Agnes Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was a Canadian-American painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Main articles: History of Canada, Timeline of Canadian history Canada has been inhabited by aboriginal peoples (known in Canada as First Nations) for at least 40,000 years. ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... This article is about minimalism in art and design. ... American post-World War II art movement. ...

Childhood and background

She was born in Macklin, Saskatchewan and moved to the United States in 1931, becoming a citizen in 1950. She studied art at Columbia University and then later at the University of New Mexico. Her work is most closely associated with Taos, New Mexico, although she moved to New York City after being discovered by the artist/gallery owner Betty Parsons in 1957. Disillusioned with the art scene in New York, she returned to New Mexico in 1967 and established herself as an artist/hermit at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in Galisteo, New Mexico. The Town of Macklin (pop. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Taos (IPA: ) is a city in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Betty Parsons (1900 - 1982) was an American artist and art gallery owner known for her early promotion of abstract expressionism. ... The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ... For other uses, see Hermit (disambiguation). ... The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in the United States. ... Galisteo is a census-designated place located in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. ...

Artistic style

The bulk of her work is composed of square grids. While minimalist in form, these paintings were quite different in spirit from those of her other minimalist counterparts; she shied away from intellectualism, favoring the personal and spiritual. Many of her grids represent Taoist reflections. Because of her work's added spiritual dimension, which became more and more dominant after 1967, she preferred to be classified as an abstract expressionist. She consciously distanced herself from the social life and social events that brought other artists into the public eye. When she died at age 92, she was said to have not read a newspaper for the last 50 years. The book dedicated to the exhibition of her work in New York at The Drawing Center in 2005—3 X Abstraction (Yale University Press)— analyses the spiritual dimension in Martin's work. An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, and speculate on a variety of different ideas. ... Taoism (or Daoism) is the English name referring to a variety of related Chinese philosophical traditions and concepts. ... Jackson Pollock, No. ... The Drawing Center is a museum and educational center located in Lower Manhattan in New York City (USA). ... Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908. ...

Martin worked only in black, white, and brown before moving to New Mexico. During this time, she introduced light pastel washes to her grids, colors that shimmered in the changing light.

Cultural references

Composer John Zorn's Redbird was inspired by and dedicated to Martin. John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. ...

Sister Wendy Beckett, in her book American Masterpieces, said about Martin: "Agnes Martin often speaks of joy; she sees it as the desired condition of all life. Who would disagree with her?... No-one who has seriously spent time before an Agnes Martin, letting its peace communicate itself, receiving its inexplicable and ineffable happiness, has ever been disappointed. The work awes, not just with its delicacy, but with its vigor, and this power and visual interest is something that has to be experienced." Sister Wendy Beckett (born 1930) is a South African nun who became an unlikely celebrity during the 1990s, presenting a series of acclaimed art history documentaries for the BBC. Biography She was born in South Africa and raised in Scotland. ...

References

Bibliography

• Krauss, Rosalind E., "Agnes Martin: The/Could/", in :Inside the Visible, edited by Catherine de Zegher, MIT Press, 1996.
• Pollock, Griselda, "Agnes Dreaming: Dreaming Agnes", in 3 X Abstraction, edited by Catherine de Zegher and Hendel Teicher, New Haven: Yale University Press and NY: The Drawing Center, 2005. ISBN 0-300-10826-5.
• Fer, Briony, "Drawing Drawing: Agnes Martin's Infinity", in: 3 X Abstraction, edited by Catherine de Zegher and Hendel Teicher, New Haven: Yale University Press and NY: The Drawing Center, 2005. Reprinted in Women Artists at the Millennium, edited by Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher, MIT Press / October Books, 2006.

// Professor and art historian Linda Nochlin began her deliberately provocative 1971 Artnews article with the question Why are there no great women artists? This question was, in essence, a challenge to traditional art history and to feminist art history. ...

External links

• Guggenheim Bio
• MOMA Biography and Online Gallery
• Zwirner & Wirth: Agnes Martin
• Images
• Washington Post Obituary
• The Times Obituary
• Michael Govan Essay