Untitled #2, 1977
- Medium
- India ink, graphite and gesso on canvas
- Dimensions
- Frame: 73 1/8 x 73 1/8 x 2 in. (185.8 x 185.7 x 5.1 cm) 72 x 72 x 2 in. (182.88 x 182.88 x 5.08 cm)
- Accession Number
- 85.68
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Barry Lowen Collection
From 1963 onward, Agnes Martin
stuck nearly exclusively to a pared-down vocabulary of ruler-lined, penciled
grids and six-by-six-foot canvases, primed with a thin layer of white gesso. In Untitled #2, India ink washes across
the surface of alternately thin and wide horizontal intervals forming
rectangles. Seen up close, the painting is logical, mechanical, and austere,
while from a distance it seems to emanate a diffuse haze, perhaps recalling
gray wintry light. Despite being completely abstract, Martin’s paintings are frequently
associated with landscapes. The artist objected to this interpretation, saying that
she wanted her work to elicit the quality of response that people have “when
they leave themselves behind,” often experienced in nature, as when crossing an
empty beach to look at the ocean. Thus her painting is one “field of vision”
among others, like waterfalls or starry skies, to enter into.
