PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MINNESOTA Agnes Martin Untitled #7 1984 acrylic, graphite on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm) Signed and dated "amartin 84" on the reverse.
Provenance The Pace Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, The Pace Gallery, Agnes Martin New Paintings, January 18 - February 16, 1985 Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism: A Dialogue, August 1, 1993 - August 1, 1994. This work was on long-term loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, December, 2006 - February, 2015 Catalogue Essay "Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it. I want to draw a certain response like this… Not a specific response but that quality of response from people when they leave themselves behind, often experienced in nature—an experience of simple joy." Agnes Martin With only the sparest of means—delicate line and pale color washes—Agnes Martin's art evokes the sublime. Like the Abstract Expressionist painters with whom she felt a special kinship, Martin keenly believed in a work’s ability to express spiritual transcendence. As Martin affirmed, "I consider myself one of them. They had a whole philosophy. They dealt directly with those subtle emotions of happiness that I'm talking about." (A. Martin quoted in 3x Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing by Hilma af Klint Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin New York, 2005, p. 49) Whereas Newman focused on the zip's robust vertical chasm, and Rothko devoted himself to boldly hued rectangular veils of paint, Martin made the line and the grid her signature, always applied with the lightest touch of pencil and pen. Untitled #7, from 1985, demonstrates the extraordinarily rich effects that she achieved with only the simplest of means. Coming of age during the ascent of Minimalism, Agnes Martin brought a new voice to that era's literalist zeitgeist, successfully channeling her unique visual framework through half a century of her oeuvre. Adhering to the frank exposition of materials and techniques and to the radically simplified formats of the grid and line, she nonetheless mined the expressive potential of pared-down abstraction, infusing her work with a measure of delicacy and meditation. Coupled with the idiosyncrasies of their handmade construction, Martin generated poetic counterparts to the hard edges, sleek surfaces and industrial fabrications of more doctrinaire manifestations of Minimalism. As Untitled #7 illustrates, she created works that were intimate, joyful, and allusive. The present work expands in front of the viewer like a soulful revelation of profound emotion. Varying the pressure of her graphite line and allowing for human variation in the exactitude of the resulting linear arrangement, Martin created a visual effect that was dazzling: the evanescence of the purified ground chimed beautifully with the sort of square within a square she has created by laying down so many tremulous lines which appear to hover above the canvas. This particular work is notable for the extreme parity of its composition. Uniformly warm in its white wash, the canvas is broken up by Martin’s repeated linear notations. The new square created within the confines of the canvas does seem to materialize and dematerialize and in the mind’s eye of the viewer a new wholeness is created. Appearing diagrammatic up close, these bands palpitate at a distance, advancing and receding, coming in and out of focus. Coalescing with veil-like ethereality in expansive pools of radiance, they seem to defy their material basis. This exalted reception of Untitled #7 mirrors Martin's process, which is meditative and akin to a form of prayer. Beginning by drawing graphite lines on gessoed surfaces using strings that were stretched tautly across the canvas, she enacted each line as a balancing act, requiring intense concentration and halting progress, which showed in the visible tremors of the obviously hand-made final product. Martin's art resonates with a quiet and forceful power. Despite their geometric appearance devoid as they are of any recognizable figurative elements, the artist’s horizontal bands are executed on a fundamentally human scale. As critic Nichola
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MINNESOTA Agnes Martin Untitled #7 1984 acrylic, graphite on canvas 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm) Signed and dated "amartin 84" on the reverse.
Provenance The Pace Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, The Pace Gallery, Agnes Martin New Paintings, January 18 - February 16, 1985 Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism: A Dialogue, August 1, 1993 - August 1, 1994. This work was on long-term loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, December, 2006 - February, 2015 Catalogue Essay "Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it. I want to draw a certain response like this… Not a specific response but that quality of response from people when they leave themselves behind, often experienced in nature—an experience of simple joy." Agnes Martin With only the sparest of means—delicate line and pale color washes—Agnes Martin's art evokes the sublime. Like the Abstract Expressionist painters with whom she felt a special kinship, Martin keenly believed in a work’s ability to express spiritual transcendence. As Martin affirmed, "I consider myself one of them. They had a whole philosophy. They dealt directly with those subtle emotions of happiness that I'm talking about." (A. Martin quoted in 3x Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing by Hilma af Klint Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin New York, 2005, p. 49) Whereas Newman focused on the zip's robust vertical chasm, and Rothko devoted himself to boldly hued rectangular veils of paint, Martin made the line and the grid her signature, always applied with the lightest touch of pencil and pen. Untitled #7, from 1985, demonstrates the extraordinarily rich effects that she achieved with only the simplest of means. Coming of age during the ascent of Minimalism, Agnes Martin brought a new voice to that era's literalist zeitgeist, successfully channeling her unique visual framework through half a century of her oeuvre. Adhering to the frank exposition of materials and techniques and to the radically simplified formats of the grid and line, she nonetheless mined the expressive potential of pared-down abstraction, infusing her work with a measure of delicacy and meditation. Coupled with the idiosyncrasies of their handmade construction, Martin generated poetic counterparts to the hard edges, sleek surfaces and industrial fabrications of more doctrinaire manifestations of Minimalism. As Untitled #7 illustrates, she created works that were intimate, joyful, and allusive. The present work expands in front of the viewer like a soulful revelation of profound emotion. Varying the pressure of her graphite line and allowing for human variation in the exactitude of the resulting linear arrangement, Martin created a visual effect that was dazzling: the evanescence of the purified ground chimed beautifully with the sort of square within a square she has created by laying down so many tremulous lines which appear to hover above the canvas. This particular work is notable for the extreme parity of its composition. Uniformly warm in its white wash, the canvas is broken up by Martin’s repeated linear notations. The new square created within the confines of the canvas does seem to materialize and dematerialize and in the mind’s eye of the viewer a new wholeness is created. Appearing diagrammatic up close, these bands palpitate at a distance, advancing and receding, coming in and out of focus. Coalescing with veil-like ethereality in expansive pools of radiance, they seem to defy their material basis. This exalted reception of Untitled #7 mirrors Martin's process, which is meditative and akin to a form of prayer. Beginning by drawing graphite lines on gessoed surfaces using strings that were stretched tautly across the canvas, she enacted each line as a balancing act, requiring intense concentration and halting progress, which showed in the visible tremors of the obviously hand-made final product. Martin's art resonates with a quiet and forceful power. Despite their geometric appearance devoid as they are of any recognizable figurative elements, the artist’s horizontal bands are executed on a fundamentally human scale. As critic Nichola
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