Synopses & Reviews
Agnes Martin's career spanned over seven decades. Though a major influence on Minimalist painters, Martin saw her own work, more closely related to Abstract Expressionism, her paintings being 'meditations on innocence, beauty, happiness and love.' More than 130 of these works can be found in this book. Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances is the first and only complete career retrospective publication of the visionary painter. This important and beautiful book brings together 130 of Martin's paintings and drawings, with her previously unpublished writings and lecture notes, which vividly illuminate her art. Letters and facsimiles are reprinted in Martin's own hand, and cut to notebook size, adding an element of intimacy for the reader. With the Pace Gallery founder, Arne Glimcher's illuminating introduction, his personal remembrances of visits to Martin at her studio, and their correspondence throughout her career, reveal much about the artist's life and work.
Review
[A] stunning beautiful volume?Glimcher provides an affectionate biographical glimpse into Martin's life through snapshots of the artist and diaristic accounts of his long engagement with her and her work...Martin's works can be muted or muffled on the page but in this book they sing out pure and strong?Agnes Martin is both spare and extravagant: an apt tribute.--Bookforum
Review
A comprehensive exhibition between book boards. Thanks to this volume, the rigorous openness and delicate complexity in Martin's work can be better fathomed and appreciated.--Art in America
Synopsis
Agnes Martin, Paintings, Writings, Remembrances by Arne Glimcher is a beautiful collection of the artist's most important art works, illuminated by her own notes and writings. Martin's writings are fascinatingly direct in explaining her philosophies on art and on the themes of life that inspire her paintings and drawings, and facsimilies presenting her words in her own handwriting intimately convey her thoughts. More than 150 of Martin's paintings present the full extent of her artistic career, and her own words explain how they were inspired by ideas on love, joy, beauty, humility, solitude, perfection, 'freedom from the cares of this world', destiny and the nature of existence. The artist's works and writings are here introduced by art dealer and film director, Arne Glimcher, who represented the artist for most of her career and was good friend. He opens the book with reminiscences of working with Martin and how her art developed during her life, and later in the book are notes on visits he made to Martin's studio and home in New Mexico. With beautifully accurate reproductions of Martin's works, and foldouts to show her series as groups, as well as the comprehensive presentation of works and writings, this luxurious book is unprecedented: a uniquely full and intimate celebration of the artist.