Agnes Martin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Agnes Martin
Martin in her studio, 1954
Born	Agnes Bernice Martin (1912-03-22)March 22, 1912 Macklin, Saskatchewan, Canada
Died	December 16, 2004(2004-12-16) (aged 92) Taos, New Mexico, United States
Nationality	American
Education	Western Washington University Teachers College, Columbia University University of New Mexico
Known for	Painter
Movement	Abstract expressionism

Agnes Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was an American abstract painter. She is famous for her unique style, often using grids and soft colors. Even though some people called her a minimalist artist, Agnes Martin saw herself as an abstract expressionist. This means her art focused on expressing feelings and ideas rather than just showing things as they look. She was a very important artist in the 20th century. In 1998, she received the National Medal of Arts, a top award for artists in the United States.

Agnes Martin's Early Life

Agnes Bernice Martin was born in 1912 in Macklin, Saskatchewan, Canada. Her family were farmers. She was one of four children. When she was seven, her family moved to Vancouver. In 1931, she moved to the United States. She liked the education system there and became an American citizen in 1950.

Agnes studied at several universities. She went to Western Washington University and later earned her first degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1942. While living in New York, she became very interested in modern art. She learned about famous artists like Arshile Gorky and Joan Miró. She took many art classes and decided she wanted to be a full-time artist.

In 1947, she studied art in Taos, New Mexico. She also became interested in Asian ideas, especially Zen Buddhism, after hearing talks at Columbia. She saw it as a way to live life well. Later, she taught art at the University of New Mexico. She then returned to Columbia University and earned her master's degree in modern art in 1952.

Moving to New York City

In 1957, Agnes Martin moved to Coenties Slip in lower Manhattan, New York City. This area was a popular spot for many artists to live and work. She lived in a loft, which is a large open space often used as a studio.

Agnes Martin faced some private health challenges during her life. In 1967, she suddenly left New York City. She traveled across Canada and the western United States for about a year and a half.

Life in New Mexico

After her travels, Agnes Martin settled in Cuba, New Mexico, from 1968 to 1977. She lived a very simple life in a home she built herself. For a few years, she didn't paint at all.

However, her interest in art slowly came back. She started writing and giving talks about her work at universities. She also began painting again. She worked with Pace Gallery, and its founder, Arne Glimcher, became her art dealer for life.

Later, she moved to Galisteo, New Mexico, where she lived until 1993. She built another adobe home there, keeping her simple lifestyle. Even though she preferred to be alone, she became more active in the art world. She traveled a lot and showed her art in Canada, the United States, and other countries. In 1993, she moved to a retirement home in Taos, New Mexico. She lived there until she passed away in 2004 at the age of 92.

Many of her paintings have positive names like Happy Holiday (1999) and I Love the Whole World (2000). Agnes Martin once said, "Beauty and perfection are the same. They never occur without happiness."

Agnes Martin's Art Career

Agnes Martin's art is strongly connected to Taos, New Mexico. Some of her early paintings were inspired by the desert landscape there. Her childhood in rural Canada, especially the wide, quiet prairies of Saskatchewan, also influenced her. She saw herself as an American painter but always remembered her Canadian roots.

She moved to New York City in 1957 after being invited by artist and gallery owner Betty Parsons. In New York, she became friends with other artists like Robert Indiana and Ellsworth Kelly. Famous artist Barnett Newman also helped promote her work.

In 1967, Agnes Martin famously left New York. Reasons included the death of her friend Ad Reinhardt and the demolition of buildings in Coenties Slip. After leaving New York, she lived in Cuba, New Mexico, and then Galisteo, New Mexico. In both places, she built her own adobe brick homes. She didn't return to painting until 1973. She chose to stay away from the social events that other artists attended.

In 1976, she made her first film called Gabriel. It was a 78-minute film showing a little boy walking through a landscape.

Agnes Martin's Artistic Style

Agnes Martin's early works included some self-portraits and watercolor landscapes. She also made paintings with soft colors inspired by her time in Taos. She even tried to find and destroy some of her very first abstract paintings.

Martin admired artist Mark Rothko for simplifying his art. Following his example, she also used very basic shapes and colors. She wanted her art to show perfection and a deeper reality. Her unique style involved lines, grids, and very subtle colors.

In the early 1960s, she created large 6-foot by 6-foot square paintings. These canvases were covered with tiny, softly drawn graphite grids. In a 1966 exhibition, her grid paintings were seen as examples of Minimalist art. They were shown alongside works by artists like Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd.

However, her paintings were different from other minimalist art. They still showed small flaws and traces of her hand, making them feel more personal and spiritual. She wasn't interested in just intellectual ideas. Her art and writings often showed her interest in Eastern philosophy, especially Taoism. Because of this spiritual side, she preferred to be called an abstract expressionist.

Before leaving New York in 1967, she mainly used black, white, and brown in her art. Her last painting before she stopped for a while, Trumpet, showed a change. Instead of a single rectangle, it had a grid of rectangles drawn in pencil over soft gray paint.

When she returned to art in 1973, she started using light pastel colors in her grids. These colors seemed to shimmer as the light changed. Later, she made her paintings a bit smaller and used bands of soft, dreamy colors. She also changed her grid style. For example, in Untitled No. 4 (1994), the lines were not measured with a ruler but drawn by hand. In the 1990s, her horizontal bands often had different widths.

Art expert Lawrence Alloway said that Agnes Martin was part of the first group of Abstract Expressionist artists. He noted that her art had a "silent dignity" because she could turn deep ideas into paintings.

Exhibitions of Agnes Martin's Work

Agnes Martin's art has been shown in many places since her first solo exhibition in 1958. She had over 85 solo shows and two major retrospectives (shows looking back at her whole career). These included a show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1992–94) and another at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1991–92).

Her work has also been part of many international group exhibitions. These include the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Germany. She received many awards, such as:

• The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art (2005)
• The National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton (1998)
• The Golden Lion for Contribution to Contemporary Art at the Venice Biennale (1997)

Even after her death in 2004, her exhibitions continue. In 2012, the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, held a special exhibition called Agnes Martin Before the Grid. This show focused on her early work before 1960, much of which had never been seen before. In 2015, the Tate Modern in London held a large show covering her entire career.

Her art has also been featured in exhibitions like Reductive Minimalism: Women Artists in Dialogue, 1960-2014 at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. In 2016, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York also held a major show of her works. She was also part of Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, which highlighted important women artists.

Where to See Agnes Martin's Art

You can find Agnes Martin's paintings in many major art collections across the United States. Some of these include:

• The New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, NM
• The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
• The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York
• The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Her work is also held in international collections, such as the Tate in London, England.

Art Market Success

Agnes Martin's paintings have sold for very high prices. In 2007, her painting Loving Love (2000) sold for $2.95 million. In 2015, Untitled #7 (1984) sold for $4.2 million. In 2016, her painting Orange Grove sold for $13.7 million at an auction.

Agnes Martin's Legacy

Agnes Martin became an inspiration for many younger artists, including Eva Hesse and Ellen Gallagher.

Her image was included in a famous 1972 poster called Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.

In 1994, the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, created a special gallery just for Agnes Martin's work. She donated seven large untitled paintings to the museum. The gallery was designed exactly how she wanted it, with a round opening in the ceiling (called an oculus) and yellow benches. This gallery is now a popular place for visitors from all over the world.

Films About Agnes Martin

• 2000: Thomas Luechinger: On a Clear Day – Agnes Martin. (Documentary, 52 minutes)
• 2002: Mary Lance: Agnes Martin: With my Back to the World. (Documentary, 57 minutes)
• 2002/2016: Leon d'Avigdor: Agnes Martin: Between the Lines. (Documentary, 60 minutes)
• 2016: Kathleen Brennan and Jina Brenneman: Agnes Martin Before the Grid. (Documentary, 56 minutes)

See Also

In Spanish: Agnes Martin para niños