Agnes Martin was one of the most influential painters of her generation, and during her career of over fifty years, forged a lasting contribution to the history of modern art between Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism.
(...) Continue readingAgnes Martin – Martin found art as a student
Agnes Martin was born on 22 March 1912 in Macklin, Saskatchewan in Canada. The daughter of Scottish immigrants, she initially grew up with her three siblings on the family farm in the countryside before the family moved to the city of Vancouver in 1919. In 1931, Martin moved to the USA to support her pregnant sister, and while there sought out a good education and attended several universities, acquiring, amongst others, a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts at the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in New York, and obtaining her American citizenship in 1950. During her time in New York, Martin came into contact with the fine arts and developed a keen interest in painting, in particular the contemporary artists Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb and Joan Miró. With this, increased her desire to follow a career as artist.
Longing for peace and seclusion
During her studies, Agnes Martin discovered not only art, but also the teachings of Buddhism which flowed into her pictures. Whilst her early work oscillated between the poles of Naturalism and Surrealism, she soon developed a particular appreciation of Abstract Expressionism which determined essentially her artistic identity - Martin personally always identified herself with this style, while many critics tended to assign her to Minimalism. She held her first solo exhibition in the New York gallery of Betty Parsons and moved in the circles of Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana and James Rosenquist. Despite this, the artist led a somewhat withdrawn life and shied away from the big stage. Her desire for contemplation was so deep that she retired to Mexico in 1967 where she built a mud-brick house and did not even paint for seven years.
The secret of beauty in the abstract space
Agnes Martin recognised beauty in the essence of art but was essentially referring to the beauty that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The secret to capturing this beauty was the key to her painting, which used lines and grids to open up new spaces removed from representationalism. Although she did not consider herself a feminist and saw the women’s movement as a failure, she is often interpreted as feminist and associated with the queer community. In 2000, the Swiss director Thomas Lüchinger produced the documentary film On a Clear Day – Agnes Martin, in which the artist and her creativity were portraited. Agnes Martin received prizes and awards for her art, including the Alexej von Jawlensky Prize of the city of Wiesbaden in 1990, the Oskar Kokoschka Prize in 1992, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale in 1997 for her life work, and the National Medal of Arts in 1998. In the last years of her life, the artist suffered from severe health limitations.
Agnes Martin died on 16 December 2004 in Taos, New Mexico, USA.
Agnes Martin - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
