Agnes Martin Bio

AGNES MARTIN

Images Bio

Agnes Martin was born in Maklin, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1912. After spending her youth in Vancouver, she moved to the United States in 1931 and became a US citizen in 1950. In 1954 she moved to Taos, New Mexico. Returning to New York in 1957, she has held her first solo exhibition in 1958 at the Betty Parsons Gallery. In 1967 she moved back to New Mexico and abandoned painting for seven years. In 1975 she began her association with the Pace Gallery in New York. In 1991 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam held an exhibition of her paintings and drawings which travelled on to various other European museums. In 1992 the Whitney Museum of American Art held a grand retrospective of her work.

Martin's spare abstractions, non-material in nature, can be perhaps partially explained by the landscape of New Mexico - the high desert and the red sandstone cliffs. Although for many years her work was done mainly in grays and white, in the last few years she painted in muted pastel washes of earth red and sky blue, and greens and yellows, perhaps because of the white desert light and the colors of the earth in the southwest. Georgia O'Keeffe comes to mind naturally, since O'Keeffe also favored and lived in the same area, and painted semi-abstract visions of the same landscape. In fact, looking at Martin's paintings, they seem like a more abstracted version of O'Keeffe's vision. But Martin had her own unique artistic evolution and motivations to paint - inspired by her interest in Asian philosophy, and influenced by the ideas surrounding the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940's and '50's in America. Her work was influenced greatly by nature, however not in the sense of replicating nature - rather, she wanted the viewer to experience the same feelings they have when in front of nature. Some of her titles allude to nature - to leaves, rivers, flowers, etc., but her work has more to do with expressing positive inner states of existence. She has been associated with the Minimalist movement, but her work is less rigid, less cerebral - more spiritual in inspiration than Minimalist. She shared with her friend, the artist Richard Tuttle, certain attitudes about art and life, which stem from their interest in eastern philosophy - the ideas of ego-lessness, humility, and the Tao - in life and in art.

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AGNES MARTIN Images Bio Agnes Martin was born in Maklin, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1912. After spending her youth in Vancouver, she moved to the United States in 1931 and became a US citizen in 1950. In 1954 she moved to Taos, New Mexico. Returning to New York in 1957, she has held her first solo exhibition in 1958 at the Betty Parsons Gallery. In 1967 she moved back to New Mexico and abandoned painting for seven years. In 1975 she began her association with the Pace Gallery in New York. In 1991 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam held an exhibition of her paintings and drawings which travelled on to various other European museums. In 1992 the Whitney Museum of American Art held a grand retrospective of her work. Martin's spare abstractions, non-material in nature, can be perhaps partially explained by the landscape of New Mexico - the high desert and the red sandstone cliffs. Although for many years her work was done mainly in grays and white, in the last few years she painted in muted pastel washes of earth red and sky blue, and greens and yellows, perhaps because of the white desert light and the colors of the earth in the southwest. Georgia O'Keeffe comes to mind naturally, since O'Keeffe also favored and lived in the same area, and painted semi-abstract visions of the same landscape. In fact, looking at Martin's paintings, they seem like a more abstracted version of O'Keeffe's vision. But Martin had her own unique artistic evolution and motivations to paint - inspired by her interest in Asian philosophy, and influenced by the ideas surrounding the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940's and '50's in America. Her work was influenced greatly by nature, however not in the sense of replicating nature - rather, she wanted the viewer to experience the same feelings they have when in front of nature. Some of her titles allude to nature - to leaves, rivers, flowers, etc., but her work has more to do with expressing positive inner states of existence. She has been associated with the Minimalist movement, but her work is less rigid, less cerebral - more spiritual in inspiration than Minimalist. She shared with her friend, the artist Richard Tuttle, certain attitudes about art and life, which stem from their interest in eastern philosophy - the ideas of ego-lessness, humility, and the Tao - in life and in art.