In to be in an artistic environment, she moved to New York. However, in time, she became disenchanted with the hubbub and distraction. She could not hear her own muse. To quiet her world, she moved to Taos, New Mexico.By now, you are probably thinking: RA must be describing Georgia O'Keeffe. Actually not. The artist who also found her voice in the southwest was Agnes Martin (1912-2004). Ever heard of her?
I was first introduced to Martin in an oil painting class. My teacher was bent on introducing us to abstract painting. I found a book of her work and was taken by the luminosity of her paintings. Her paintings are deceptively simple lines and grids.
It would be easy to dismiss her works if you relied solely on web images because her lines and colors are so subtle.Martin did not start painting immediately upon settling in Taos.In fact,seven year would pass before she began painting again. During the hiatus, she revisited the concepts of Zen Buddhism and Taoism she had studied in college. When she took up the brush, her paintings were based on emotional expression and inspiration and not about intellectualism. (Morris Graves and Mark Tobey also were inspired by Eastern philosophies - see December, 2009, in Archives on the right.)
To quote Agnes Martin: "... light, lightness, about merging, about formlessness."
In May, 2006, the Orange County Museum curated an exhibit featuring four women artists who had found inspiration in the sparseness of the desert. Of the four, one was O'Keeffe and the other was Martin.
