Through April 26 a major retrospective of Nancy Graves's sculptures will be on view at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.

As it happens, the sculpture of Nancy Graves was always provocative.

A sculpture that means to be beautiful but succeeds only in being intemperate is Nancy Graves's eight-foot-tall polychrome bronze.

December 23 - Nancy Graves, American sculptor, painter and printmaker (d.1996).

Entering Nancy Graves's universe in this exhibition is like walking into a primeval jungle or diving down to the ocean floor.

"That's a Nancy Graves," he added, indicating a 10-foot-high crate in an adjoining room.

Also on the second floor are two small bronze sculptures by Nancy Graves that look like tree roots floating in the air.

Throughout her career, Nancy Graves mined the world of natural science for her imagery, from meticulously constructed camels to detailed cartographic studies.

The Katzen Collection also contains three large bronze sculptures by Nancy Graves, one of which is a working clock.

Nancy Graves's scenery was equally busy, for shapes resembling pieces of jigsaw puzzles kept descending from above.