Art · 20th century
1912–2004 · Canadian-American
Abstract painting — claimed by Minimalism, claimed by herself for Abstract Expressionism
Agnes Martin spent forty years painting faint graphite grids and horizontal bands on square canvases washed in pale colour. Critics filed her with the Minimalists; she insisted she was an Abstract Expressionist whose subject was happiness, innocence and beauty. She worked in near-seclusion in New Mexico, saying she painted with her back to the world.
A square canvas of graphite grid over pale ground whose title names a plant the artist said stood for innocence (1964)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Tree — she said the grid came into her mind when she was thinking of the innocence of trees
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
A grid incised into gold leaf, the most opulent surface in an otherwise austere body of work (1963)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Friendship — gold leaf and oil on canvas
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
A late canvas of pale horizontal bands whose title suggests a carefree day off (1999)
Tate Modern, London
Happy Holiday — acrylic and graphite on canvas
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
A set of six square panels whose collective title describes exactly how the artist said she worked (1997)
Various collections
With My Back to the World — also the title of Mary Lance's documentary about her
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia
A dark blue canvas ruled with a grid over gold leaf, from the artist's first New York decade (1963)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Night Sea — oil and gold leaf on canvas
No free image available (likely still in copyright) · see it on Wikipedia