ABOUT AGNES MARTIN

ABOUT AGNES MARTIN

Gratitude, 2001.

Acrylic and graphite on canvas.

60 × 60 in / 152.4 × 152.4 cm

Agnes Martin’s oeuvre reveals the journey of her own life in a detailed and profound way. She was devoted to expressing pure feeling and sublime beauty, both of which are exemplified in Gratitude.

Overcoming many obstacles and personal struggles (a mental illness and a secret homosexuality), Martin achieved her goal in the eyes of both the public and the critics with her exquisite, breathtaking pieces that transcend time. Ironically, Martin herself probably never felt completely satisfied with her artwork; to her laborious, perfectionist eye, there were always things that could be improved. “It’s through discipline and tremendous disappointment and failure that you arrive at what it is you must paint” she once said.

Martin painted Gratitude in 2001 at the age of 89, three years before her death. Two blocks of translucent, lightly-applied green fill the square canvas (her signature dimensional motif, influenced by the Taoist pursuit of balance and harmony), creating a sense of joyful deepness. On this atmospheric ground she placed two horizontal bands of pale white and washed red in the center of the composition. At the top and bottom of the painting are two bands of warm cream, also emerging from the green like a warm fog. Perhaps this composition was inspired by the countless sunsets that Martin enjoyed while contemplating the infinite horizon, isolated from the world in her retirement residence in Taos, New Mexico.

A fine-lined, self-erasing graphite grid becomes visible once you get closer, limiting each area colored by thin layers of diluted acrylic, creating an hypnotic effect for the eyes and mind and allowing a delicate spiritual connection with the work (an effect also present in many of Rothko’s paintings). This austere and ethereal composition unveils some of the emotional states that she explored throughout her practice: happiness, joy, and tranquility. “My paintings are not about what is seen,” Martin said. “They are about what is known forever in the mind.”

Martin’s approach to making art was deeply influenced by philosophical and spiritual systems. She was a tough thinker, a focused and hard worker, and a resilient artist. She spent most of her life alone, dedicated to mastering her art and developing her style, which was strongly influenced by nature and Buddhism.

Gratitude unfolds as a story of her existence, which is moved by inspiration and guided by rigorous lines of thought and beliefs, detached from the distractions of the mundane world. Her presence is very palpable in the allover color-washed composition. After spending a bit of time looking at this wonderful piece becomes clear the enormous amount of time that she invested in the painting. Her dedication and attention to detail are evident, as she was always paradoxically looking for perfection without hiding the human quality of the execution.

This intense relationship between perfection and manual imprecision makes each one of her pieces amazingly rich and full of information that waits to be read. After being born in Saskatchewan, Canada, “the land of no opportunity” as she called it, Gratitude may be understood as a “thank you” for a complex, productive life, filled with beauty and innocence.

May, 21st. 2017.

Valerie Lollett

Valerie Lollett