. | FG© 141868
Resonant, 2025 pastel on paper
41 x 36 in.
FG© 141860
A Sensitive Seeing | pastel on paper | 33 x 18 in. | FG© 141870
Tenderness, 2022 | pastel on paper | 30 x 44 in. | FG© 141855
64 1/2 x 43 in. FG© 141852
Volition pastel on paper
Repose, 2022 | pastel on paper | 51 1/2 x 48 in. | FG© 141853
Adagio | pastel on paper | 51 x 54 in. | FG© 141854
77
FG© 141861
Chorale, 2025 pastel on paper
x 40 in.
, 2021 | pastel on paper | 13 x 28 in. | FG© 141856
Untitled
Untitled (#100) Black and White | pastel on paper | 22 1/2 x 30 in. | FG© 141866
Untitled Black & White | pastel on paper | 22 x 30 in. | FG© 141867
Untitled (from muted group) pastel on paper
24 x 60 in.
FG© 141869
Untitled, 2021 | pastel on paper | 12 x 28 in. | FG© 141857
Untitled (#69) | pastel on paper 22 1/2 x 17 in. | FG© 141863
Untitled, 2025 | pastel on paper | 30 x 22 1/2 in. | FG© 141859
Interlude | pastel on paper | 18 x 33 in. | FG© 141865
Est. 1870