Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances by Arne Glimcher
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances by Arne Glimcher Details
Review "[A] stunningly beautiful volume... An affectionate biographical glimpse into Martin's life... Tucked alongside reproductions of paintings are previously unpublished lecture scripts, samples of Martin's letters to Glimcher, and other notes... These actual-size replicas [...] are written neatly in the artist's own script, and offer intimate glimpses into her thought process... The photographs of Martin in her rustic surroundings are marvelous and strange, and the lurid colours unique to old Polaroids provide a bracing contrast the restraint found in her paintings... Martin's works, with their delicate grids, can become muted or muffled on the page, but in this book they sing out pure and strong. In his acknowledgements, the author gives thanks to Sue Medlicott, a print-production specialist who helped assure faithful images reproductions. I want to echo and amplify that gratitude: while this is a book that above all honors Martin's achievements, it is also wholly indebted to Medlicott's talen. Between Medlicott's skill at making subtle colors legible and Glimcher's ability to evoke the artist's personality, Agnes Martin is both spare and extravagant: an apt tribute."—BookForum, USA"A comprehensive exhibition between book boards. Thanks to this volume, the rigorous openness and delicate complexity in Martin's work can be better fathomed and appreciated."—Art in America"Exquisite and calming... Represents a nice reflection of her work." —Tomas Maier, Esquire Read more
Reviews
If I asked my mind to imagine the most wonderful book on the life and work of the late abstract expressionist Agnes Martin, it would fall short of this work that Arne Glimcher, her art dealer and friend, has put together with Phaidon Press. It contains an unprecedented retrospective sweep of the highest quality images of her drawings, paintings, and prints. The scale, subtlety of color, and texture of her work is difficult to capture in photography, but you will feel the power of these images that come from another world. Not only did Agnes Martin paint some of the most beautiful and sublimely meditative works of art of the last half of the 20th Century, but she also wrote profoundly on humility, transcendence, and the way of the artist. Some of these writings are included in this book. Several perfect full-color facsimiles, indeed replicas, of her essays and letters are generously inserted into the binding as if you came across them at her desk. They take my breath away. You're flipping through some paintings from the Nineties period and out pops a note on perception or a letter to The Whitney on inspiration. There is an exact replica of a concise autobiographical sketch of the artist in her own hand. And then there are the photographs of her life in New Mexico, the artist on her tractor, stills from her film Gabriel, even a map to her old studio in Cuba, NM. This book is a synthesis of her work, her life, and the powerful thoughts of an artist who emptied her mind to make space for the inspirations that she recorded as her art. The author truly paints a picture of the life of this great spirit from early in her career to the end of her long life with personal accounts, writings, and images. This is a remarkable book about an artist that really should change the way we make books about artists.
