Eulogy for Agnes Martin

(2022 - 2023)

I'd recently read Agnes Martin Paintings, Writings, Rememberances by Arne Glimcher (Phaidon, 2012). Despite having gone to a college whose curriculum had been directly influenced by abstract expressionist Charles Pollock, who taught at the school from 1942 - 1969 with lots of great abstract expressionist examples in its collection, including some very important works by Morris Lewis, my first exposure to Agnes Martin was actually a painting included in a Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition in the early 2000's. I immediately connected with the work, and recognized the Buddhist influence. Since then, I still had limited exposure to her work, but sought it out when possible. The book by Arne Glimcher contains a number of Agnes' notes, letters, and lectures along with a great selection of her grid paintings.

Since the advent of Vantablack, and having viewed some objects painted with it, I've been intrigued by its optical light absorbing properties and wondered how I could utilize it myself. Unfortunately, Vantablack is not really available as a paint medium for artists -- particularly, in the way artists like myself use paint conventionally -- beyond coating an object in it entirely. It's not something you can mix or blend with. It doesn't use the same binders, and is generally incompatible with other artist paints. However, Stuart Semple and Culture Hustle does make a "Black 3.0" which mimics Vantablack well enough, and is made for artists.

Reading through Agnes Martin's notes and letters, and reviewing the works in the book, and reviewing what else I could find online on Agnes Martin, I decided that her grids were a great vehicle to test Black 3.0 with. Not entirely copying her work -- certainly, not the size/scale (her works were typically 72" square, these are only 8" square) -- but adding my own voice and interpretting her work for myself -- exploring some of the same concepts of light-absorbtion, light-reflection, negative and non-negative space. -- And certainly, exploring new materials and processes. Though these works seem simple, I employed a number of techniques and had to discover some tricks to get around some failings of the mediums when used in certain combinations. Mediums used were Black 3.0, White 2.0, Graphite, Mechanical Pencil Blue Lead, Genuine Copper Leaf (sealed), and 24k Gold Leaf.