The hypnotic paintings of Agnes Martin (1912–2004) were informed by two very different environments. One was rural Saskatchewan, where she lived until the age of seven; the other was the deserts of New Mexico, where she studied and taught art in her thirties while taking a growing interest in the rigours of Zen Buddhism. In between she spent formative years in New York, where she likely encountered work by Arshile Gorky and Joan Miró, two forefathers of Abstract Expressionism – a movement that was taking shape as she was dipping her toe in the art world. Though Martin is often described as a minimalist, she thought of herself as an Abstract Expressionist, and this exhibition of work from the ’50s and ’60s at Dia Beacon allows us to consider her relationship to both movements even as it makes clear that she was a singular artist (4 April–).
Find out more from Dia Beacon’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
