Artist Seven: Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin was a Canadian-born American painter, born in 1912; she was often referred to as a minimalist painter, however she considered herself to be an abstract expressionist.  In 1931 Martin moved from Vancouver to the United States.  Before becoming a citizen in 1950 she studied at Western Washington University College of Education, then received her B.A. from Teachers College at Columbia University, she then studied at the University of New Mexico before returning to Columbia University to earn her M.A.  After her education Agnes Martin moved to New York City where she held exhibitions in the late 1950s at Betty Parsons Gallery.  Her first works included a few self-portraits and watercolor landscapes among biomorphic paintings in subdued colors, but later she did her best to seek out these works and destroy them.  Rothko was one of the artists that Martin regularly praised, in her eyes he had “reached zero so that nothing could stand in the way of truth”, she too created art with the most reductive elements to encourage a perception of perfection and to emphasize transcendent reality.  Her work is characterized by an emphasis on line, grids and fields of extremely subdued color.  Although her work was placed among the minimalists of the time she had no intension of being among the intellectualism of minimalism but favored instead the personal and spiritual aspect of her work.  After 1967 the spiritual element was much more prevalent which allowed her to classify her work as abstract expressionism.  Martin’s work was only done in black, white and brown before her move to New Mexico, but after that she introduced small amounts of color to her work.  She died at the age of 92 in 2004, and although she is no longer creating art, her art continues to influence and inspire younger artists.