AGNES MARTIN | UNTITLED

As the oldest surviving painter of the Abstract Expressionist generation, Agnes Martin imparted a legacy of abstraction that has inspired generations of artists. Created at the apex of her long and illustrious career, in the same year she received the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association as well as the National Medal of Arts, Untitled is a representative lithograph series of the refined gridlines and limited color of pure abstraction that define her iconic works. In contrast to the stark and severe minimalism of Martin’s radically simplified compositions that launched her career in the 1950s, this series reveals soft deviations from the rigid lines that show the traces of the artist’s hand and the beauty of imperfection. Through paintings, drawings, and printmaking, Martin consistently explored notions of space, metaphysics and internal emotional states that explored themes of love, harmony and beauty. In her own words she said, “When I think of art, I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.”