Agnes Martin: Work

“The Minimalists were nonobjective. They just recorded beauty, I guess, without the emotions - or at least without personal emotions. My work is a little more emotional than that.”

Agnes Martin

1980 - 2000, Perfection Is in the Mind', 1995

Beauty , Personality

“My [artworks] have neither object nor space nor line nor anything – no forms. They are light, lightness, about merging, about formlessness, breaking down form. You wouldn’t think of form by the ocean. You can go in if you don’t encounter anything. A world without objects, without interruption, making a work without interruption or obstacle. It is to accept the necessity of this simple, direct going into a field of vision as you could cross and empty beach to look at the ocean.”

Agnes Martin

her remark in 1966 as quoted by Ann Wilson in 'Linear Webs', Art and Artists 1, no. 7, Oct. 1966, p. 49; as quoted on the Tate exhibition, London June - October 2015 http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/agnes-martin/room-guide/room-nine & by Julie Warchol, on Smith College Museum of Art https://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/Collections/Cunningham-Center/Blog-paper-people/Agnes-Martin-On-a-Clear-Daywebsite
1960's

World , Thinking , Light

“In the middle of the work of art, an artist often feels that he is failing. And he starts interfering with his inspiration. That is a mistake. The mistake. It is best to push on through. Such works frequently turn out to be the best. To fail is a very ordinary experience for an artist. To fail and fail and still go on, marks his character. Most people cannot bear to fail, even once. They think of security.”

Agnes Martin

1980 - 2000, The Skowhegan Lecture', 1987

People , Art , Feeling , Thinking

“The adventurous state of / mind is a high house // To enjoy life the adventurous / state of mind must be / grasped and maintained // The essential feature of adventure is that it is a / going forward into / unknown territory // The joy of adventure is unaccountable // This is the attractiveness of / art work. It is adventurous, / strenuous and joyful.”

Agnes Martin

poem before 1973; in a exh. cat., ed. Suzanne Delehanty (1973; repr., Philadelphia: The Falcon Press, 1976), p. 40
1970's

Life , Art , Joy , Housing

“Some things fail and others succeed. Well, then you get quite desperate, and you think: 'I am going to work and work and I'm not going to have any failures.' But then you find out that failures are inevitable; you can't even draw a straight line, you know that.”

Agnes Martin

as quoted in A House Divided: American Art Since 1955, Anne M. G. Wagner, Univ. of California Press 2012, p. 205 - note 8
1980 - 2000

Failure , Thinking , Drawing

“My work is anti-nature
The four-story mountain
You will not think form, space, line, contour
Just a suggestion of nature gives weight
light and heavy
light like a feather
you get light enough and you levitate”

Agnes Martin

1970's, The Untroubled Mind', 1971

Mountain , Nature , Thinking , Light

“When a beautiful rose dies beauty does not die because it is not really in the rose. Beauty is an awareness in the mind. It is a mental and emotional response that we make. We respond to life as though it were perfect. When we go into a forest we do not see the fallen rotting trees. We are inspired by a multitude of uprising trees... The goal of life is happiness and to respond to life as though it were perfect is the way to happiness. It is also the way to positive art work.”

Agnes Martin

In 'Beauty Is the Mystery of Life', 1989; a lecture by Agnes Martin, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1989. Printed in Agnes Martin, eds. Morris and Bell, pp. 158–59
1980 - 2000

Life , Beauty , Art , Way

“It takes time, see. You finish painting the painting and then you turn it to the wall. I mean, you say, does it have it or doesn't it have it? If it doesn't have it, you throw it away, but if you think it has it, you turn it to the wall. And then when you have made some more work, then you turn them all over. And you, again, try to see exactly what it does mean and just exactly how effectively you have rendered this meaning.”

Agnes Martin

1974
1970's, interview, K. Horsfield & L. Blumenthal

Thinking , Time , Painting

“My interest is in experience that is wordless and silent, and in the fact that this experience can be expressed for me in art work which is also wordless and silent.”

Agnes Martin

In 'On a Clear Day', 1973; as quoted by Julie Warchol on website Smith College Museum of Art https://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/Collections/Cunningham-Center/Blog-paper-people/Agnes-Martin-On-a-Clear-Day,
1970's

Art

“On a Clear Day: Art work that is completely abstract - free from any expression of the environment is like music and can be responded to in the same way. Our response to line and tone and color is the same as our response to sounds... It holds meaning for us that is beyond expression in words.
These prints [title, 'On a Clear Day'] express innocence of mind. If you can go with them and hold your mind as empty and tranquil as they are and recognize your feelings at the same time you will realize your full response to this work.”

Agnes Martin

a passage Martin wrote in 1975 'On a Clear Day', 15 Oct. 1975. Printed in Agnes Martin, eds. Morris and Bell, p. 124
1970's

Art , Music , Color , Way

“When we realize that we can see life we gradually give up the things that stand in the way of our complete awareness. As we paint we move along step by step. We realize that we are guided in our work by awareness of life.”

Agnes Martin

from her 1989 piece for 'Artspace', 'The Current of the River of Life Moves Us'
1980 - 2000

Life , Way , Painting

“It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words. But there is a wide range of emotional response that we make that cannot be put into words. We are so used to making these emotional responses that we are not consciously aware of them till they are represented in art work.”

Agnes Martin

In 'Beauty Is the Mystery of Life', 1989; a lecture by Agnes Martin, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1989. Printed in Agnes Martin, eds. Morris and Bell, pp. 158–59
1980 - 2000

Art

“.. the function of art work is.... the renewal of memories of moments of perfection.”

Agnes Martin

remark in 1973; as quoted by Amy Flanagan in [file:///C:/Users/Fons/Downloads/The%20Subtle%20Emotive%3B%20Agnes%20Martin.pdf 'The Subtle emotive; Material and Experience in the Works of Agnes Martin'], essay redraft, 2015, p. 1
1970's

Art , Memory , Perfection

“Beauty is very much broader than just to the eye. It is our whole, positive response to life. An artist is fortunate in that his work is the inner contemplation of beauty, of perfection in life. We cannot make anything perfectly, but with inner contemplation of perfection, we can suggest it.”

Agnes Martin

1980 - 2000, The Skowhegan Lecture', 1987

Life , Beauty , Perfection

“Inspiration is pervasive but not a power.
It's a peaceful thing.
It is a consolation even to plants and animals.
Do not think that it is unique.
If it were unique no one would be able to respond to your work.”

Agnes Martin

Source: 1970's, The Untroubled Mind', 1972, p. 62

Peace , Thinking , Animals