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Agnes Martin

49 quotes

“I am grateful for the [financial] assistance I received last year [1955] through the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. It gave me the materials I needed and a certain amount of security and enabled me to make a very good try for my New York show. This did not succeed but Miss Betty Parsons whose gallery I will eventually show in assured me that in one more year she thought I could make it, which is not discouraging.. .I painted all together one hundred canvasses of which I had a good opinion and sold seven [in a year].”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Helene Wurlitzer, late 1956; as quoted by Christina Bryan Rosenberger, in Drawing the Line: The Early Work of Agnes Martin, Univ of California Press, July 2016, p. 88
“When I cover the square surface with rectangles, it lightens the weight of the square. Destroys its power.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted by Lucy R. Lippard, in 'Hommage to the Square', Art in America, July-August 1967, p. 55
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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 & by Julie Warchol, on Smith College Museum of Art
“I am staying unsettled and trying not to talk for three years. I want to do it very much.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to curator Sam Wagstaff, 1967
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: poem before 1973; in a exh. cat., ed. Suzanne Delehanty (1973; repr., Philadelphia: The Falcon Press, 1976), p. 40
“Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it. I want to draw a certain response like this.. ..that quality of response from people when they leave themselves behind, often experienced in nature, an experience of simple joy.. .My paintings are about merging, about formlessness.. .A world without objects, without interruption.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ann Wilson, from her talks in the Summer of 1972 at Agnes Martin's home in Mexico - an unpublished document; as quoted in Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art, Chapter 7 - 'Departures', Nancy Princenthal; Thames and Hudson, N…
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 'On a Clear Day', 1973; as quoted by Julie Warchol on website Smith College Museum of Art
“..the function of art work is.. ..the renewal of memories of moments of perfection.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: remark in 1973; as quoted by Amy Flanagan in 'The Subtle emotive; Material and Experience in the Works of Agnes Martin', essay redraft, 2015, p. 1
“Bring ice, thanks, Agnes”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted by Olivia Laing, in 'Agnes Martin: the artist mystic who disappeared into the desert', The Guardian, 22 May 2015
“Architect/arcetects/arcatects/arcetects/archetes”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Martin wrote this at the bottom of her notes, 1974; as quoted in 'AGNES MARTIN' by Mira Dayal, Artseen Nov. 2016
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: a passage Martin wrote in 1975 'On a Clear Day', 15 Oct. 1975. Printed in Agnes Martin, eds. Morris and Bell, p. 124
“People think that painting is about color It's mostly composition It's composition that's the whole thing The classic image- Two late Tang dishes, one with a flower image, one empty – the empty form goes all the way to heaven It is the classic form – lighter weight.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I painted a painting called 'Milk River' [in 1963] Cows don't give milk if they don't have grass and water Tremendous meaning of that is that painters can't give anything to the observer People get what they need from a painting The painter need not die because of responsibility When you have inspiration and represent inspiration The observer makes the painting”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I draw horizontals you see this big plane and you have certain feelings like you're expanding over the plane Anything can be painted without representation”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to look in my mind for the unwritten page if my mind was empty enough I could see it I didn't paint the plane I just drew this horizontal line Then I found out about all the other lines But I realized what I liked was the horizontal line Then I painted the two rectangles correct composition if they're just right”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I describe inspiration I do not want you to think I am speaking of religion. That which takes us by surprise - moments of happiness - that is inspiration. Inspiration which is different from daily care. Many people as adults are so startled by inspiration which is different from daily care that they think they are unique In having had it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Inspiration is there all the time.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course we know that an untroubled state of mind cannot last. So we say that inspiration comes and goes but really it is there all the time waiting for us to be untroubled again. We can therefore say that it is pervasive. Young children are more untroubled than adults and have many more inspirations.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be an artist, you look, you perceive, you recognize what is going through your mind. And it is not ideas. Everything you feel and everything you see and everything that your whole life goes through your mind, you know. But you have to recognize it and go with it and really feel it.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1974
“You can't be in an unconscious state and paint. Because whatever is in your mind, and not the subject matter, but the feelings that you have related to that subject matter, is what you're going to paint. So, the beginning is not actually painting, you know. The beginning of painting is not you put down green, and then you like pink, and you put down pink. Painting's not about that anymore than music is about this sound and that sound.. ..And it's something that drives you to expression. And it's irresistible.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1974
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1974
“To neglect your own mind, that's like to neglect your consciousness. That’s like to give up all hope of joy and happiness, really. You're the only one that can discover for you the meaning of anything. What it means to you. By that, I don't mean intellectual meaning. I mean, what it means, how it makes you feel. You have to see whether you really are happy or not. Whether you really are sad or not. And you have to investigate what goes through your mind.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1974
“Inspiration comes from a clear mind. Right straight through. We have nothing to do with it.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1976
“To live truly and effectively the idea of achievement must be given up. Put unsentimental piety first, turn your back on the world, and get on with it.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Martin's open letter, 1981 to the Whitney Museum of American Art; as quoted in 'The Heroic Art of Agnes Martin', by Hilton Als, NYR 14 July 2016
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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
“When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this 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.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview by Suzan Campbell, May 15, 1989; transcript in 'Archives of American Art', The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from her 1989 piece for 'Artspace', 'The Current of the River of Life Moves Us'
“You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview with Joan Simon, 1995 in Perfection is in the Mind, p. 86; as quoted in A House Divided: American Art Since 1955, Anne M. G. Wagner, Univ. of California Press, 2012, p. 263
“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 (1912–2004) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in A House Divided: American Art Since 1955, Anne M. G. Wagner, Univ. of California Press 2012, p. 205 - note 8
“When I think of art, I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is in the mind, not in the eye. In our minds, we have an awareness of perfection that leads us on.. .The response to beauty is emotion. Sometimes very subtle emotions of which we are almost not aware, and sometimes our most powerful emotions..”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although we are all different, we all respond to each other's suggestions of perfection. And we enjoy the same response as the artist. It is the inner contemplation, the wanting to respond to life, that opens our eyes to what is already in the mind.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything is contemplated in the mind without meditation. We make a very complicated response. Just to look at a floating branch evokes very complicated objective and nonobjective responses. The artist must slow all this down, mentally. It is this mental experience that makes the representation of beauty possible.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take beauty: it's a very mysterious thing, isn't it? I think it's a response in our minds to perfection.. .My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines. There's not any hint of nature. And still everybody responds, I think.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pollock was terrific. I think he freed himself of all kinds of worry about this world. Ran around and dripped, and then he managed to express ecstasy.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[about Ad Reinhardt:] ..we supported each other.. .He thought I was a good painter, and I thought he was a good painter.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The little rectangle contradicts the square. And the square is authoritative.. .The rectangle is pleasant, whereas the square is not.. ..It's too stiff, too authoritative. My paintings are made up of little rectangles, not little squares There was a scholar who dug up a Tantric drawing that was just like my grid, and it was made of rectangles, too, just exactly like mine.. .I was surprised. I didn't think anybody had made a grid quite like that.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings. That's the end [of the interview].”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to pay attention to the clouds in the sky.. .I paid close attention for a month to see if they ever repeated. They don't repeat. And I don't think life does either. It's continually various. That's the truth about life.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Denise Spranger, in 'Center of Attention', Taos News/Tempo Magazine, Mar. 21–27, 2002, p. 22
“It was so flat, you know, you could see the curves of the earth. And when a train came into vision at nine o'clock in the morning, it was still leaving at noon.. ..it took that long to get across the prairie.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Mary Lance's intimate documentary 'With My Back to the World' (2002)
“I was very happy. I thought I would cut my way through life.. ..victory after victory, [laughing..] Well, I adjusted as soon as they carried me into my mother. Half of my victories fell to the ground.. [she pauses] ..My mother had victories. [her candid, weather-beaten face darkens abruptly]”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mary Lance, in 'With My Back to the World' a documentary made in 2002; as quoted by Olivia Laing,
“There's no indication or hint about the material world in my painting. No, I don't paint about the world. Everybody else is painting about the world. That's enough.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am simply painting concrete representation of abstract emotions such as innocent love, ordinary happiness. I do want an emotional response. And I paint about emotions, not about lines. The truth is that it's not the lines that express the emotion. It's the scale of the composition. You know, if you go into a room that has perfect scale, you feel it.. .If the painting has perfect scale, it moves you. And you have different scale to show different emotions. It's the space between the lines that counts.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I painted for 20 years without liking them very much, you know. I burnt them at the end of every year. For 20 years I burnt the whole bunch because I didn't want them to get in the market. And well, sometimes when I was starving, I used to sell one cheap, you know. But I always regretted it because you hate to think of a painting in somebody's house that you don't like well enough, you know.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is that I have lived on an even keel. I don't go down, and I don't go up. I believe in living above the line. Above the line is happiness and love, you know. Below the line is all sadness and destruction and unhappiness. And I don't go down below the line for anything.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source