Agnes Martin is perhaps most recognised for her evocative paintings marked out in subtle pencil lines and pale colour washes. Although restrained, her style was underpinned by her deep conviction in the emotive and expressive power of art. Martin believed that spiritual inspiration and not intellect created great work. ‘Without awareness of beauty, innocence and happiness’ Martin wrote ‘one cannot make works of art’.
The retrospective of Agnes Martins work dates back to the 1950’s – marking a turning point in her work using the line in a gridded format.
The linear format of the Martin’s work was an evocative way of relating experience and emotion through the construct of gridded lines. I found that this reduction of drawing actually made the work much stronger and interpretive to the viewer. The fineness of each line, the precision, you can feel the moment that the line was drawn across each canvas. The lines created tension, despair, love, happiness, sadness. The lines were always moving, continuous, streaming yet map like.