Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. Her signature style was defined by an emphasis upon line, grids, and fields of extremely subtle color. Particularly in her breakthrough years of the early 1960s, she created 6 × 6 foot square canvases that were covered in dense, minute and softly delineated graphite grids.

Workshop

Inspired by Agnes Martin’s grid and minimal paintings we will create our own meditative grid drawings.

1. Choose either a rectangle or square shape to start

2. Think about the parameter and space of your grid

3. Let your ruler be your guide

4. Make columns & rows with your pencil and/or watercolors

Materials

• Paper

• Watercolors

• Ruler

• Pencil

Follow Up

What is minimalism?

What colors did you use, if any?

Was the ruler helpful in guiding you?

What kinds of lines did you use and like?

Did you find the experience meditative?

" My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.”

- Agnes Martin