Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin
Agnes Bernice Martin, born in Canada, was an American abstract painter. Often referred to as a minimalist, Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion, inwardness and silence"...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth22 March 1912
CityMacklin, Canada
CountryCanada
paintings
My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines.
cool minimize paintings themselves
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.
art expectation
The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.
feeling happiness morning painting people wake
People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn't it?
aggression succeed
I don't think the way to succeed is by doing something aggressive. Aggression is weak-minded.
came grid happened innocence mind painted
When I first made a grid, I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees, and then a grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, 'This is my vision.'
life
Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life.
art
The value of art is in the observer.
believe
One thing I like about Zen. It doesn't believe in achievement.
I think everyone is born 100 percent ego, and after that it's just adjustment.
pride frustration ego
It would be an endless battle if it were all up to ego because it does not destroy and is not destroyed by itself It is like a wave it makes itself up, it rushes forward getting nowhere really it crashes, withdraws and makes itself up again pulls itself together with pride towers with pride rushes forward into imaginary conquest crashes in frustration withdraws with remorse and repentance pulls itself together with new resolution
art memories perfection
I would like my work to be recognized as being in the classical tradition (Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese), as representing the Ideal in the mind. Classical art cannot possibly be eclectic. One must see the ideal in one's own mind. It is like a memory - an awareness -of perfection.
ideas want favour
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool. ... I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.
beauty art thinking
What I say is that we're capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.