White Flower II
Artist
Agnes Martin
(American, born Canada, 1912 - 2004)
Date1985
MediumAcrylic and graphite on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 72 × 72 inches (182.88 × 182.88 cm)
Framed: 72 3/4 × 72 1/2 × 2 inches (184.79 × 184.15 × 5.08 cm)
Framed: 72 3/4 × 72 1/2 × 2 inches (184.79 × 184.15 × 5.08 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation
Object numberF88-23
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionLight yellow background overall. Horizontal bands about one-inch wide and about one-inch apart go across the canvas, stopping about 2 inches from either edge. bands are drawn in pencil, and the color of the bands alternates between white and grey.Gallery LabelIn White Flower II, Agnes Martin employs the familiar grid that links her with the Minimalist movement of the 1960s. However, while Minimalism divested the art object of emotion and all traces of the artist's hand at work, Martin insists upon both. Her finely drawn, graphite lines humanize the grid and contribute to the feelings her paintings represent. When told by a viewer that her 1985 painting, Grey Geese Descending, did not, in fact, portray any sign of geese, she responded, "I painted the emotions we have when we feel gray geese descending." Similarly, White Flower II translates the pure, delicate beauty of a pale flower into an abstract visual language.
Copyright© Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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