Agnes Martin
March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004
Agnes Martin is a Canadian born Abstract Expressionist artist. She prefers the term "abstract expressionist" because of the abstract nature of her work, and also the negative association she has with the Minimalism movement due to anti-woman sentiments when she was first becoming popular in the art world.
Residencies:
Agnes Martin lived and worked in New York City in an artist community on Coenties Slip. When news came that the slip was being demolished, Martin was forced to leave. She resettled in Taos, New Mexico, where she put her art career on pause. She believed that her kind of work could only be produced in an area like NYC, and life in the West wasn't conducive for the production of such art.
Philosophy:
Over anything else, Martin believed that artwork should be created from inspiration in the purest form. She believed that intellectual quests for making art took inspiration, and applied fact, and it was the facts that ruined the art. She believes that the best way to create art is to do so without thinking. She creates her works on a large scale, and uses non-traditional painting materials like synthetic paints.
Agnes Martin - "Untitled #5" - 1975 - Synthetic polymer paint and pencil on synthetic polymer gesso on canvas - 71 7/8" x 6' 1/4" (182.6 x 183.2 cm)
Agnes Martin - "Red Bird" - 1964 - Synthetic polymer paint and colored pencil on canvas - 71 1/8 x 71 1/8" (180.5 x 180.5 cm)
Agnes Martin - "Waters" - 1962 - India ink on paper - 8 1/8 x 7 5/8 in. (20.6 x 19.3 cm)
Agnes Martin - "Untitled #5" - 1975 - Synthetic polymer paint and pencil on synthetic polymer gesso on canvas - 71 7/8" x 6' 1/4" (182.6 x 183.2 cm)
Now here's a little more about Martin, from the woman herself:
Now that you've learned a little bit about Martin, her life, and her philosophies, here are some of her works.
Rise to Fame:
Agnes Martin's work was wildly unpopular for a large part of her career, and was only recognized as good art after she was discovered by Betty Parsons (artist/gallery owner). Martin's work was shown in the Parsons gallery. Her work was later shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art (which held other famous minimal artworks by artists like Judd).
Feminism:
During the artistic movement when Martin's Work was growing in popularity (Minimalism), the art scene was mostly male-dominated. To come in as a woman, producing works of art that were seen as equal to that of her male counterparts, Martin received lots of backlash. She was seen as producing "female" Minimalist pieces. Martin believed that her work was not masculine or feminine, and argued that art was not a thing that could be labeled as such. This mild rejection from the Minimalist scene by casting her as a lesser Minimal artists because of her gender is a major reason for her acceptance of the label "abstract expressionist".