Many thanks to the wonderful team at the Art Canada Institute, especially Sara Angel, Anna Hudson, Michael Rattray, Kendra Ward, Lara Hinchberger, and Stephanie Burdzy; it was a privilege to be invited to engage with the life and art of such a fascinating artist, and I couldn’t imagine sharing this journey with more enthusiastic collaborators. Thank you also to the anonymous peer reviewers who greatly contributed to this manuscript. I would like to acknowledge my colleagues at the National Gallery of Canada and single out Cyndie Campbell and Philip Dombowsky at the Library and Archives for their exceptional resources and research support. Thank you to Tiffany Bell and Christa Martin for being so willing to share their knowledge and time. I am also grateful to The Sabourin Family Foundation for their generous patronage. Finally, I would like to extend a profound thank you to my wife, Amy, for her support and encouragement.
From the Art Canada Institute
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of The Sabourin Family Foundation, the Title Sponsor of this book.
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the other sponsors of the 2019–2020 Canadian Online Art Book Project: Alexandra Bennett in memory of Jalynn Bennett, Anonymous, Cowley Abbott, Kiki and Ian Delaney, The Jay and Barbara Hennick Family Foundation, Scotiabank, and Bruce V. Walter.
We also sincerely thank the Founding Sponsor for the Art Canada Institute: BMO Financial Group; and the Art Canada Institute Patrons: Marilyn and Charles Baillie, Butterfield Family Foundation,* Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron, David and Vivian Campbell,* Connor, Clark & Lunn Foundation, Albert E. Cummings,* the Fleck family,* Roger and Kevin Garland,* Glorious and Free Foundation,* Charlotte Gray and George Anderson, The Scott Griffin Foundation,* Jane Huh,* Lawson Hunter, Gershon Iskowitz Foundation,* Alan and Patricia Koval Foundation, Phil Lind,* Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau,* Alistair Mitchell, John O’Brian, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan,* Stephen Smart,* Nalini and Tim Stewart,* Tina Tehranchian, and Robin and David Young.*
We thank our Lead Benefactors: Alexandra Baillie, Alexandra Bennett and the Jalynn Bennett Family Foundation,* Grant and Alice Burton, Kiki and Ian Delaney,* Jon S. and Lyne Dellandrea,* Michelle Koerner and Kevin Doyle,* Sarah and Tom Milroy,* Partners in Art,* Sandra L. Simpson,* Pam and Michael Stein,* and Sara and Michael Angel.*
*Indicates a Founding Patron of the Art Canada Institute
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Tracy Mallon-Jensen); Art Mûr (Rhéal Olivier Lanthier); Art Resource (John Benicewicz); Eli Attie; Tiffany Bell; Kathleen Brennan; Cindy Brown; Tammi Campbell; Centre for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona (Leigh Grissom); Cleveland Museum of Art (James Kohler); Columbia University Archives (Jocelyn Wilk); Contini Contemporary (Sandra Contini); Cranbrook Art Museum (Corey Gross); Guy Cross; Des Moines Art Center (Megan Cohen); Dia Art Foundation (Mollie Bernstein); Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg; Ellsworth Kelly Foundation; Esker Foundation (Jill Henderson); Galerie Buchholz (Sabine Schiffer); Patricia Garcia-Gomez; Gerald Peters Gallery; Getty Research Library (Emily Park); Glenbow Museum (Daryl Betenia, Doug Cass, Kellie Moynihan); Michael Apolo Gomez; Fancesco Gorgoni; Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH (Richard Viktor Hagemann); Stanley D. Heckman; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Julia L. Murphy); Bill Jacobson; Mara-Gai Katz; Tina Larkin; Lenore G. Tawney Foundation (Kathleen N. Mangan); Patricia L Lewy; MacKenzie Art Gallery (Marie Olinik); Christa Martin; Mary Ellen Mark Library / Studio (Meredith Lue); Staci Matlock; Matthew Marks Gallery (Lexi Campbell); Modern West Fine Art (Shalee Cooper); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Linda-Anne D’Anjou and Marie-Claude Saia); National Gallery of Canada (Raven Amiro); Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Stacey Sherman); New York Times / REDUX Pictures (Crystal Henry, Dylan Martin); Rolla Olak; Pace Gallery (Davina Bhandari, Lindsay McGuire); Peyton Wright Gallery (Kevin Paul); Rosenberg & Co. (Emma Wipperman); Emily Royack; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (David Rozelle); Susan Sharp; Lark Smothermon; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (Susan Wamsley); Thames & Hudson (Nancy Elder); Claude Tousignant; Isa Tousignant; University Libraries Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, University of New Mexico (Nancy Brown); University of California Press (Karin Tucker); University of New Mexico Foundation (Suzanne A. Awen); Varley Art Gallery (Anique Glaude); Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University (Tamara Belts, Rozlind Koester); Whitney Museum of American Art (Tara Hart and Micah Musheno); Donald Woodman (www.donaldwoodman.com); and Yale University Art Gallery (Kathleen Mylen-Coulombe).
ACI recognizes the private collectors who have given permission for their work to be published in this edition.
Image Sources
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material. The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Agnes Martin, holding cat, with her siblings Maribel, Malcolm Jr., and Ronald, 1920s, photographer unknown. Collection of the Martin Family Archive. Courtesy of Christa Martin.
Agnes Martin’s senior class photo on page 33 of Klipsun, the annual publication of the senior class of the Washington State Normal School, 1936 (detail). Special Collections, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington. Photo credit: Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University.
Agnes Martin with Arne Glimcher in front of her studio in Cuba, New Mexico, 1974, photograph by Fred Bueller.
Cover of exhibition publication for Agnes Martin Section 11 Exhibition, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, December 29–January 16, 1959. Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers, circa 1920–1991, bulk 1946–1983, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Emily Carr with her pets in the garden of her home at 646 Simcoe Street in Victoria, 1918, photographer unknown, Flora Alfreda Hamilton Burns fonds, BC Archives Collection, Royal BC Museum and Archives, Victoria, British Columbia (HP51747).
Ephemera collection installed in the exhibition Agnes Martin: The mind knows what the eye has not seen, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, January 26, 2019–April 28, 2019, photograph by Don Hall. Courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Installation view of 10 exhibition at Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, May 2–27, 1967. Dwan Gallery records, 1959–circa 1982, bulk 1959–1971, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Installation view of Agnes Martin: The mind knows what the eye has not seen, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, January 26, 2019–April 28, 2019, photograph by Don Hall. Courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Installation view of Agnes Martin: Recent Paintings, The Pace Gallery, 142 Greene Street, New York, December 7, 1990–January 12, 1991. Courtesy of Pace Gallery, New York.
Installation view of Agnes Martin, Richard Tuttle: Crossing Lines, Pace Gallery, New York, November 2, 2017–January 27, 2018, photograph by Kerry Ryan McFate. Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
Lenore Tawney in her Coenties Slip studio, New York, 1958, photograph by David Attie. Courtesy of the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York.
Mandelman and Ribak, 1949, photograph by Justin Locke. Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak Pictorial Collection (PICT 000-1002). Courtesy of the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, University of New Mexico Libraries, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Mexico, undated c.1950s, by Beatrice Mandelman. Rosenberg & Co., New York. Reprinted with permission from the University of New Mexico Foundation, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo credit: Rosenberg & Co.
Mildred Kane and Agnes Martin playing cribbage in Kane’s cottage, Elk Lake, Oregon, 1940s, photographer unknown. Courtesy of Susan Sharp. Photo credit: Kathleen Brennan.
Mixed media map of Vancouver showing The School of Decorative and Applied Arts installed in the exhibition Agnes Martin: The mind knows what the eye has not seen, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, January 26, 2019–April 28, 2019, photograph by Don Hall. Courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Orange Grove featured on the cover of Artforum 11, no. 8(April 1973). Photo credit: Stephanie Burdzy.
Photograph of fifteen of the so-called Irascibles, November 24, 1950, published in Life magazine January 15, 1951, photograph by Nina Leen. Left to right, front row: Theodoros Stamos, Jimmy Ernst, Barnett Newman, James Brooks, and Mark Rothko; middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, and Bradley Walker Tomlin; back row: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, and Hedda Sterne. Photo credit: Wikicommons.
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