agnes martin
minimalist canadian-american painter, abstract expressionist, writer, geometric purist, mystic, teacher
“I think everyone is born 100 percent ego, and after that it’s just adjustment.”
“I’m very careful not to have ideas, because they’re inaccurate”
I know that in my little notebooks on scraps of paper, everything is beautiful, It all works seamlessly. And when you get there, it’s all like a nightmare. The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.”
“I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect – completely removed in fact – even as we ourselves are.”
“The work of artists is an investigation into truth, and you’re going to see it in your mind, your own mind.”
“Artwork is a representation of our devotion to life. The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.”
“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.”
THE CURRENT OF THE RIVER OF LIFE MOVES US ON (excerpt)
By the use of the intellect we have created a world of ideas that does not actually exist.
The political world is a structure conceived and agreed to us by us but it is not a reality.
You have been conditioned to believe that this political world is in fact real.
With this conception it is believed that we have come into ownership of the world
And that we are responsible for creating it. And with this concept
We have placed ourselves in a condition of perpetual responsibility and reform.
But since we are not creating the world, since it was created before us and we are
Merely in it, and since we do not own it, our whole political concept is false.
It is untrue. It is not based on reality or true life.
An artist must see this and give up all reform and political considerations.
The world evolves due to changes that take place in individuals.
By individuals I mean all living things.
The world evolves due to a growing awareness in the lives of all things
and expressed in their actions.
The actions of all things are guided by a growing awareness of life.
We call it inspiration.
Living by inspiration is living. Living by intellect – by comparisons,
Calculations, schemes, concepts, ideas – is all a structure of pride
In which there is not beauty or happiness – no life.
The intellectual is in fact death.
/////////////// agnes martin is punk. /////////////////
