Ann Wilson on the Agnes Martin Pace Gallery exhibition
IN THE GRACE OF SYMMETRY – AGNES MARTIN AT 92
By Ann Wilson
Agnes Martin, at ninety-two, has painted from the path above the view of the beyond. That’s what her painting does, you know. Go to our painter scholars to heal from our present soul-loss illness. Ad Reinhardt’s painting hung above Thomas Merton’s bed at Gesthemine before he lifted off in Asia. The view from beyond. Barnet Newman painted right through to where light dissolves space. The view from beyond. Their words hung invisible in their sites, our Southern Sung. To see all you have to do is climb above Grunewald’s clouds, above the rim to where the light in this space is beyond time. That’s what their paintings do, you know. Agnes Martin paints the illumination behind what we think is reality, this light comes between the screen of non-existent molecules. All alone, high on the mesa in Cuba, New Mexico, the stars came down around her. She paints from beyond space and now she just keeps going out there. Ad Reinhardt said, "Sudden perception of great darkness." Barnet Newman said, "Its human desire to be exalted." Agnes Martin said, "Perceiving is the same as receiving and it is the same as responding." Corot said, "Painting is a near neighbor of heaven." Tao fills the whole frame, yet you cannot keep track of it. Agnes Martin, at ninety-two, gives us the space above the stars, symmetry invisible.
