Agnes Martin (1912-2004), by Michael Carman

The Grass, by Agnes Martin (USA, b. Canada). 1967.

Agnes Martin (1912-2004)
                      on the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum,
                      New York, New York, October 7, 2016 – January 11, 2017
  
martin
 
The white paint is not about the colour,
she said, It’s about the beauty
mottled serene movement still.
 
The yellow. The yellow and the peach.
The yellow.
It’s not about the colour.
Peach.
 
Gray green gray
many, many quadrants
unconfined.
 
She said she thought she might retire.
How could she?
She could not.
 
Did she die?
She did not.
 
The discipline of white paint
the rules
ghost graphite
the exquisite
geometric fold.
 
Neither the brush
nor the pencil
nor the punctuation.

Friendship, 1963.

middle
 
Friendship
gold leaf and gesso on canvas
The Tree
sand
oil and graphite on canvas
The Rose
gray green gray
acrylic, graphite, and colored pencil
on canvas
Grass
ocean
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
no photographs
gift gift gift gift
 

The Islands I-XII, by Agnes Martin (USA, b. Canada). 1979.

later
 
The Islands I-XII (1979)
Whitney Museum of Art
Whites
All but one

Untitled, 2004.

 last
 
Agnes Martin 2004 Untitled
The choice of watery gray clouds
white unbroken, more or less, in two broad bands
smear rain gray coming--
At first I thought
she was saying it’s over
beauty is leaving,
but no, the straight graphite line,
the dripping paint on purpose
the lines smeared
on purpose
the lines true
blurs smears
blue.
 
Michael Carman
 
Michael Carman is a poet, writer, and teacher. Her second chapbook, The Not, was a finalist in the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Competition; her first chapbook, You in Translation, was published by Toadlily Press in An Uncommon Accord. Her poems, narrative nonfiction, and reviews have appeared in Spillway, Rattapallax, The Same, Lumina, and other publications. Michael has taught poetry at Sing Sing prison and in various community programs for Poets & Writers in New York City. She teaches poetry and writing to art and design students at Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY in Manhattan. ​​