Merrill Wagner

{{short description|American visual artist}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Merrill Wagner

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| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1935}}

| birth_place = Seattle, Washington

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| nationality = United States

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| spouse = Robert Ryman

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| website = {{URL|merrillwagner.com}}

| alma_mater = Sarah Lawrence College

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Merrill Wagner (born 1935, Seattle){{cite web |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/merrill-wagner-5192 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} is an American visual artist. In 1957 Wagner graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.{{cite web |title=Looking at the Land: Merrill Wagner Paintings |url=https://www.uri.edu/news/2007/01/looking-at-the-land-merrill-wagner-paintings/ |website=University of Rhode Island |access-date=20 April 2025}} She settled in New York City{{cite web |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://nyss.org/exhibition/merrill-wagner/ |website=New York Studio School |access-date=20 April 2025}} where she studied with Edwin Dickinson and attended the Art Students League of New York. Wagner began her career working in the Minimalist style. Her later work incorporates representational painting executed on a variety of surfaces.{{cite web |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2022/11/artseen/Merrill-Wagner-at-Zwirner/ |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en |date=30 July 2024}}{{cite web |last1=Madsen |first1=Kristian Vistrup |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/merrill-wagner-3-249875/ |website=Artforum |access-date=20 April 2025 |date=22 April 2022}} Wagner is a member of American Abstract Artists.{{Cite web |title=Current Members |url=https://americanabstractartists.org/current-members-post/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250218123822/https://americanabstractartists.org/current-members-post/ |archive-date=February 18, 2025 |access-date=May 1, 2025 |website=American Abstract Artists}}

Wagner's work was included in the 1971 exhibition Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists held at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum{{cite web |title=Lucy Lippard - Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists |url=https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/57416/ |website=Printed Matter |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} and the 2022 exhibition 52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone also at the Aldrich.{{cite web |title=52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone |url=https://thealdrich.org/exhibitions/52-artists-revisiting-a-feminist-milestone |website=The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} Her work is in the collection of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum,{{cite web |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://thealdrich.org/page/merrill-wagner |website=The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} the Metropolitan Museum of Art,{{cite web |last1=Wagner |first1=Merrill |title=Untitled |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/853958 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=20 April 2025 |date=1988}} the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.{{cite web |title=Merrill Wagner |url=https://whitney.org/artists/4717 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}}

Wagner was the second wife of fellow artist Robert Ryman (1930 – 2019) whom she married in 1969,{{cite web |title=Now Representing The Estate of Robert Ryman and artist Merrill Wagner |url=https://www.davidzwirner.com/news/2021/now-representing-the-estate-of-robert-ryman-and-artist-merrill-wagner |website=David Zwirner |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} and with whom she had two children.{{cite web |title=The House of Ryman: A Family of Artists |url=https://www.artandobject.com/articles/house-ryman-family-artists |website=Art & Object |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}}