Agnes Martin: On Beauty collects the artist's own writings on beauty, solitude, nature, and the metaphysical — giving direct access to the intellectual and spiritual framework behind one of the most singular bodies of work in twentieth-century painting.
About This Book
Edited by Milly Glimcher, this volume brings together texts by Agnes Martin that range from compact meditations to extended philosophical reflections. The writings circle a central preoccupation — beauty as mystery, as lived experience, as the animating force behind her austere grids and lines. Far from theoretical, Martin's prose is poetic and personal, drawing on solitude, silence, and the workings of nature. Reproductions of late paintings, including Blessings (2000) and Tranquillity (2001), accompany the texts, while debossed covers reproduce two further works. For anyone engaged with abstract painting, minimalism, or the relationship between artistic practice and written thought, this is a rare primary source.
Key Features
- 72 pages of collected writings and full-colour painting reproductions
- Edited by Milly Glimcher
- Named works include Blessings (2000), Tranquillity (2001), Affection (2001), and Little Children Playing with Love (2001)
- Published by Pace Publishing, 2004
What You'll Discover
- How Martin understood beauty not as aesthetic category but as "the mystery of life" — a distinction that runs through every aspect of her practice
- The role of solitude and silence as active creative conditions, not simply biographical circumstances
- The range of her written voice, from the compressed precision of "Awareness of Perfection" to the expansive flow of "The Current of the River of Life Moves Us"
- The ideological foundations beneath the austerity of her grids — the metaphysical thinking that structure alone cannot communicate
About the Author
Canadian American artist Agnes Martin (1912–2004) was among the most influential painters of her generation, leaving an enduring mark on modern and contemporary art. Her paintings — characterised by grids and austere lines on grounds of muted colour — negotiate the boundaries of structure, space, draftsmanship, and the metaphysical. The writings collected here were composed across the span of her career.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 72
- Dimensions: 22.9 x 16.5 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781948701839
- Publisher: Pace Publishing
- Publication Date: 2004
Perfect For: Artists, curators, and writers drawn to the intersection of abstract painting and philosophical reflection; students of minimalism and twentieth-century art history; readers interested in artists' writings as primary documents.