Martin, Agnes (Agnes Bernice Martin),
1912–2004, American painter, b. Macklin, Canada. She moved to the
United States in 1931, began painting in 1942, became a U.S. citizen in
1950, and emerged as an important artist in the late 1950s and early 60s.
Martin is best known for her spare, abstract all-over grid paintings.
Penciled on canvases that are monochrome or washed in muted colors, these
emotionally evocative works seem to glow with an interior light. Her use of
line expresses both strength and delicacy within a restrained yet luminous
form. Martin, who came to New York City in 1957 and left it a decade later,
settled in New Mexico, and abandoned painting until 1974. Her later works
are intimate yet impersonal, and often created in series. They usually
contain horizontal bands drawn in graphite and painted in a subtle, limited
palette that suggest a shimmering, mysteriously lighted, depthless space.
Among the many public collections that include her paintings are the Museum
of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, and Guggenheim Museum, New York City, and the
Tate Gallery, London.
See her Writings (1992); F. Morris and T. Bell, ed., Agnes Martin (museum catalog, 2015); critical biography by N. Princethal (2015); study by B. Haskell (1992).
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